The Circular Economy, my Family Room and Cat Proof Fabric

The first I heard of the “Circular Economy” was a U-Tube video of Marc De Wit’s 2018 TED Talk. I was reminded of that talk last week when I read the National Geographic article by Robert Kunzig with amazing photographs by Luca Locatelli called “The End of Trash-can we save the planet by reusing all the stuff we make.” The circular economy is an economy where mankind uses resources sparingly and recycles endlessly. It is a sustainable way of life and is the way we should live. Unfortunately, we don’t.

As Mr. De Wit explains in his TED Talk every day we use 34 kilograms of stuff 90% of which ends up as waste-trash, this trash includes food waste, minerals, metals, and fossil fuels. Mr. De Wit works for an NGO called Circle Economy, an Amsterdam-based organization promoting the transition to circular economies, a place where most materials and products are reused, or recycled rather than wasted or lost.

Thought Circle Economy mission is to accelerate the transition to the circular economy through practical insights and solutions for businesses, cities and governments, we can help by implementing some of the concepts into our own lives. I believe that change starts with us. The actions of everyone count. The biggest things we can do is to preserve and extend the life of what’s already made and acquire only what is necessary. When we cannot repair or reuse then we need to recycle the materials. We need to support these concepts in our society, but also implement them in our personal lives with the choices we make and the actions we take.

The steps we can personally take to reduce waste are many and varied. I chose to begin by being selective in what I acquire then maintain, repair and upgrade the items and possessions to maximize their useful life and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable. I am trying to move away from disposable, or limited use products. Instead, I try to buy what will last and be used often.

The average American throws out 70 pounds of clothing every year. A staggering 85% ends up in a landfill. However, clothing can be reused, or recycled. In the United States, the reuse market for secondhand clothes is small. Charities like Goodwill and the Salvation Army are only able to sell 20% of the donations they receive. That means 80% of the items received are shipped to textile recyclers where the fabric is shredded for recycling into carpet padding, acoustic tiles and insulation, or recycled fiber for fabric.

To try and get the most use out of my clothing, on most days I am dressed by coincidence like Elizabeth Warren’s black pants, black shirt and a colorful sweater or jacket. I wear my Eileen Fisher sweaters first as my best, then around the house until they have holes in the sleeve and then they will take them back at the store and give me a $5 store credit. 

Since fabric can be recycled I thought about reupholstering furniture. According to the EPA 12.2 million tons of furniture was trashed in the United States in 2017, up from 2.2 million tons in 1960. Wood and metal were the largest material category in furniture waste, but plastics, glass and other materials were also found. Over 80% of that waste goes to landfills, 19.5% is incinerated and a minuscule amount is recycled.

After 13 years, the furniture that we sit on every evening was worn out. Really, it was just the fabric that was worn out, worn smooth where we sit and shredded where the cats applied themselves. In addition some of the stuffing in the cushions was compressed. It took me more than a year and a half to accomplish, but I began by having an upholster look at the furniture, judge if it could or should be reupholstered, estimate the fabric and the labor. I then figured the entire cost and estimated that the cost to reupholster and add stuffing would probably be only a bit less than the cost to replace, but the waste would only be the fabric removed. We decided to reupholster.

So, I began searching for fabrics. A few years ago I had reupholstered the dinning booth in my kitchen with a microfiber/ faux suede  fabric. My cat had shredded the sides of the booth and I had yards of the microfiber left over from when I covered the dining room chairs. I had used microfiber in the dining room because it’s so easy to cleanup the messes the kids left at holiday dinners. Over the years the cats had never bothered the dining room chairs. I soon discovered why.

Here are the two things about microfiber. First, the cats cannot get their claws in it, they slide off. My husband and I laughed the first few times we watched the cats try to claw the booth and just slid down. After a while “the girls” just gave up and found something else to bother. Second, it’s really easy to clean microfiber. With just a damp washcloth and a drop or two of Dawn I can remove salad dressing splashes, gravy, blue icing and chocolate from little toddler finger prints and whatever else spills. It’s amazing and I have off white/champagne colored microfiber.

My cousin who is an interior decorator managed to find me several microfiber fabrics containing some recycled polyester material. (Microfiber is 100% polyester.) We picked one in the off white color I wanted with a subtle pattern. She got it for me at her price (most generous considering how much effort she put in). In the end we ended up paying significantly less than I paid for the furniture new 13 years ago. The furniture looks great and feels like new. The cats have moved on to the carpeted scratching posts and other things.