‘There’s CO₂ down the back of your sofa; it’s embedded in the cushions, the framework, the production process, the transportation.’

How much CO₂ do you think is used in making a new 3-seater sofa? The answer is 70 kilograms of carbon dioxide!

One of the best ways to reduce our carbon footprint it to Reduce, Reuse, Re-cycle (15 Actions to become a zero-carbon Manchester). If you choose to buy a new sofa and fail to make an old one available to re-use, then you will emit, on average, 55 Kg of CO2. Around 1,000,000 sodas are reused in some form in the UK every year. However, this is only 17% of all the sofas reaching the end of their life each year. The remainder are sent to recycling, energy recovery or landfill. There is a huge scope to re-use this furniture and doing so is both an environmental action as well as tool for the alleviation of debt and poverty.

‘Tackling homelessness is a top priority in Greater Manchester, and in some areas, over 40% of children are living in poverty as austerity continues to impact upon household budgets.’ Community-based organisations exactly like Furniture Poverty Hub are needed more than ever.   

Furniture Poverty Hub have linked together re-using, waste reduction, social welfare and environmental issues. Furniture Poverty Hub use ‘a combination of art, activism, strategic practical advice and collaborations to raise awareness of the issues surround furniture poverty; to promote social action; to generate income and suitability for community-based organisation’s; and to build additional reuse capacity.’