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COVID-19 pandemic brings all kinds of changes that are felt by humans, due to all kinds of activities that are carried out almost every day at home. Therefore, to create a comfortable and productive atmosphere at the same time, decorating and tidying up every corner of the house has become a common practice.
In addition to building a positive atmosphere at home for activities, work, or study, decorating or rearranging rooms in the house has also become a trend among the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to an increase in the demand for furniture products.
The Minister of Industry, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita stated that there was a significant shift or reorganization of the public household budget, from what was previously used for entertainment, tourism or transportation, is now a need to organize and renovate homes [1]. This also causes the export value of processed wood and furniture to increase in Indonesia [2].
This increase was also driven by people's habits of buying furniture online. With changes in people's consumption behavior and various home decoration trends, the furniture industry must make adjustments and adapt to these conditions [3].
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Impact of the increase of the furniture industry
This phenomenon has several positive and negative impacts in various sectors, as well as our environment. The raw materials used in the furniture and handicraft industries in Indonesia are still quite obtainable, especially those from production forests with an area of 68.8 million hectares. Indonesia's tropical climate is also favorable for several types of trees that allows them to grow back quickly. Abundance in several islands in Indonesia also helps, as well as the increasing productivity of the furniture and handicraft industry players in Indonesia due to the high interest from consumers [4].
But Behind that, it turns out that the process of making furniture produces quite a high amount of waste[5]. This environmental problem is quite large and rarely heard about. With the increasing public interest in buying furniture, the old furniture that has been owned will be unused, even thrown away. In fact, the EPA estimates that annually 9 million tonnes of furniture are wasted [6]. So, what can we do to prevent this?
What to do
Here are some things that we can do so that our furniture waste is not wasted.
Recycle furniture whenever possible
Donate or resell furniture that you no longer want to use
Buying from an eco-friendly company
Reuse for other purposes
Buy things according to personal taste and don't really follow trends
Repair and perform routine maintenance [7].
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Conclusion
It's okay if you really want to do things to make your home comfortable in various ways, one of which is by decorating and equipping it with the latest kinds of furniture. However, we must consider all kinds of impacts resulting from our behavior, especially impacts for the environment.