How To Recycle Your Old Cushions

Struggle to recycle your old cushions? New ethical homeware brand, now, sit down has made it easy with its brand new circular initiative. Here's how.

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Wondering what to do with your old cushions?

New eco homeware brand and pending B Corp, now, sit down can help.

The brand has launched a new circular initiative to give homewares a new life away from landfill, starting with swapping recycled cushions.

Here’s why this initiative is important and how to get involved.

The fate of furniture and homewares

Just 10% of unwanted furniture and homewares are recycled.

To put that into perspective, over 20 million pieces of furniture are discarded in the UK and the sad fate of the majority of it is landfill.

On top of that, 30% of adults throw away items that could be recycled, reused or donated.

The biggest reasons given for this trend are not having the means of transport, wanting to get rid of items quickly and finding it easier to just take them to the dump rather than donate.

A survey by the British Heart Foundation also found that one fifth of adults aged 16-24 wouldn’t know how to recycle or donate homewares.

Dubbed ‘fast furniture,’ not only is it a huge waste of resources (and money), but it also pollutes the environment with harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases.

Take cushions, for example.

Although they seem innocent enough, cushions could still contain polyester, nylon or acrylic which are synthetic materials derived from oil-based plastic.

This means they don’t biodegrade like natural fibres, but they will shed microplastics which harm aquatic life and vital ecosystems.

Most recycling schemes won’t take cushions either, making them hard to recycle or dispose of sustainably.

The general advice is to donate them to animal charities so they can be used as bedding. Until now, sit down, that is.

How to recycle your unwanted cushions

You’ll receive £10 credit to use in now, sit down when you send in your old cushions for free and they don’t have to be from the brand originally.

Follow the steps below to make use of this new cushion recycling scheme:

  • Enter your email address and now, sit down will send you a unique code.
  • They will then send you a link to generate a postage label.
  • Once they receive your cushions, they will give you £10 credit to spend on cushions in store.
  • Alternatively, if you’ve already ordered your new cushions, you can return your old ones in the reusable packaging they came in and you’ll receive £10 credit for your next order.

All the old cushions you send in will either find a new home or have a new life as reusable packaging.

Alternatively, old cushions may be taken apart so that the materials they’re made of can be used for something else.

Whatever happens to your recycled cushions, they won’t end up in landfill.

“Just 10% of unwanted furniture and homewares are recycled”

Second life guaranteed with now, sit down

Every now, sit down product available to purchase comes with a Second Life Guarantee. Customers can return any product in exchange for credit.

Every product returned will be reused so you can feel confident that none of your old items will end up in landfill – even when they start to fall apart.

To top it off, all of now, sit down’s cushions are fully traceable and manufactured with the purpose to reduce waste and pollution at every stage of design, production and distribution.

Materials include recycled cotton, recycled polyester, coir coconut fibre and wood.

Co-founder Louise Barnard comments: “Everyone is waking up to the realities of climate change and people are looking for ways they can make a difference on a personal level – and it really shows! We’ve been delighted with the reaction to the cushion swap so far.”

“By upcycling all the old cushions that we receive, we’re contributing to a more circular model of design and production and at the same time, offering our customers a quick and easy way to update their living room.”

To find out more about how now, sit down recycles your cushions, visit the website here.

Want to make the rest of your home sustainable?

pebble’s Sustainable Home Guide: Download It For Free