As part of its commitment to go totally carbon neutral in 2022, direct-to-consumer furniture brand Floyd launches a sustainable sectional sofa, made from upcycled fast-fashion waste.
Floyd partnered with Recover—a company that recycles textiles into new fibers—and performance fabric maker Crypton, which turned those fibers into boucle upholstery fabric for the sectional. Floyd says the upcycled fabric contributes to preventing some of the 85 percent of textiles that end up in landfills each year.
“Recover is a family owned business based in Spain and are pioneers of this process, although they are mainly focused in providing recycled yarn and textiles to fashion companies,” said Floyd co-founder Alex O’Dell. “Crypton is one of the first to take this and use it for a furniture application.”
O’Dell said incorporating recycled fabrics in its products is an important step in achieving the sustainability goals set for the company to reach by 2025.
“Minimizing waste and carbon emissions is important to us, and one way we can accomplish this is through re-thinking materials,” he said. “By using post-consumer fashion waste, turned into a high-quality recycled cotton fiber, we’re working to close the loop for a more sustainable future.”
Along with the upcycled sectional, Floyd also launched a resale and refurbishment program to extend the useful life of its products. The program is part of the company’s sustainability goals, which include ensuring 70 percent of material comes from either recycled or renewable sources, minimizing packing materials and single-use plastics, using 100 percent FSC-certified wood across all products, and measuring, disclosing and reducing greenhouse emissions across its supply chain.
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While product sustainability is important to Floyd, O’Dell said the Detroit company doesn’t want to sacrifice style, comfort, or durability to use recycled materials. But he said the fabric created by Recover and Crypton exceeded the furniture maker’s expectations.
“There’s often a perceived tradeoff between quality and recycled materials, especially in furniture,” O’Dell said. “With that said, the innovation in recycled materials has really caught up over the last few years. It’s been impressive to see the standards achieved not only for durability, but also feel and quality. This is now to the point that we’re fully confident that we can deliver on a premium product.”
As the company moves forward with its sustainability goals, O’Dell said this new sofa will play an important role in moving the company toward carbon-neutral status while also helping alleviate the problem of furniture and textile waste.
Data shows that “9.5 million tons of furniture end up in landfills each year,” O’Dell said. “We set out to change the way people consume, use, and dispose of furniture. Through repairability, resales, and reused materials, we extend the useful life of products, ensuring even fewer items become waste.”