Cockroaches and similar bugs love to lay eggs in the corrugation. It’s dark, may be slightly damp, and well protected. Also it’s practically impossible to tell until they have hatched. If you look up people raising big populations they often use corrugated board as an egg substrate.
As someone moving quite a bit at the moment and looking for cheap, quick, recyclable furniture, I was excited, but Chairigami was quite disappointing.
It seems extremely expensive for what it is? I know how much cardboard costs, with markup, and this is a long way off. Their profit margin on this furniture must be vast. Not exactly the accessibility that I was expecting.
Others have mentioned the issues with this sort of construction and that all limits lifespan. Even the thin veneers that Ikea put on top of cardboard furniture will improve lifespan by multiples, and yet Ikea is typically priced significantly lower than Chairigami.
I can only conclude that Chairigami is effectively conducting a form of virtue-signalling. They're luxury goods – vast profit margins resting on design and "vibes" – rather than disruptive goods changing accessibility environmental responsibility for the masses.
So many eco-friendly product variations at an unacceptable markup vs. production cost, and people are gobbling it all up without blinking, while being lightning-fast at pointing fingers at someone who tossed a tin can in the wrong recycle bin.
I think there should be more whistleblowing going around, personally it irks me how many people are profiteering from the eco movement.
No one is going to have an impact on the environment charging >5x for products because no one in their right mind will switch, especially for undifferentiated commodities like food basics. These shops are only appealing to people with too much money and too little sense.
There are a few cases where products actually do need to be priced higher to price in all the externalities that aren't being accounted for at the moment, but even in those cases I believe that meeting consumers where they're at right now, providing value and changing behaviour, and then advocating for change when you have market share, is likely to be a much better approach in the long run.
I might have to make my own furniture. https://www.packagewarehouse.com/boxes/cardboard-boxes/corru...
Plus, fewer cockroaches per this appealing comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37722691
Personally I hate that kind of furniture. When furniture made of chipboard, particle board, fibreboard etc is damaged it's basically scrap. Real wood ages nicely - it's more robust to start with and the damage it does take often adds to the aesthetic.
I've been slowly getting rid of chipboard furniture, replacing it with pieces that stand on their own. A 70 year old table, a 100 year old coffee table, or building it myself from nice wood. It's lovely when your furniture brings you joy.
An extra component to the whole thing is fire safety. Compared to proper wood furniture these fiber- and cardboard pieces are much more flammable. It's to the point where fire departments are considering new guidelines for leaving burning buildings because the time to raging fire has been shortened so much by modern furniture and fabrics.