Solid wood is an incredible material with special structure and aroma. Because of its features (availability, easy to process, solidity), it was already used thousands of years ago to produce different useful and decorative objects, from furniture to statues. Slovenians are especially proud of the oldest ever found wooden wheel, which was found some years ago at Ljubljansko barje. Today, solid wood is mostly used in the furniture industry and prefabricated construction.
I will talk a lot about Slovenia today because our company is based in Slovenia. But most of the facts are true all over the world. Slovenia has the third biggest forest cover in Europe and 25th in the world. Over 58% of Slovenia is covered with forest. And we are very proud of it. Often people say that this is a kind of treasure. It is, but this treasure is here to be used. Not exploit, like it is in many poor countries. But used. Actually, we should take care of our forests to enlarge growth of trees, prevent pests…
Why cutting trees in moderate quantities is not a problem?
Trees are plants and the grow. Every year the grow for few centimetres. This is what we call annual growth of wood and in Slovenia, this is on average 8,5 million cubic meters of wood. Only annual growth. This equals 3400 full Olympic pools (which I still can not imagine 😊). The amount of this wood is enormous and if we would cut down only the annual growth, the amount of forest will stay the same and we would not harm nature. Of course, the quantities are regulated by the government and predicted cut down is always smaller than annual growth (ca. 6,5 million cubic meters per year). The government has to regulate the quantities to make sure that our wood supply grows.
You would probably expect that we cut down this 6,5 million cubic meters. But unfortunately, we don’t. That is not bad, because the wood supply grows, but on the other hand, we don’t use the potential our nature has. It is like the coach that forbids his best athlete to perform in the finale. More cut would mean more incomes and if we would smartly process this wood, new employments and better status for all citizens. But unfortunately, we don’t.
Wood is a totally biological material. Trees don’ t need pesticides to grow, grows by itself, we don’t use much energy to process it, wooden products are warm and friendly. When we stop using wooden products, we can burn them and get heat. That means that we used the same wood twice: for product and as a fuel. That is called a green cycle of wood. Wood is natural and is not harmful to nature (except coating, which is not natural!). It would definitely be good for nature and people to use more high-quality wooden products, which last longer and decompose at the end.
I should also explain, what solid wood actually is. Fact about ecology and quality are true only for solid wood. Plywood, chipboard, MDF and other processed wood alternatives contain huge amounts of different glues, which is definitely not ecological nor human friendly. Chipboard, for example, is glued together with glue, which contains formaldehyde, which is harmful to health and carcinogenic. When you buy new furniture, it smells…we say it smells like new things…in fact, formaldehyde smells and poison the air in your apartment.
And you are probably going o ask: Why people still buy such furniture if it is not healthy? Because of the price. Solid wood furniture can be five times (or even more) more expensive than one from alternative materials. And is usually way higher quality. Unfortunately, people only see the price.
But there are some people out there who understand. That human labour is not for free and they have to pay more for high quality. And they get it. Are you willing to pay more for high-quality wooden products, designed and made in Slovenia, Europe?
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See you next week 😊
