Nest Bedding Is Making A 100% Recycled Cardboard Bedroom Set

Like most things, the role of furniture has changed over the past 100 years. Where once you bought one skillfully crafted armoire, kept it your whole life, and passed it down to your kids, now furniture has hit the fast lane. Like food and fashion, the consumption of inexpensive, low-quality, and ultimately disposable furniture is at an all time high. 

This issue is exacerbated by the fact that the average person moves 11.7 times in their lifetime, prompting a greater turnover of furnishings, not to mention the headache of moving heavy pieces or dismantling and reconstructing the factory-made stuff. Which is one reason why Nest Bedding, an organic sheet and mattress company, is launching its latest innovation: Bedgami, America's first cardboard platform bed. 

Bedgami is made in the U.S. with 100% recycled cardboard, and is able to assembled and dissembled without the use of tools, or adhesives. Like its name suggests, the platform bed works like origami, so you can put it together by simply folding it into place. And despite its material, the bed can hold up to 1000 pounds, as proven by the below jump test.

The Bedgami also comes with some extra options: you can add drawers underneath for extra storage, or pair it with the matching nightstands. And when it's time to move, you can simply take it apart, stick it back in the box, and carry it out the door.

Besides being convenient for the frequent mover, however, the Bedgami is also gentler on the environment than the fast furniture alternatives. Fast furniture is often poorly made and constructed from particle board, which means its lifespan is shorter than furniture made with durable materials. And that means more of it lands in landfills: In 2012 alone, 11.5 millions tons of furniture were added to our landfills, which produced 32.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the EPA. 

Particle board also requires an extremely high about of energy to produce, and is made with toxins and chemicals like formaldehyde—which is classified as a human carcinogen—that can affect both the health of its owner and, once its in the landfill, can leech into the environment. And to top it off, the sheer volume of cheap furniture being produced in the world is exacerbating all of these issues. For instance, Ikea makes 15 Billy bookcases a minute and sold 41 million of them by 2009. If you were to line up all of these bookcases, they would be over 43,495 miles long—almost long enough to wrap around the equator twice.

Bedgami, on the other hand, is made from recycled materials. And while it may not be quite as durable as craftsman wood bed sets, when it is time to upgrade or replace the Bedgami, it will decompose much faster than its fast furniture counterparts.