Let's make sustainable living easier

We are carpenters, and we love building. But we love our planet just as much.

Let's talk circularity

Did you know that in 2018 alone, 12, 150,000 tons of wooden material was landfilled? That is more than 4 times the amount wood that was recycled. The amount of wood being landfilled every year is worrying for its contribution to pollution. It becomes a problem when wood is incinerated in big quantities. A lot of carbon dioxide - and possibly other greenhouse gasses - is released into the environment when wood is burned. This is especially true for wood composites, which are often glued together with formaldehyde based adhesives.

So what can be done about it? One of the things to do is applying the concept of circular economy. In a circular economy, once the product stops being used, it is returned to the supply chain rather than ending up in a landfill. Thus, it is maintained in a closed cycle in which it is used, refurbished, reused, repurposed, and recycled for as long as possible. This expands the lifetime of it, creating much less waste and preventing the depletion of raw materials.

We encourage our clients to consider doing a refacing, which is basically refurbishing their already existing cabinets, instead of a getting new ones. As long as their cabinets are in a good state, refacing are a better option for the environment and also for the wallet.

The next step is to keep existing cabinets from being landfilled. One of the ways this can be done is by donating them to someone that needs it. When a client replaces their old cabinets, we'll uninstall them and give them to local Charitable organizations that can give them a new home. If the old cabinets are not in good condition to use, we'll either repurpose them to make them into upcycled products, or give them to a company that specializes in recycling wood.

As for materials that are very hard to recycle, such as MDF and Particle board, they can be incinerated with energy recovery. This way, the energy released in the combustion process will be re-used.

Ethically Sourced Materials

We are careful not to contribute or support in any way unsustainable deforestation. That's why Dichas Ideas only buys lumber and engineered wood from FSC certified suppliers. In addition to that, our suppliers have developed a great soy-based adhesive that replaces traditional uranium formaldehyde based ones. Thus, our wood composites are TSCA Title VI Compliant and certified ULEF (Ultra Low Emitting Formaldehyde) and NAF (No Added Formaldehyde)