Wheatboard Cabinets
Whether you’re trying to cover up your mismatched beer stein collection or you’re showing off your matching china, you’ll need cabinets to hold it all. Stay away from anything made of pressed sawdust and wood shavings, like medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard. They sound eco-friendly because they should be made with by-products from the wood-cutting process, but they actually use up to 80% virgin tree content, according to Green Seal. Plus, all that sawdust is bound together with the probable human carcinogen urea formaldehyde, which offgasses air-polluting, headache-inducing fumes into your home. So even if you’re buying regular cabinets from mainstream stores, avoid MDF and particleboard unless you know they’re formaldehyde-free or have only trace amounts, like IKEA’s cabinetry.
Looking for something in a deeper shade of green? You’ve got a few options. One is strawboard or wheatboard cabinets. Made of compressed waste straw or wheat stems, they’re basically bio-based particleboard, or MDF, made without formaldehyde and often finished with a pretty veneer of sustainable wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Humabuilt and CitiLog both offer cabinets made with formaldehyde-free wheatboard with certified wood exteriors. EcoCraft uses FSC veneers on urea formaldehyde-free fiberboard.
Eco-Craft Kitchen Cabinets
Wherever you end up buying, be sure to ask for water-based finishes, low-VOC stains or paints, or natural oils. Otherwise, get them unfinished and stain them yourself.
