Lovesac Furniture

January 13, 2019, by Debra Lynn Dadd

Question from Melissa

Hi Debra,

I recently saw a Lovesac piece of soft furniture, and wanted to know about the materials it is made from. They are textiles, REPREVE, repurposed from plastic bottles, and Durafoam, a premium blend of shredded recycled foam. They make a “Sac” and a sectional couch. They are designed for life with a lifetime warrenty. Costco is offering special Couch bundles for its customers. 

Thank you for your help!

Debra's Answer

This is a very clever and affordable design. As for the materials…

REPREVE is a good example of material that is “green” because it’s recycled but it’s not nontoxic for everyone.

The company has recycled more than 10 billion plastic bottles by turning them in to “performance fiber," which is great for the environment. But while their website says much about how many plastic bottles they’ve recycled and all the major brand names that are using their fabric, it says nothing about the actual fabric, like what the bottles are made from or if the fabric has any finishes applied.

I happen to know from other research that the bottles are made from PET. As a material, PET is interesting because it has two names. It’s called PET when it’s a plastic and polyester when it’s a fiber. REPREVE calls it neither, it just says it’s made from recycled plastic bottles.

You can read more about PET here.

NASA found that PET doesn’t outgas, and health effects are negligible, however, if you are sensitive to materials made from petroleum, this fabric may not be for you.

Durafoam is simply polyurethane foam that may have unknown additives of various kinds, including fire retardants (it’s very flammable).

What is Shredded Durafoam?

Shredded Durafoam is a Lovesac trademarked unique blend of high, medium, and low-density open-cell polyurethane foam. To assure the most comfortable sitting experience, Durafoam is guaranteed never to go flat.

https://www.lovesac.com/contact-us

[Apparently the word "Durafoam" is copyrighted for a number of different foams used to make different types of products. So this is not a broad definition of Durafoam. If you see this term again on another product, it's probably a different mix of chemicals.]

This product doesn’t look to be particularly toxic-conscious.

It’s not something I would recommend, but I can’t make a definitive case for it being toxic either, since I don’t have all the information about the materials needed to make that call.

When I see something unknown like this, I pass. Companies with really good quality toxic-free materials bend over backwards to tell us about those materials. I don’t see that going on here.