Eco-teak: a Big Fat Lie

In past few years the interest for green homehaving a lot of sapwood simply means that the
products has increased. Getting teak furnituretrees used in the production were young. I just
from environmentally responsible companies hasdon't understand how come by cutting the young
become one of the factors when purchasing teaktrees they can preserve the natural forest.
furniture. Teak furniture has been very muchTo make things worse the products of ECOTEAK
highlighted from last couple of years becausehas to undergo the process of color
ofa)High price of teakwoodb)Habitat: Teak comeshomogenization. If not so done, the products
from plantations and natural forests.c)Differentwould simply look ugly. Color homogenization is the
Grades of Wood.process whereby the products are sprayed by
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware ofsulphuric acid. In this process the white color
need to sustain natural forests and like to sharesapwood turns to light yellowish in color which is
the same responsibility of sustaining the naturalthe color of good quality teak as well. This
resources as producers. They want to make sureweakens the products even further.
that the teak furniture they are about toI think Ecoteak is "A BIG FAT LIE"
purchase comes from sustainable resource.The consumers should know that this lower
Keeping to the above trend and responsequality teak is dangerous for our forests as the
towards consumer demands some companiesyoung trees are cut illegally to make fast money
have taken steps to control effectively their rawand this ecoteak is sold on the name of treated
materials but there are some who are just tryingteakwood. There is nothing like treatment of teak
to capitalize on this trend and claming everythingas the quality teak does not need any treatment.
they can invent to sell their furniture to suchIt is done to confuse the consumers who don't
customers even at higher prices than standardknow much about the teakwood.
market price. Some companies have evenThe challenge is how do we counter this kind of
created some kind of FUNNY LABELS and postlies. It is the responsibility of resellers and
them on their marketing material to show thatmarketers of teak furniture to provide the right
their wood is certified from some valid source.products to their customers. We do not expect a
And there are some who claim that their teak isconsumer to know everything about teakwood,
ECOTEAK (whatever that means!!!).its grades and other stuff. All they want is a
The truth about ECOTEAK: ECOTEAK is thequality product and that is their intention while
name given to lower quality teak. Products of thismaking a purchase. So, if a reseller sources his
quality has higher content of sapwood whichher product from the right manufacturer the
influences the strength and the lifetime of theconsumer is guaranteed to get the value for
products. Such manufacturers claim that they aremoney. The key is not to market and sell this
doing so to preserve the natural forests. Theytype of furniture which is just to make money on
just forget that the sapwood is found mostly inthe expense of unsatisfied end consumer.
young trees. And when they are making products