Forced furniture

A Belgian eco-designer is turning discarded tennis balls into modern furniture.

Mathilde Wittock’s stylish lounges and benches have hundreds of tennis balls as cushions and they sell for $2,900 apiece, CNN reported. The balls are donated by tennis clubs by the thousands.

An estimated 300 million tennis balls are produced yearly, each with a life cycle of just nine games before ending up in landfills where it will take 400 years to decompose, according to CNN.

Wittock’s tennis ball furniture can last for nine months, after which it is disassembled and the rubber part is recycled into bouncy playground mats.

Meanwhile, Swedish furniture maker and supplier IKEA became known for its knockdown products in the 1970s and 1980s. But it turns out that behind some of the ready-to-assemble furniture that helped make IKEA a popular brand were victims of the Cold War era.

An independent investigation by the company confirmed that criminal and political prisoners in the former communist East Germany, or GDR, were forced to work in factories, including those making IKEA furniture.

Early this month, the German branch of IKEA announced a donation of 6 million euros to a government compensation fund for victims of the East German dictatorship. IKEA Germany also issued a public apology.

“We deeply regret that products for IKEA were produced by political prisoners in the GDR,” said Walter Kadner, CEO and chief sustainability officer at IKEA Germany, according to CNN. “We have given our word to those affected that we will participate in providing support.”

A German parliamentarian representing the victims praised IKEA.

“IKEA’s pledge to support the hardship fund is an expression of a responsible approach in dealing with a dark chapter in the company’s history,” CNN quoted Evelyn Zupke as saying.

With IKEA’s landmark payment, the first of its kind, the German organization of victims of forced labor during the communist regime, or UOGK, called on other companies to do the same.