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Whether the family is sitting down for dinner in the kitchen or you and your roommates are marathoning Netflix in the living room, the sustainable tables from these brands will be your new gathering places for enjoying meals, drinks, and conversations together.

The sustainable table brands featured in this guide have furniture for any of your living and dining places:

  • Dining tables,
  • Side tables,
  • Coffee tables, and
  • Bar tables.

But first, you might be wondering: what is a sustainable table anyway?

What to Look for in a Sustainable Table

The word “sustainable” is used frequently and in so many different contexts that it can be difficult to pinpoint what exactly sustainable means.

That said, here are some key elements to consider when looking for your next coffee table, dining table, or desk.

Eco-Friendly Materials

When it comes to eco-friendly tables, wood is the most common material used because it’s a natural, renewable, and durable material that works with nearly any room or interior design style.

Note: If you find a brand that uses engineered wood or pressed wood, make sure to look on their website or ask about what adhesives are used. These products are often made from wood pieces that are bond together with glue that contains formaldehyde, which the EPA classifies as a “probable human carcinogen”.

Here’s what to look for to ensure sustainably-sourced wood:

  • Reclaimed Wood. Using existing resources reduces waste and the need to cut down additional trees. Plus, reclaimed wood — especialcan add authentic character to your table!
  • FSC-certified. The Forest Stewardship Council’s certification is the most widely used verification for responsible forestry practices. Just like any other large certification, the FSC seal is not perfect but can be an additional seal of approval to look for.
  • Traceability. Look to see if the brand can tell you where the wood was sourced from. Usually, smaller furniture brands will be able to have more transparency and traceability of their supply chain!
  • Local sourcing. Locally-sourced wood (from native or climate-appropriate trees) is preferable because sourcing locally reduces emissions from transportation.

Zero-VOC or Low-VOC Finishes

Similar to paints, finishes can contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Not only do VOCs create environmental hazards like air pollution and smog but they also pollute your indoor air too.

According to the EPA, health impacts of VOCs include:

  • Eye, nose, and throat irritations
  • Headaches and nausea
  • Damage to the liver, kidney, and central nervous system
  • Some VOCs are also known or suspected carcinogens

All too often we think of environmental sustainability as something separate from ourselves — something “out there in nature”.

But as with so many aspects of sustainability, what’s healthy for the environment is also often healthy for us as well — humans are, in fact, part of the environment. That’s why this sustainable table guide only includes non-toxic tables, too.

Other Sustainability Initiatives

Some other initiatives to look for from sustainable table brands include:

  • Use of renewable energy to power their operations or the purchase of renewable energy credits to offset fossil fuel energy use.
  • Take-back and/or repair programs to extend the life of their tables.
  • Quality manufacturing that ensures durable products built to last.
  • Trustworthy tree planting projects, especially if the company uses wood for their products.

Where to Find Sustainable Tables

Just as with fashion, looking secondhand first is a great way to find eco-friendly furniture at a more affordable price. Check out your local flea markets, secondhand stores, and keep an eye out for estate sales.

For online secondhand options, check out:

If you’re looking for a new eco-friendly table made from responsibly-sourced or reclaimed materials, take a look at the brands below!

Disclaimer: This guide includes affiliate links and partners, but as always all brands are vetted rigorously for sustainability and are brands we love, that we think you’ll love too

Best for Dining Tables: Medley

walnut wood sustainable dining table with 4 chairs

Medley uses only FSC-certified walnut or maple hardwood for their solid wood eco-friendly dining tables and accent tables. Each table is finished with an all-natural furniture polish that consists of just beeswax, carnauba wax, and olive oil. And every table, just like the rest of Medley’s furnishings, is made in their own workshop in Los Angeles.

Conscious Qualities: FSC-Certified Wood, Transparent Local Production, Non-Toxic Finishes, Plants Trees

Price Range: Side tables start at $745 | Dining tables start at $2995

Check Out Medley

Best for Side Tables: Avocado

Sustainable wood tables from Avocado

Founded as a non-toxic mattress brand, Avocado has now expanded into a variety of sustainable and non-toxic furniture like beds, dressers, and of course tables.

Their collection of eco-friendly tables includes accent tables, side tables, benches & stools, and a beautiful zero waste coffee table. Every table is made to order in the company’s Los Angeles woodshop from either reclaimed wood, FSC-Certified solid wood, or even 100% upcycled wood (which is not particleboard or fiberboard).

The Sustainable Furnishings Council member also uses non-toxic finishes and glues, like zero-VOC stain and safe odorless glues. And, Avocado offsets more than 100% of their emissions and has several product- factory- and company-level certifications of note.

Conscious Qualities: Made-To-Order In Avocado’s Own LA Woodshop; Uses Reclaimed and Sustainably-Sourced Materials; Non-Toxic Finishes; Renewable Energy-Powered Operations

Price Range: Side tables start at $329

Check Out Avocado

Best Sustainable Coffee Table: Sylvan Craft

sustainable wooden coffee table from Sylvan Craft

Perhaps you’ve heard of slow fashion or slow food — well Sylvan Craft is the epitome of slow furniture with their “Forest to Table” approach.

Sylvan Craft’s heirloom-quality tables (and other furniture) are all crafted with care from solid wood by their Amish business partner. And it’s not just any wood — this is wood that was sourced from Sylvan Craft’s own sustainably managed forest. Since their entire process from harvest to finished furniture takes place within a 5 mile radius, this “hyper-local” business also boasts a small carbon footprint and impressive average 8-10 week lead times on delivery. Blanket-wrapped shipping also minimizes packaging waste.

On a mission to preserve and restore forests through sustainable forestry and land management, Sylvan Craft has a meticulous forest management plan that centers on forest health. They employ selective harvesting (i.e. prioritizing damaged or dead trees for their wood), plant a variety of tree species to promote forest biodiversity, and use low-impact timber removal practices instead of heavy machinery.

Sylvan Craft’s selection of sustainably-crafted tables includes end tables, sofa tables, coffee tables, dining tables, and benches.

Conscious Qualities: Sustainable Forestry Management, Hyper-Local, Traceable Supply Chain, Heirloom Quality, VOC-Free Finish Option

Price Range: Side tables start at $525

Check Out Sylvan Craft

Best for Outdoor Tables: Loll Designs

Gray recycled outdoor table with bench seating

Loll Designs redefines outdoor furniture with their durable, modern tables and seating crafted from partially recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE), sourced from household plastics like milk jugs and shampoo bottles. Their collection includes outdoor-friendly dining tables, side tables, and coffee tables, all designed for long-term use. Whether you’re enjoying a meal outdoors or adding a modern touch to your patio setup, Loll’s tables are as functional as they are sustainable.

Based in Duluth, Minnesota, Loll Designs prioritizes local production and zero-waste manufacturing with over 88% of their manufacturing waste recycled and more than 135 million milk jugs repurposed since 2005.

Conscious Qualities: Partially Recycled HDPE, Cradle to Cradle Certified™ BRONZE, Made in the USA, Low-Waste Manufacturing, 1% for the Planet Member

Price Range: Side tables start at $145 | Dining tables start at $395

Browse Loll Designs @ Made Trade

Best for Durability: Emeco

Eco-friendly tables made from recycled materials by Emeco

Handcrafted in their own factory near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Emeco’s minimalist sustainable tables are made to pass commercial-grade standards, ensuring they’ll be pieces for decades (if not generations!) to come.

The brand uses sustainably-harvested ash or reclaimed accoya wood and recycled aluminum to create their industrial-chic pieces. Many of their pieces are Cradle to Cradle Gold Certified, and are free of toxic chemicals like VOCs and formaldehyde.

One major bonus of Emeco’s sturdy eco-friendly tables? Most of them are suitable for outdoor use too. (Check out more sustainable outdoor furniture in this guide.)

Conscious Qualities: Sustainably-Sourced and Recycled Materials, Crafted in the Pennsylvania, Contract Grade Quality

Price Range: Tables start at $1740

Check Out Emeco

Best For Extendable Sustainable Tables: Copeland

walnut extendable sustainable dining table

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly dining table with a bit more flexibility, Copeland is going to be your best bet. The sustainable furniture company has solid wood tables in walnut, oak, and cherry wood available with leafs. Some table styles even have a double leaf extension for accommodating extra large dinner parties.

Copeland’s furniture is made-to-order in Bradford, Vermont and the company sources most of their wood within 500 miles of the factory. Speaking of Copeland’s factory, the brand doesn’t stop at sourcing sustainable materials but also has a solar array installed on the factory’s property and uses wood waste to heat the building. And the tables are low-toxic with a GREENGUARD certified finish.

Conscious Qualities: Domestically Sourced Hardwood, Made in the US, Made-to-Order, Durable, GREENGUARD Certified Finishes

Price Range: Side tables start at $508 | Dining tables start at $850

Check out Copeland @ Urban Natural

Best Artisan-Made Accent Tables: The Citizenry

natural rattan coffee table and solid wood nightstand from The Citizenry

The Citizenry has the most beautiful artisan tables ideal for completing your natural cozy minimalist aesthetic or adding an earthy touch to your bold boho living room. The brand has sustainable coffee tables made from natural rattan and eco friendly side tables and nightstands made from hinoki or mindi wood.

Every single product sold on The Citizenry is handcrafted in a fair trade environment, and their natural non-toxic tables are no exception. Most of this retailer’s sustainable side tables and coffee tables selection was made in Indonesia by artisans using traditional crafts.

Conscious Qualities: Artisan-Made, Fair Trade, Cultural Preservation, Natural Materials

Price Range: Starts at $349

Check Out The Citizenry

Best Non-Toxic Coffee Table: Savvy Rest

walnut eco-friendly coffee table made with non-toxic finishes

Non-toxic furniture brand Savvy Rest has a simple timeless coffee table made in Central Virginia from solid wood. Each table is made with responsibly-sourced maple — a durable yet lightweight hardwood — and is available unfinished or in a variety of zero-VOC finishes: linseed oil, walnut, cedar, or mahogany.

Conscious Qualities: Zero-VOC Finishes, Local Production, Sustainably-Sourced Wood

Price Range: $779+ for coffee table

Use code CONSCIOUSSTYLE20 for 20% off all products on Savvy Rest!

Check Out Savvy Rest

What About More Affordable Sustainable Tables?

When looking for affordable sustainable furniture, we always recommend checking secondhand first! Try estate sales, garage sales, local resale shops, or online platforms like FB Marketplace and OfferUp.

If you’d like to find a new table or just can’t seem to find what you’re looking for used, here are a couple options to check out.

Affordable Dining Table: Adyn

Black and wood sustainable affordable table

Adyn is a family-owned business founded by a Portland-based Architect and her son. Their signature furniture piece — the Center Table — is entirely made in Oregon. These tables, which are offered in three sizes, are versatile pieces that can function as dining room tables, desks, vanity tables, or minimalist console tables. They are designed to be long-term pieces, and the company shares that they can be assembled and reassembled in just minutes.

Committed to responsible sourcing, 100% of the wood Adyn uses is from a single wood mill in Oregon. All of the tabletop sizes are offered in three finishes: you can select from natural/white maple, which is finished with an FSC-certified White Maple veneer, or laminate, which is made with partially post-consumer recycled materials. The laminates Adyn uses are made in the US and have sustainability certifications like GREENGUARD Gold, NSF, and SCS.

*Note: While we typically recommend solid wood furniture, Adyn reports that their plywood is free of UF (urea-formaldehyde) adhesives.

Conscious Qualities: Responsibly-Sourced Materials, Made in Oregon, FSC-Certified Wood

Price Range: $1000 – $1800

Check Out Adyn

Affordable Coffee Table: Sabai

eco-friendly coffee table made from recycled steel and wood - Sabai

Sabai is a leader in sustainable furniture with their use of eco-conscious materials, ethical production practices, and low-waste shipping. Not to mention they’re committed to circularity with both a repair program and a resale program, called Sabai Revive.

Their City Table is so exception. This eco-friendly coffee table is made using recycled steel, wood sourced from urban fallen trees in Baltimore and a non-toxic, zero VOC water-based finish. Did we mention the brand is also a certified B-Corporation?

Conscious Qualities: Recycled & Natural Materials, Zero VOC Finish, Circularity Program

Price Range: $595

Check Out Sabai

We hope you enjoyed this guide to sustainable tables! Looking for more furniture & home furnishings?

Check Out These Sustainable Home Guides:

15 Ethical Home Decor Brands for Your Conscious Space

The Best Places to Find Eco-Friendly Furniture

Sustainable Non-Toxic Sofas for Truly Restful Relaxation

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Green Living

Need to Recycle Your Satellite TV Dish? Read This First

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Satellite dishes outlast the subscriptions that put them there. Drive through almost any American neighborhood and you will see them still bolted to fascia boards and chimney straps, aimed at satellites their owners stopped paying for years ago.

The subscriber base that installed those dishes is collapsing. Pew Research Center found in July 2025 that 36% of U.S. adults still subscribe to cable or satellite TV, while 83% watch streaming services. DIRECTV and DISH told investors in 2024 that they had collectively lost 63% of their satellite subscribers since 2016.

Every one of those canceled accounts left hardware behind, and removal and recycling still fall to the subscriber, who gets little support from the provider. For lack of clear information, a lot of that hardware ends up in a landfill.

Can You Recycle Your Satellite TV Dish?

Depending on who you ask, the proper method of disposal for a satellite TV dish can be as clear as, well, a fuzzy TV signal. So let’s tune in to what a dish system is made of, because the answer determines where each piece goes.

A residential satellite system is not one product. It is four material streams bolted together:

  • The reflector. The curved part everyone pictures. On modern 18- to 20-inch DIRECTV and DISH installations it is thin, powder-coated steel. Older and larger dishes are often aluminum. Either way, it is scrap metal and easily recyclable in most communities.
  • The LNB. The low-noise block downconverter on the end of the arm. It holds a circuit board and is the piece that makes the system electronic waste.
  • The mount and hardware. Usually galvanized steel, and usually the heaviest recyclable component in the assembly.
  • Coaxial cable. Copper conductor inside plastic jacketing, which scrap yards buy separately as insulated wire.

The Institute for Environmental Research and Education recommends separating those parts of the dish before you haul anything anywhere: detach the LNB, coil the coax, and sort aluminum from steel. That takes about 20 minutes with a screwdriver and a wrench, and it is the difference between a recycler accepting your load and turning it away.

The receiver, DVR, and remotes are a separate question, and an important one. Those are usually leased. If you cancel service and keep them, you will be billed for them.

satellite tv dish
Image courtesy of faungg’s photos.

Once It’s Installed, It’s Yours

This is the part that surprises people. The dish becomes the property of the homeowner at installation. Neither provider sends a technician to take it down when you cancel, and neither is obligated to. DIRECTV’s own support forums state the position plainly: the receivers go back, the dish stays, and what happens to it next is up to you.

Renters have a related wrinkle. The FCC’s Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule protects your right to install a dish under one meter in areas under your exclusive control, such as a balcony or patio, and it limits what landlords and HOAs can prohibit. It does not cover shared roofs or exterior walls, and it does not remove your responsibility to take the dish down and repair the mounting holes when you move out.

Read your lease before you install anything.

The Rules Changed in Some States, But Not Federally

U.S. federal guidelines still do not regulate circuit boards as hazardous waste, and there is no national electronics recycling law. What exists instead is a patchwork of state and local policy.

Twenty-five states plus the District of Columbia have passed electronics recycling legislation, most of it built on producer responsibility principles, and roughly two dozen states ban electronics from landfills outright. Whether your dish system is legally landfill-bound depends entirely on your ZIP code.

One change is worth flagging because it is new and relevant. Oregon’s modernized E-Cycles program took effect January 1, 2026, and the expanded list of covered devices now includes cable and satellite receivers, routers, modems, and game consoles. Oregon residents can drop those off free. The reflector itself is not a covered device, so it still goes to scrap metal, but the electronic half of the system finally has a no-cost home in one more state.

The stakes behind these rules keep climbing. The UN’s Global E-waste Monitor 2024 found the world generated a record 62 million metric tons of electronic waste in 2022 and formally collected and recycled just 22.3% of it. Generation is on track to hit 82 million metric tons by 2030, growing about five times faster than documented recycling.

Don’t Count on the Scrap Value

Earlier versions of this article suggested that local scrap vendors might be willing to pull the system down for the value of the materials. That is worth a reality check in 2026.

Scrap yards pay by weight and by grade. A modern 18-inch dish is a few pounds of thin, coated steel, which grades low and weighs almost nothing. The coax and the mount are worth more than the reflector, and the whole assembly is still unlikely to buy you lunch. Older six- to 12-foot aluminum C-band dishes are a genuinely different story and can be worth hauling. For the small dishes on most roofs, treat scrap as a disposal route rather than a payday, and do not expect a yard to send a crew for it.

Tips To Get You Started

Here at Earth911, we want your satellite TV dish handled properly at the end of its life. That is not the case. Here is the sequence that actually works:

  • Check your provider’s recycling page first and know what it covers. DIRECTV’s recycling page issues a prepaid shipping label and routes equipment to R2-certified recyclers. DISH points customers to Best Buy and a UPS mail-in program that offers free recycling if you pay the shipping costs. Both programs are built around receivers, remotes, and small equipment. Neither is designed to take the dish off your roof.
  • Return leased equipment on time. Providers typically give you about three weeks from the disconnect date before non-return fees land on your final bill. Get a receipt at the drop-off point and keep it.
  • Search for a satellite dish removal service, a handyman, or a local roofing company. Roofers are the right call if the mount is through the shingles, because someone has to seal the penetrations afterward. Removal is a roof job, not a recycling job, and the two rarely come bundled.
  • Find a certified recycler for the electronics. Look for R2 or e-Stewards certification, which tells you the downstream processing is audited. Use the Earth911 recycling search to find electronics and scrap metal locations near you.
  • Take the reflector and mount to a scrap metal yard. Separate steel from aluminum before you go.
  • Consider reuse before recycling. A working dish and LNB have a second life in free-to-air reception, RV and off-grid setups, and amateur satellite work. Offer it to others locally before you scrap it. There are also plenty of repurposing projects if you would rather keep it out of the waste stream entirely.
  • Watch out for lead-generation sites. Several “satellite dish removal” domains are referral networks that sell your contact information to whichever contractor is paying, not recyclers. Ask any service directly where the material goes and whether they are certified.

Earth911 Does Not Remove or Recycle Dishes

We regularly receive inquiries about whether Earth911 offers removal services. We do not. Earth911 does not offer satellite TV dish removal or recycling. If a satellite TV provider or one of its representatives tells you otherwise, that is not accurate information.

What Comes Next for Satellite TV

The retirement wave is not finished. DIRECTV shed roughly 288,000 subscribers in the third quarter of 2025 alone, according to reporting by TheStreet. EchoStar reported 6.63 million pay-TV subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2026 after a net loss of 366,000 in three months, and its Dish DBS unit filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 restructuring on June 30, 2026. The company says Dish Network and Sling TV service continues without interruption.

For subscribers, the practical takeaway is unchanged: corporate restructuring does not come with a dish removal crew. If you are canceling, plan for the disposing of the hardware. Return what is leased, get the dish down safely, split the metal from the electronics, and route each stream to somewhere that will process it. That is a Saturday afternoon’s work that can keep your dish out of a landfill.

Related Reading

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on June 10, 2015. It was most recently updated in July 2026. Feature image courtesy of Alexis Lê-Quôc. 

The post Need to Recycle Your Satellite TV Dish? Read This First appeared first on Earth911.

https://earth911.com/eco-tech/looking-to-recycle-your-satellite-tv-dish-read-this-first/

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Green Living

Sustainability In Your Ear: Building Solar Panel Recycling Capacity with SPR’s Brett Henderson

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Glass makes up 62% to 70% of a solar panel’s weight, and as much as 80% of a bifacial module with glass on both faces. That single number explains most of what is wrong with solar panel recycling in the United States. The aluminum frame and the silver contacts are worth money. The glass mostly is not, so common practice is to pull the frame, shred everything behind it, and sell the mixed output as low-grade sandblasting grit or landfill cover. The EPA projects the country could accumulate up to 10 million metric tons of end-of-life panels by 2050, second only