By Stacy Downs

The Kansas City Star

/ MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Soy-based foam has become the upholstery-cushion standard at stores that carry Norwalk Furniture. Shown here is the Cabo sectional starting at $4,224.

Environmental advantages
• For every 1 million pounds of BiOH polyols that replace petroleum polyols in flexible foams, 2,200 barrels of crude oil are saved.


• Manufacturing soy-based polyol requires 61 percent less nonrenewable energy.

• Soy polyol produces 36 percent fewer emissions than traditional polyols.

Source: BiOH, Cargill

There’s something “green” hidden in the seat cushions.

Soybean-based foam is cropping up in sofas and chairs. The new product reduces the amount of petroleum used in polyurethane foam, the core material in cushions. The innovation comes at a time of rising concern over petroleum prices and the availability of raw materials.

Norwalk Furniture, a custom upholstery maker and retailer based in Norwalk, Ohio, recently made the switch to foam containing soy for its standard sofas and chairs.

“It’s a major part of our green journey,” said Reyna Moore, director of sales and marketing for Norwalk, which also uses recycled wire and steel for its machine-tied coil seating systems, and natural fibers for its covers. “We know customers are becoming more environmentally aware.”

Another large furniture manufacturer, Lee Industries of Newton, N.C., recently began using foam with soy in its natural Lee line, which also includes back and throw pillows made entirely of fibers from recycled bottles.

Other furniture makers such as Lane Home Furnishings also are beginning to use soy foam in their cushions. The new type of foam was born after Cargill, the agricultural products giant in Minnesota, and the Kansas Polymer Research Institute developed the product BiOH, a soybean oil.

Foam manufacturers such as Hickory Springs in Hickory, N.C., are now using BiOH. Hickory Springs’ soy-based foam, Preserve, is used in Norwalk Furniture and Lee Industries’ upholstered pieces. Flexible foam such as Preserve is made of two primary petroleum-based ingredients, polyol and toluene diisocyanate, that are mixed with water.

The first generation of Preserve foam uses 10 percent to 20 percent soy product, about 1 to 2 pounds of soy in a standard-size sofa. Foam made with larger amounts of soy emitted an odor, said Bobby Bush, Hickory Springs’ vice president of foam and environmental technology.

“It smelled like burnt popcorn,” Bush said. “Some people thought it smelled like burnt motor oil.”

But research continues, and soon the company expects to introduce odorless second-generation Preserve products that have a higher soy percentage. They will include a high-resiliency foam and memory foam, which can be used for mattresses.

Preserve performs similarly to traditional polyurethane foam, Bush said, meaning it breaks down at roughly the same rate.

This means Preserve is not totally green, but it is more environmentally friendly because it is made partly from soybeans, a renewable resource.

At this point it’s not cheaper to produce Preserve, Bush said. But as prices for petroleum continue to increase, the soy-based product is expected to be less expensive to make than traditional foam.
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