What the afterlife of a tree could be

Last weekend I visited Phoenix to interview one of the owners of Twigg & Twill, an organic retailer, for an upcoming story. During the interview I found out about the business' dedication to promoting an organic lifestyle through their products, such as clothing, housewares, and furniture--all of which are 100% organic.

The furniture in Twigg & Twill however, was one of the most interesting products the store carried. Each piece sold in the store comes from the company, Exotic Home. In my interview I found out that Exotic Home creates all of their furniture from old palm trees from Fiji's coconut plantations, only using all-natural materials without the use of any chemicals in the process of manufacturing.

Interestingly, coconut trees from Fiji's plantations planted over one hundred years ago have become a severe problem for the Fijian landscape. Once coconut trees stop bearing fruit, ( after about 85 years), they become useless and begin to pollute the land. Currently, Fiji has over 100 million old palm trees which they are unable to burn or sink, making these old trees from the plantations one of the world's largest unusable resources.

Taking advantage of this abundant resource Exotic Home has found an effective and eco-friendly way to take the palms from Fiji and convert them into something useful. Using all parts of the tree this business creates classic, durable pieces of furniture as well as art, and home accessories. Their sensible solutions allows them to produce organic products without having to rely on glue or lacquers. Instead, Exotic Home uses knots instead of glue to hold their handcrafted furniture together and relies on the naturally occurring coconut oils to provide a shiny finish, ensuring that everything they make is 100% organic.