Durability

The longer a product lasts, the less often it has to be replaced. This is a very important aspect of sustainability. After all, resources are consumed every time a new purchase is made. Therefore, durability saves on resources.

A modern, clean laboratory with stainless steel workstations, technical equipment, and a blurred figure of a professional in a lab coat in motion.

Durability at nobilia

Protecting resources through quality

nobilia kitchen, bathroom and living room furniture items are highly durable products. We know from customer feedback that our kitchens are frequently used for 15 years or more. In 2020, we ran an internal competition to find the oldest nobilia kitchen still in use – and the winner dated from the 1960s! This durability isn’t achieved by chance, but results from intensive product testing and painstaking quality checks.

Care & ease of repair

Contributing to durability

The quality of a product is crucial to determining how long it lasts. However, it’s equally important that the materials are properly cared for. At nobilia, we already concern ourselves with suitable care agents during the product development phase and put these through their paces in our own laboratory. When something does go wrong, however, the kitchens’ modular structure means that individual components can be easily replaced – using standard tools. At nobilia, we guarantee the availability of spare parts many years beyond what is required by law.

Person wiping a kitchen countertop with a yellow patterned cloth, focusing on cleanliness and household maintenance.

End of Life

In terms of sustainability, the best kitchen is the kitchen that does not have to be replaced. Durability, quality and freedom from harmful substances are prerequisites to this. All of these are aspects that we’ve long focused on at nobilia. Nevertheless, a kitchen will inevitably reach the end of its life cycle at some stage – and we also have this in mind.

A pile of assorted wooden boards and old furniture pieces thrown into a large red skip, indicating a construction or renovation cleanup.

Product recyclability

Using healthy materials doesn’t necessarily mean a product is recyclable. At the end of the day, only items made of a single material can be easily recycled. This is where the modular and detachable design of our furniture helps. The main component of the furniture is chipboard. From a technical perspective, this is 100% recyclable and there’s the possibility of creating a truly closed cycle here in which old furniture could be turned back into new, modern pieces. However, many disposal companies prefer to use chipboard to generate heat because this is a more financially attractive option. We’re therefore in discussion with a number of disposal firms – as this problem can only be solved if we put our heads together.

Packaging recyclability

We use transport packaging to make sure that our kitchen furniture is secure and well-protected until it reaches the end customer. This can be easily recycled. To make sure this happens, nobilia has partnered with Recycling Kontor Transportverpackung (RKT). Our customers simply have to contact RKT to let them know they’re expecting a nobilia delivery. RKT then ensures that the different elements of the transport packaging are collected and taken for recycling. The environmental advantage is that all transport packaging is purposefully collected and recycled.