" In fact, engineered wood products _can_ be stronger, and get used in building architectures that would not be possible with natural wood. But the stuff used i

" In fact, engineered wood products _can_ be stronger, and get used in building architectures that would not be possible with natural wood. But the stuff used in cheap furniture is MDF and that weird, coarser particle board. My limited research showed MDF as being weaker than most natural softwoods, in terms of strength to density. The lightness of the furniture comes from simply designing the products to use less wood. " MDF is both heavier and weaker in just about all cases. By far. It's not even a close contest. Part of it is because it's a very short-strand material. "The odor, caused by binding resins used in the engineered wood, is also an indicator of off-gassing formaldehyde." (for the interested, it's because they all used urea-formaldehyde glue) Plywood used in furniture is usually formaldehyde free these days, or has almost undetectable levels (it's all carb p2 compliant). Since about 2009, the levels are about 20x less than they used to be. MDF is not usually FF free, just because of the amount of glue used. But it's still 20x better than it used to be ;) But to put in perspective: All the plywood i get is FF free, and i don't have to do anything to get it. Columbia, who is the largest manufacturer of plywood in the US, has been making "purebond" plywood since 2005. That's what everyone from home depot, to lumber yards, are selling you now. Other major manufs are similar these days. You can actually get MDF from columbia that is FF free. Just more expensive. As for the sustainability: http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/us/the-columbia-story/ http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/us/the-columbia-story/ See "In 1999, " One of the main reasons they use engineered wood is because it's stable. You wouldn't really make the sides of cabinets out of hardwood, it would move too much. They alternate grain direction in plywood to make it very stable dimensionally. But in terms of what engineered wood, i'd agree using plywood is a better thing to do than using MDF or other particleboards.