Office Furniture Recycling

The term “going green” didn’t exist a few generations ago, but your grandparents could easily explain the concept to you: Don’t be wasteful. This is the principle Re-form is founded on. We’re a cradle-to-cradle solution that has been helping businesses in Baltimore, Washington DC, Columbia, Aberdeen and the MidAtlantic region reduce their expenses and environmental impact by introducing them to office furniture reuse.

Many consumers are unaware that office furniture is also a recyclable product. Think about it – quality commercial office furniture has a long lifecycle. Instead of wearing out, it is often replaced because it has been depreciated completely and/or fabric colors and other elements are outdated over time. Often an office face-lift or a new color scheme meant old furnishings were given a life sentence in storage or doomed to the dumpster. At Re-form we reuse the highest-quality used office furniture, and when the time comes, recycle it .

Conservation is not a new concept, and is the way to a brighter future. Because fewer raw materials are used, remanufacturing conserves energy and natural resources. Office furniture recycling extends the lives of resources already in circulation such as wood, aluminum, steel, plastics and fiber, using them over and over to the fullest extent possible. Industry experts estimate that for each pound of natural resources used in remanufacturing, five to nine pounds of original material are conserved. By recycling office furniture, the products as well as the natural resources are diverted from the solid waste stream. The EPA has estimated that approximately 3 million tons of office furniture and furnishings are discarded each year. For example, fabrics in panel systems tend to wear out and the colors become outdated. By remanufacturing, the fabrics can be replaced and the office furniture returned to the market for a second life. Recycling results in fewer products filling up limited landfill space. It is estimated that remanufacturing just one cubicle saves more than 1000 pounds of landfill waste. Remanufacturing just 40 cubicles diverts one tractor-trailer load of furniture from a landfill. Recycling office furniture conserves manufacturing energy. The amount of energy required to alter an existing product during remanufacturing is 85 to 95 percent less than that required to manufacture a new product. And, since much of the product has already been manufactured, remanufacturing saves the enormous amounts of energy required for production, especially when metals are kept out of the resmelting process. (Reusing and remanufacturing is a more sustainable practice than recycling, less energy and materials are required to keep products in service)

Here are some additional resources that will help you make environmentally responsible decisions when buying office furniture.