A new report has found that a large amount of used office furniture, instead of being reused or recycled, is going to landfill sites.
The report, titled ‘Furniture Futures: Sustainable Strategies for Better Workplaces,‘ based on a survey of office management professionals, found that 50% of organisations dispose of old office furniture as general waste, even though most respondents support sustainability.
When businesses relocate to new offices, they often purchase new office furniture that fits with the interior design style of the new office space. The report found that many organisations, particularly small companies, have no official policy on furniture management. Unused furniture is often either thrown away or stored for an average of over eight months. The respondents to the furniture survey estimated that over 40% of stored furniture could be reused.
Though most of the survey respondents (89%) believed in the importance of sustainability, this was not necessarily reflected in a commitment to strategies of recycling or reusing old furniture.
The report recommends that businesses have regular asset audits and set annual goals for waste reduction. They want a focus on the reuse and refurbishment of worn furniture.
Rachel Houghton, one of the people responsible for the report, said:
“We want organisations to treat furniture management as a core part of their sustainability and workplace strategies and to have the tools and guidance to take those steps with confidence.”
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