Protecting The Environment and Saving Money With Used Furniture
When you look around your office, how much office furniture can you see? Chairs, tables, sofas, cubicles, conference tables, desks and bookshelves are some of the common pieces. Can you consider what would happen if half of all the office furniture was dumped into landfills?
It is estimated that half of all office furniture ends up in the dumps. It is not recycled, nor refurbished. We all know furniture can be bulky, and this makes up a large percentage of what’s already in our garbage pits.
Many companies throw away old furniture because of its outdated looks. Even though they are in good condition, furniture is disposed of regularly. This impacts our environment. Used office furniture that is dumped into landfills can easily be re-manufactured or refurbished.
If you add new upholstery and replace a wobbly roller you can get a new office chair. Even when you add new laminate surfaces and re-upholster your panels they can look brand new. Without a doubt, using used office furniture can save natural resources and assists in reducing strain on the landfills.
The EPA estimates, that many business organizations dump almost 3 million tons of used furniture and furnishings every year. Given the 1995 nationwide average fee for dumping, (32 dollars per ton), 100 million dollars could have been saved. The OFRF in Virginia also reports that re-manufacturing or refurbishing only 40 workstations can divert one trailer load of used furniture from the landfills.
For every one pound of natural resources spent on refurbishing furniture, up to five pounds can be saved. For each workstation that is saved from the landfill, over 800 pounds of waste and scrap can be saved. Besides the large savings, using used furniture becomes a no brainer.
There are many different types of used office furniture available in the market. Generally, when people imagine used office furniture, they think of hollow and scrap items. While those would surely fall into this group, refurbished and re-manufactured office furniture is quite different.
When furniture gets remanufactured, it looks and functions like brand new. There is also often a new warranty that comes along with it. The process is quite thorough and can involve new surfaces and new interior.
The process can be broken down to a science. The bottom line is that it can save the end user a ton of money. You get what you pay for in life, but the first owner is the one who usually pays for most of it.
When you put new furniture and used furniture side by side, the decision is usually easy. China has come out with a new line of office furniture that specifically competes with used. This was a demand change of the market due to the increasing popularity of buying used.
Office furniture can make up over half of the total expense of launching a business in a commercial or retail office space. Therefore, it can and will be one of the most important beginning financial decisions of your company. Take your time on this one and do your homework.
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