 Furniture is one of those items that can be given a second chance before it heads off to the landfill. The era of buying cheap, bland reusable home furnishing made out of fiberboard is over. Now, there are all sorts of new furniture options that are made from other things. Wood is a renewable resource, especially when it comes from responsibly managed forests. It’s another way to help the planet as well as being cost effective. Buying used furniture is green. Furniture can be remanufactured for less than it cost to build new product by saving manufacturing and labor costs, as well as natural resources. Industry experts estimate that for every pound of natural resources used in remanufacturing, five to nine pounds of original materials are conserved. Although the term “remanufacturing” can be broad, ranging from minor repairs to complete disassembly of large equipment, a typical scenario is as follows. Products to be remanufactured are collected and brought to a factory environment where they are completely disassembled. Each component part is cleaned and inspected, then refurbished or replaced as necessary. Parts are inspected for damage and flaws that may require repair or rejection. The parts are then reassembled, and the resulting products are tested to perform to original specifications. Producing reliable products is the greatest test of a remanufacturer’s skills. The performance of remanufactured products must be as good as new, in order to compete with originally manufactured products.
Remanufactured furniture has grown from a small segment of the office furniture retailing industry in the late 1980s to an $800 million chunk of the $9 billion commercial furniture business, says Jim McGarry, executive director of the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance, an industry trade group. Some in the industry predict the segment will command a 25% market share within 4 or 5 years.
The basic structure of most office furniture, particularly panel systems, typically has a long life. However, the color, fabric, or other elements may wear out or become outdated. This is where refurbishing comes in. Assorted pieces of furniture can be refurbished to color coordinate with existing office furniture, or panel systems can be repainted or recovered to better fit with current styles.
Whatever your budget or style is for furniture, reusable furniture can be your green solution.
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