When a company downsizes, its surplus office furniture goes one of five ways: redeployed to another location, resold to another business, donated, broken down and recycled, or thrown away. Which route each piece takes depends on brand, age, condition, quantity, how fast the space must be empty, and building access. Nationally, landfill is still the default for furniture: the EPA reports that 12.1 million tons of furniture and furnishings were generated in 2018 and 80.1 percent of it was landfilled. A planned downsizing, started early, can send much more of it somewhere useful.
This guide is for the facilities manager, office manager or COO who has been told the company needs less space and now has a floor of furniture to deal with. For the real estate and staffing side of the decision, see the office downsizing checklist.
- The national picture: what the EPA data shows
- The five routes compared
- What decides the route for each item
- Four assumptions that cost companies
- How to keep more out of the landfill
- Records to keep
The national picture: what the EPA data shows
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tracks furniture in its durable goods data. For 2018:
- 12.1 million tons of furniture and furnishings were generated in municipal solid waste, about 4.1 percent of the total.
- 80.1 percent was landfilled.
- 19.5 percent was combusted with energy recovery.
- Recycling was a sliver: the EPA table lists about 40,000 tons.
Those numbers include household furniture, not just offices. But they make the point: unless someone plans otherwise, furniture leaves a building in a dumpster. Office furniture has an advantage over household furniture here, because it is built to commercial standards, often comes in large matching quantities, and is designed to be taken apart and reinstalled.
The five routes compared
| Route | Best for | What it needs | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redeploy internally | Matching pieces another office can use | A destination, storage or a move date | Paying to move and store furniture nobody ends up using |
| Resale | Newer systems furniture and seating from major manufacturers, in quantity | Good condition, clean, complete parts, access for disassembly | Resale value depends on many factors and is assessed case by case |
| Donation | Desks, chairs, tables and storage in usable shape | A recipient who can take it on your date | Recipients that cannot collect, install or take large quantities |
| Recycling | Steel, aluminum, filing cabinets, some plastics and glass | Disassembly and material separation | Mixed-material items that are hard to separate |
| Landfill | Broken, contaminated or unrecyclable material | A dumpster and hauling | Using it for everything because time ran out |
What decides the route for each item
Brand and product line
Systems furniture and task chairs from the major commercial manufacturers have an established secondary market. Unbranded or discontinued lines have a much smaller one. Our guide to used office furniture resale value covers which items hold up.
Age and condition
Stained fabric, chipped laminate and broken mechanisms cut options fast. Clean, complete furniture keeps more routes open.
Quantity and consistency
Eighty matching workstations are far easier to place than eighty different desks. Buyers furnishing an office want sets.
Timing
The single biggest factor most companies control. With 90 days, there is time to find buyers, line up donation recipients and stage the work. With two weeks, more furniture ends up in a dumpster because there is no time to place it.
Access
Freight elevator availability, dock hours and building rules determine how much labor the removal takes, which affects every route.
Four assumptions that cost companies
"Someone will want it for free." Charities and schools are often glad to take a few desks. Few can collect two hundred workstations on a Tuesday night, install systems furniture, or store it. Donation works best for selected items, arranged early.
"Expensive when new means valuable now." What a piece cost originally has little to do with what the secondary market will do with it. Condition, quantity, current demand for that product line and the cost of getting it out of the building matter more.
"We will deal with it at the end." Furniture is usually the last thing anyone plans, so it is the first thing that ends up in a dumpster when the lease date arrives. Every week of lead time opens more routes.
"Recycling is automatic." Systems furniture combines steel, fabric, foam, particleboard and plastic. Getting it recycled means taking it apart and separating materials, which has to be in someone's scope of work. Ask how each material will be handled before you sign.
A related point for teams that are relocating rather than closing: furniture that does not fit the new plan should not be moved "just in case." Moving and storing it costs money, and the decision comes back later with fewer options. Settle the keep list against a drawn plan for the new space first.
How to keep more out of the landfill
- Start early. Request a walkthrough as soon as the downsizing is decided, not when the lease is about to end.
- Decide redeployment first. Pull what other offices will use before anything else is routed.
- Keep sets together. Do not let departments cherry-pick parts of workstations; incomplete sets are harder to place.
- Clean out completely. Empty pedestals, files and cabinets. Personal items and paper slow every route.
- Line up donation recipients with their limits in mind. Confirm what they will take, when, and whether they can collect.
- Disassemble for materials. What cannot be reused can often be separated: steel and aluminum to scrap, cardboard to recycling.
- Handle electronics separately. Computers, monitors and phones go to an e-waste processor with data handling documented. See office furniture disposal and e-waste.
Office Station's office furniture liquidation service looks at every piece and recommends a route after a free walkthrough: resale, donation, recycling or a mix, decided case by case for your office. If the downsizing is part of a full move-out, our decommissioning team handles the rest of the space too.
Records to keep
Finance, sustainability and leadership will ask what happened to the furniture. Ask your contractor for, and keep:
- An inventory of what was removed, by item type and quantity
- A disposition summary showing what was resold, donated, recycled and landfilled
- Donation acknowledgments from recipients, if you donated
- Recycling and hauling receipts
- E-waste chain-of-custody and data-handling records
- Photos of the empty space at handback
These records close out the fixed asset register, support any sustainability reporting, and answer the question when someone asks a year later where the furniture went.
Downsizing into a smaller space? Our space planning is free, and some of your existing furniture may fit the new plan. Request a free walkthrough or write to hello@officestation.com.
Frequently asked questions
What do companies do with office furniture when they downsize?
Surplus furniture goes one of five ways: redeployed to another office, resold, donated, recycled for materials, or sent to landfill. Most projects use several routes at once, because a single floor can hold resellable workstations, chairs worth donating and worn pieces that only have scrap value. The route for each item is decided case by case after a walkthrough.
How much office furniture ends up in landfills?
According to the EPA, Americans generated 12.1 million tons of furniture and furnishings in 2018, and 80.1 percent was landfilled. About 19.5 percent was burned for energy recovery, and the EPA's table lists recycling at roughly 40,000 tons. Those figures cover all furniture in municipal solid waste, not only office furniture.
Can I donate used office furniture?
Often, yes. Schools, nonprofits and community groups may take desks, chairs, tables and storage in good condition. The catch is logistics: many charities cannot pick up large quantities on a fixed date, cannot take systems furniture that needs installation, or only accept specific items. Line up recipients early and confirm what they will actually take.
Is used office furniture worth anything?
Some of it. Newer systems furniture and task chairs from major manufacturers, in good condition and in larger matching quantities, are the most likely to have resale value. Older, unbranded, damaged or mixed furniture often has little or none. Value also depends on timing, access and how much has to be removed, so every office is assessed individually.
What parts of office furniture can be recycled?
Steel frames, panel frames, filing cabinets, chair bases and aluminum parts are the easiest to recycle as scrap metal. Some plastics, glass and cardboard packaging can be recycled where local facilities accept them. Fabric-wrapped panels, particleboard worksurfaces and mixed-material chairs are harder, because the materials have to be separated first.
