If you've ever wondered where all the office furniture goes when a company moves, renovates, or goes out of business, the sad fact is it probably ends up in the trash.
One worker found this out the hard way when they discovered a ton of office chairs that were thrown out by the company they work for. They chose to rescue the chairs from the trash and posted their story on Reddit.
The Redditor saved at least 14 office chairs, which are shown in the pictures on the post. The chairs are bright green plastic, but the original poster decided to take them, even if they may not be their style.
"Saved these guys from the garbage at work," they wrote above the pictures.
Walking around any commercial district on trash day, it's easy to spot office furniture left for the landfill. One scavenger found an entire dumpster filled with renovation materials outside a dentist's office.
It is estimated that over 10 million tons of office furniture go to waste every year in America — that's a lot of chairs, desks, and tables to throw out.
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Luckily there are companies and organizations that buy, sell, and donate used office furniture, but they are not able to handle all the waste created by offices.
While the plastic, wood, and metal that most office furniture is made of could be recycled, those materials have to be in good enough condition and processed at the right recycling plants.
A much better option, for both the environment and for companies, is to resell or donate their furniture. Nonprofits and schools are great places to donate used office furniture.
The commenters on the post were shocked by the "perfectly functional chairs" that were simply tossed out. Another noted how the sight of expensive furniture in the trash "makes me very angry."
Other commenters suggested to the original poster how to dispose of the chairs. Since they are bright green, "it's hard to place them." However, there's always someone in need, like a park, museum, classroom, non-profit, or soup kitchen.
This post serves as a great reminder that what we may carelessly throw out could be incredibly valuable and useful to another.
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