“Reusing office furniture: there's still work to do!"

Every year, no fewer than 250,000 tonnes of office furniture are sent to landfill. In Paris alone, it's a festival of waste, with a 150-employee company throwing out usable furniture every single day.

These figures raise a great many questions. How do we explain such volumes of unrecovered waste? What obstacles stand in the way of more virtuous practices?  How capable is the sector of rising to the challenges of sustainability?

Whether you're in the middle of refitting your workspace or thinking of bidding farewell to a few old office furnishings, we're sharing a quick overview of the sector to shine a light on the challenges ahead and some practices worth following. Beyond the simple act of acquiring or parting with an object, businesses need to become aware of the impact that follows from it.

The circular economy of professional furniture

Just like other sectors, the circular economy of the professional furniture market takes in three distinct areas: reuse, repurposing and recycling. We introduce them here before focusing on reuse.

Three possible choices: reuse, repurposing and recycling.

Options that meet particular needs

Some wrongly assume that sending their furniture to a specialist eco-organisation is the answer to all their problems. Yet it's important to distinguish between the different trades to properly understand where your furniture will end up, and to better grasp the ultimate impact of its new life. Three areas are involved: reuse, repurposing and recycling.

=> Reuse: “Same one, off we go again!”

Reuse is the simplest option. It means putting the same object back on the market, for an identical need.  This approach can take several forms: the resale of second-hand furniture, but also furniture rental, which lets businesses kit out their offices without buying, then hand the furniture back once their needs change. This option makes it possible, in particular, to avoid the production of new raw materials but, above all, to do away with a manufacturing process. We'll come back to its many advantages later on. 

=> Repurposing: “Same material, different use, new story!” 

Repurposing means changing the use of an object without altering its material. Examples: a chair turned into a stool, a shutter built into a coffee table. It's purely a matter of making formal changes. Players in the sector will often salvage the still-sound parts of a piece of furniture, setting aside the rest, which can then be recycled.

=> Recycling: “Nothing is lost, everything is transformed!” 

Recycling is the third way to prolong an object's life. It carries out a genuine transformation of the material to give it fresh value in a different form. In this way, plastics from water bottles can be built into the tops of meeting tables.  It's also worth noting that natural waste such as oyster shells can end up in the make-up of your coffee tables. The team at Ostrea won't tell you otherwise.

Reuse: the most impactful option and the least visible.

How do we explain such a paradox?

Among sustainable practices, furniture reuse comes dead last, with only 4% of used furniture reintroduced “as is” into the circuit. Yet this strand is the most impactful. Much like returnable bottles, which emit 15 times less carbon than recycled bottles, “second-hand” furniture is far less energy-intensive than recycled furniture. The reasons for its lack of success are many, at once sociological, economic and structural.

=> Businesses not always on board: 

As stated above, every day in Paris a 150-employee company throws out furniture that's still perfectly serviceable. This figure illustrates a real scourge: "express dismantling". Some teams would rather quickly bin the furniture than carefully take it apart to give it a second chance to shine. Another explanatory factor: businesses will often hire removal firms to clear out the offices, and furniture isn't their trade.

=> Uncompetitive prices: 

As a rule, “second-hand” furniture costs more than new. And with good reason: to enter the reuse circuit, furniture has to be of good quality, with durable parts that can be taken apart and repaired. Low-quality furniture ranges such as Ikea can't be part of it. Yet these pieces are sold new at very low prices.

=> Supply that's hard to keep up with: 

Fashion in the furniture sector changes all the time, since manufacturers have every interest in bringing new pieces to market. On the “second-hand” side, the pace is hard to keep up with. Selling furniture that's gone out of fashion, at a decent price, then becomes a real challenge. 

Reuse: many players, an unrivalled impact.

Despite practices that are pretty modest compared with repurposing and recycling, furniture reuse offers plenty of advantages. Before setting them out, let's first list all the economic players concerned by the subject.

Everyone in the chain,

from the reseller to the buyer

Between the company selling its furniture and the one buying it back, various players can come into play. Here's a quick tour of the intermediaries. A chance to discover the behind-the-scenes of a little-known sector.

=> The removal firms: 

Tasked with clearing out workspaces, they often end up with furniture bought at low cost or simply salvaged. Several options are open to them: sending it to landfill, letting employees take pieces, reselling on marketplaces or to wholesalers. 

=> The brokers:  

Enjoying substantial storage capacity, brokers take in large quantities of furniture and can play on these volumes to offer businesses a competitive buy-back price. More and more brokers are playing the cooperation card to take on the growing volumes from removal firms. They also take the opportunity to optimise their storage space. 

=> The small resellers 

Informed in advance by the company that's moving, these agents draw up an inventory of the available pieces with a proposed purchase price. Among them are many small businesses and associations. Among the players, let's mention Burocase and Burotri.

=> The reconditioners 

Reuse goes beyond the simple sale of second-hand furniture. Reconditioners such as Adopte un bureau give chairs and tables a second life to bring them up to date. They can replace parts, reuse materials and refurbish tops, all while keeping a quality that rivals that of new.

Strengths worth highlighting

As we've said, reuse has a significant environmental impact. Beyond this advantage, it has other virtues to its credit that could win over a greater number of businesses. Here are 3 good reasons to consider it. 

=> Making savings: 

Businesses with a good grasp of the market and of “second-hand” buy-back offers will be able to resell their furniture on the best terms. A player such as Redesk commits, notably, to sharing 50% of the value obtained at resale. The earlier businesses go about it, ahead of their move, the more savings they'll be able to make. The same logic applies to businesses acquiring this furniture.

=> Committing your company: 

Getting involved in the reuse circuit amounts to tending to your carbon footprint. This kind of action helps towards obtaining B-Corp certification or, at the very least, feeding a brand narrative that can support your employer brand. This one action won't be enough on its own, but it could well set off others.

=> Creating a unique setting: 

By its very nature, reuse can be less suited to obtaining large quantities, but it's not out of reach. Interior architects or office managers will turn into “bargain-hunters” to dress the various corners of their workspace. What will be a constraint for some could well be a way of standing out for others.

Reuse: challenges & prospects

As mentioned earlier, “second-hand” furniture costs more than new. This situation isn't sustainable over the long term. “For the second-hand market to thrive over the long term, prices need to boldly cross the 50% mark compared with new.” confides Jules Prétot (Redesk). To achieve this, the sector must rise to certain challenges. 

Streamlining the chain

to keep costs down

One of the key issues is the speed at which information is shared and objects are transferred. This streamlining relies on digitising certain interfaces and specialising certain intermediaries.

=> Technological optimisation: 

The sharing of data within the “second-hand” chain can seem archaic. Engineers need to take up the subject to modernise and digitise inventory processes. The aim: to develop easy-to-access interfaces for all the players.  

=> Simplifying flows: 

At present, removal firms juggle the collection, storage, sorting and redistribution of furniture. This variety - necessary today - drives up logistics costs and rules out longer-term prospects. Intermediaries need to be able to step in to speed up certain stages.

Informing businesses

to shift behaviours

Businesses aren't sufficiently informed about the possibilities of putting their furniture up for sale. There's a real educational job to be done to raise awareness among as many businesses as possible on the subject. To scale up, the evangelising must also happen on the buyers' side, who need to grasp the virtues of “second-hand” investment.  

What's more, tracing products is impossible today. A company placing its used furniture into the “reuse” stream  deals with generalist organisations, which handle reuse, repurposing and recycling but also destruction all at once. It hands over its pieces without worrying about what happens next. Yet, for economic reasons, a great deal of furniture won't be reused.

Making the most of public initiatives

to stand on a firmer footing

Reuse players are increasingly supported by the State. For several years now, the eco-contribution scheme has required distributors and manufacturers to take responsibility for the second life of furniture. The rollout of the scheme was entrusted to eco-organisations such as Valdelia and Éco Mobilier, which receive funds to ensure the durability of furniture or find it the best end of life.

What's more, a recent initiative called EC 2027, led by Pierre Emmanuel de Saint Esprit, encourages the introduction of measures fostering the circular economy, notably the obligation for manufacturers to supply spare parts and support for reuse initiatives.

The reuse sector has plenty of room to grow. Its potential could allow it to transform the professional furniture sector and make it a major player in the circular economy. If you have questions or comments to add to these various points, do feel free to let us know in the comments.

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You now know pretty much everything about the processes put in place for the reuse of professional furniture. If you have ideas to add to the subject, do feel free to share them with us in the comment field below!
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