What You Need to Know About Recycling Your Older Furniture

There are literally hundreds of millions of households in North America, which means there will be a plethora of old furniture that will need to be disposed of every year. Moreover, purchasing new furniture is inevitable in most cases, but the biggest issue lies in how to dispose of your old furniture in a manner that is safe, legal, and environmentally friendly. Here, we will discuss what you need to know about recycling your older furniture so that you can help do your part in encouraging environmental sustainability.

Old Home and Office Furniture Disposal Options

If you work at home, or need to reduce clutter in the office by getting rid of your old office furniture, then determining how to dispose of it may prove difficult. Some people may claim that simply dumping all of their old furniture at the local dump or landfill is the best way to go about things, but it may not be that easy. That is, you need to factor in logistics, time, manpower, as well as the costs required to get rid of your old furniture.

For instance, you need to determine the number of people needed to dispose your old furniture, and will need to rent out vehicles that are equipped to load, transport, and unload it in a reliable, safe, and timely manner.

Also, if you decide you would prefer to recycle your old furniture, which is the ideal solution, it will take quite a bit of time and effort to organize. Donating or selling old furniture and equipment can allow your furniture to enjoy a second life of sorts. But larger businesses, particularly those that have multiple offices and/or are being relocated or upgraded, will have additional challenges to deal with when trying to recycle their old office furniture and supplies.

Disposing of Old Furniture is Not Easy

Many people will end up replacing their old bedroom furniture when they have worn out their welcome. It is also fairly common to purchase an entire bedroom set to replace the old set. But how do you go about disposing of your old bedroom furniture? In some cases, the vendor that sold you your old mattress will come to your home and pick it up for you. However, they will likely not collect your old bedroom furniture and bed. As such, you will be held responsible for dismantling your bed and bedroom furniture yourself and will also need to manually transport all of it outdoors.

Then, you will need to look into the legal means of disposing all of the parts and debris. For instance, some Canadian municipalities prohibit the dumping of certain furniture pieces on the curb. As such, you will need to visit the website of your local municipality or call their office to determine if it is legal to throw out certain old furniture items.

Recycling Options for Wood Furniture

Wood furniture items, such as cabinets, chairs, desks, and tables, are often covered with veneers made of synthetic materials and are usually made with treated wood. As such, recycling such items can be challenging. In other words, there are noxious chemicals in the adhesives, varnishes, and paints that cannot be recycled into mulch or be used for other recycling applications.

Moreover, many older furniture pieces, and cheap furniture in general, are made with chipboard materials and inexpensive particleboard that cannot be recycled. However, certain programs in your area, depending on where you live in Canada, may accept treated wood furniture. You will need to check their website or call them to determine if they can recycle your specific wood furniture pieces. If they are unable or unwilling to collect your old wood furniture, then you should look into donating them to a local charity or to sell them, either via a garage sale or a local classified site, such as Craigslist or Kijiji.

Recycling Options for Stuffed Furniture

Almost every recliner, sofa, couch, and padded office chair will be made with toxic materials that are hard to recycle. Still, you may be able to find a commercial source for recycling purposes, and you may recycle the cushions if they are made with polyurethane foam. However, some local recycling plants will simply not accept materials made with foam. As for the remainder of the furniture piece in question, it will likely be made with metal, plastic, fabric, and/or wood that will need to be dismantled before it can be used for recycling purposes.

The good news is there are many junk removal businesses that will provide bed spring removal services, as well as mattress disposal services. Disposing of furniture, mattresses, and used box springs can be very difficult because it is illegal to dump such items in landfills in most jurisdictions as they contain chemicals that will harm the environment.

However, there are mattress types on the market that can be broken down, and any parts that can salvaged can in fact be recycled. As for bed frames and bed springs, in the event that they cannot be reused or donated, you can transport them—either by yourself or by calling a junk removal company—to a local recycling plant so that they can be broken down. In some cases, certain bed pieces and frame parts may be reusable.

Gorilla Bins

At Gorilla Bins, we go bananas over junk. We offer reliable and fast disposal bins in the GTA. We also offer various pick-up options and a wide range of junk bin sizes as well. Furthermore, we offer dump trucks in order to collect and deliver any clean fill material. Gorilla Bins is a proudly Canadian owned and eco-friendly company, and we can be reached at 877-700-2467 for a quote and consultation. You can also learn more about our eco-friendly old furniture recycling services by visiting our website.