Furniture Recycling Tips

Finding ways to recycle your old furniture is much better than adding it to a landfill. Having said that, the type of material it’s made from, the chemicals it’s treated with, and all of that are very important to consider before you go forward with recycling anything.

Give It Away

You may know someone, or someone may know someone, who needs the item you’re trying to recycle. Using it is always better than recycling it by giving it to a company, or putting it in the landfill hoping they get to it eventually. There is a huge bottleneck in the USA for recycling properly, and some perfectly good materials are just trapped right now. Finding a charity or a person in need to give it to is as easy as listing it for free on Facebook Marketplace.

Sell It

If it’s worth money, you might as well sell it if you don’t want it any longer. Depending on the quality of the piece you can list it online for sale, or you can put it in a consignment store to see if it’ll sell.

Donate to Charity

If you don’t want to do the process yourself, your local charities will be happy to take it. Try a charity that is associated with another charity for best results. For example, a no-kill pet shelter often has a thrift store attached. They are typically much better at processing this stuff than large businesses like the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

Refinish and Reupholster

Even if you think you don’t like it right now, what if you could redo it sustainably? Even though it’s true that paying an upholsterer to redo it can be quite expensive, there are plenty of YouTube videos that give you tips on how to do it yourself too. Think of the expense to the earth when you get rid things instead of repairing it and refinishing a piece to give it more life.

Repurpose It

A chair doesn’t have to remain a chair. An armoire doesn’t have to remain an armoire. You can turn furniture into something else. This is especially true if it’s wood. Some people have turned wooden chests into amazing hidden cat litter solutions and more. Look at YouTube and you’ll find more information about how to do it – just search for what you want to repurpose to find the ideas.

Recycle It

If all else fails, call around to your local recycling centers to find out if they’ll take it. And if they do take it, ask them how long it will take before they really recycle it. Whatever you do, don’t take it to a landfill unless that is truly your last resort.

There are many benefits to recycling or reusing your furniture. When you find sustainable ways to use something that has already been created, you can save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save money and more. One way to avoid adding any negativity is always to buy used to start with, and always figure out what you will do with something while you have it and when you’re done with it. You might find out it’s not worth a purchase if you cannot dispose of it sustainably.