Starting a Furniture Recycling Program
By: Bob Roskos

Does your school have a recycling program? If not, then you should consider the many benefits that recycling offers. 

Environmental
Recycling affects our environment in a decidedly positive way through the conservation of valuable resources and the minimization of waste sent to landfills. The more complete and comprehensive a recycling program becomes, the greater the benefits it generates for the environment.

Aesthetic
A well-organized recycling program results in neater, cleaner buildings and facilities. By educating people to appreciate the value of recycling, an effective program helps direct cans, papers, and bottles into collection bins, thereby raising the aesthetic level of any setting.

Economic
By recovering and ultimately reusing recyclable materials, we can help control the costs of manufacturing aluminum cans, newspapers, cardboard containers, and other everyday products while conserving raw materials for future generations. Revenues gained from recycling can also be used to offset budgetary expenses or to help support important charitable projects and initiatives. 

Getting Started
If these considerations have inspired you to consider launching a recycling program, you can get started by targeting two or three categories of items commonly used at your school. These could include paper, cardboard, and aluminum cans.

However, before getting down to the details of actually recycling such items, it is important to discuss your potential recycling program with all of the key people who would be involved with its implementation, including teachers and office personnel.  Getting everyone to “buy in” to the program is a key to making it a long-term success.

In the course of these discussions, you may want to consult with someone from an organization that has a proven, recognized recycling program. Such a person could give you valuable tips about the various aspects of recycling and could offer inspiration to those who aren’t fully “on board” with the idea, helping to convince them that a recycling program can really benefit your school.

If you are wondering how to find a person like this, why not check with the vendors with whom you do business?

Many companies that have been honored for their recycling efforts will post this information online; in addition, they will often provide the name and contact information of an employee who can answer questions about their recycling program.

By finding a helpful contact person on recycling through one of your vendors, you can go a long way toward launching your program in a positive direction.

Furniture Recycling
Along with the day-to-day activities of a recycling program, there will be occasional opportunities for a large-scale recycling project. 

For instance, when your school makes a major furniture purchase, you may be able to recycle the furniture that is being withdrawn from service rather than sending it to a landfill. 

Of course, it is preferable to donate out-of-service furniture to another school or similar organization that would continue to use it, provided that the furniture is in good working condition. However, if the furniture is no longer usable, recycling is a great alternative to landfill disposal.

Recycling out-of-service furniture makes sense for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the cost associated with landfilling. Although it is not possible to pin down a precise figure that would apply to all schools – since landfill, transportation, and labor rates vary from place to place – a mid-Atlantic public high school recently received a quote of approximately $50,000 to have its old furniture hauled away as waste. 

This figure is highly significant since private schools, like public schools, are typically challenged to dispose of hundreds, if not thousands, of out-of-service furniture items during a large-scale refurbishment.

For decades, the only practical option for most schools was landfilling, because even though the steel in their furniture was recyclable, hardly anyone wanted to reprocess the seat, backrest, and work surface components from classroom chairs, desks, and tables.

A take-back program – through which a furniture manufacturer recycles the above-mentioned components and helps schools find local recyclers for their out-of-service furniture’s steel frames – can provide a proven way for your school to recycle its old furniture. 

With that in mind, be sure to ask whether your supplier has a take-back program the next time you plan to purchase furniture for your Christian school.

Bob Roskos is the corporate copywriter for Virco, www.virco.com