Unneeded, perfectly good furniture. It’s a factor in almost every design project. A school’s being renovated; before work can begin, the old furniture has to go away. A new school’s being built; there’s generally an old school, filled with furniture, that’s being replaced.
For decades, old furniture was the client’s problem. They could pay for dumpsters and trash it. They could try to sell it (but who wants old school desks). They could pass the problem on to the GC, and let the GC trash the stuff, or bring the building down on top of it.
No longer. Sustainable design and construction are almost universal in educational AEC. School boards and construction committees see classrooms filled with useful furniture, and want to do the “right” thing with it. Taxpayers object when they see usable desks and chairs in dumpsters. More and more school projects are seeking LEED or equivalent certification, with waste reduction an essential component.
What’s Reuse?
Reuse means matching clients’ old school furniture with communities that can’t afford new.
Across 20+ years, The Reuse Network has developed a network of more than 400 nonprofit partners that work in communities afflicted by war, natural disaster, and long-term poverty. Communities whose first priorities are food, water, and shelter. Communities where education offers the best avenue toward a brighter future, but purchasing new school furniture simply isn’t an option.
When The Reuse Network is offered an inventory of furniture, we match it with one or more of the charities from our network. We organize labor to remove and load the furniture for shipment. We set up transportation to get the furniture to recipients. And we track the process, so that you and your client have documentation of exactly what’s been reused, and where it’s gone. It’s a straightforward, cost-effective process. As simple as throwing furniture away, but in all respects so much better.
Why Reuse?
Reuse is the top of the waste management hierarchy.
Reuse means giving disadvantaged children a shot at a decent education.
Reuse means keeping tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds, per project, out of local landfills.
Reuse offers great public and community relations.
Reuse avoids the ugly optics of good furniture going into the trash.
Reuse contributes to LEED or equivalent certification.
More than any other element of sustainable design and construction, reuse is a visible, tangible teaching tool, demonstrating to students and the community that a Triple Bottom Line is truly achievable.
Case Study: VMDO Architects and Charlottesville (VA) City Schools
VMDO Architects was entrusted with the design of the new 180,000 sq ft LEED Gold Charlottesville (VA) Middle School, and renovation of the existing Buford Middle School on the same site. Furniture supplier Commonwealth School Equipment had collaborated previously with The Reuse Network. At their suggestion VMDO and Charlottesville City Schools agreed that reuse was the optimum solution – environmentally, socially, and financially – for handling the furnishings made surplus by the project.
When students vacated the Buford School for the last time, The Reuse Network had recipients waiting. One trailer was packed with desks and chairs and shipped to schools in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Another was provided to communities in Haiti. A third was shipped to schools in Honduras. 129 pieces were provided to Habitat for Humanity in Virginia. Across town, from a smaller replacement at Trailblazer Elementary School, The Reuse Network filled a trailer with 363 student desks, chairs, and other items for schools in Jamaica. In all 1,565 items were provided to nonprofits. A final150 pieces unsuitable for reuse were recycled through a local metal dealer. Nothing went to a landfill.
| Item | Destination | Total | ||||
| Habitat for Humanity, VA | Haiti | Honduras | Jamaica | Sierra Leone | ||
| Desk | 3 | 18 | 131 | 116 | 230 | 498 |
| Chair | 100 | 166 | 217 | 203 | 230 | 916 |
| Seating | 5 | 3 | 8 | |||
| Table | 3 | 38 | 6 | 29 | 76 | |
| Bookcase | 23 | 6 | 4 | 19 | 11 | 63 |
| Storage Cabinet | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Total | 129 | 235 | 362 | 368 | 471 | 1,565 |
“Reuse was the best decision we could have made. Reuse upholds our commitment to the environment, it sends the right message to our students, staff, and taxpayers, and it gets classroom furniture to kids who have none. We couldn’t ask for a better outcome.”
Stewart Harding, Project Manager, Charlottesville City Schools
Reuse: Straightforward, Cost-Effective, Beneficial, Sustainable
Since our beginnings in 2002, The Reuse Network has provided more than 2,000,000 pieces of furniture to communities in 71 countries around the world and 47 U.S. states, at the same time keeping over 100,000,000 pounds of useful assets out of U.S. landfills. These have included 467,000 school desks and chairs plus tens of thousands of activity tables, bookshelves, and other school furnishings from more than 165 school districts across the U.S., provided to kids in need in 62 countries.
We’d like to add yours to the total.
