{"id":9492,"date":"2018-04-19T16:10:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T20:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irnsurplus.com\/wp\/?page_id=9492"},"modified":"2024-02-16T14:25:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T19:25:16","slug":"a-half-million-pounds-of-furniture-saved-from-the-landfill-university-of-illinois","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/case-studies\/a-half-million-pounds-of-furniture-saved-from-the-landfill-university-of-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher Ed: A Half-Million Pounds of Furniture Saved From the Landfill: University of Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Since 2013, the University of <\/b>Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has <\/b>kept a half-million pounds of used but usable furniture out of regional landfills.<\/b><\/h4>\n

The furniture has gone to help children and families in the U.S. and a half dozen countries overseas. <\/b><\/h4>\n

Click here for a PDF of this case study<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Every year, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign replaces thousands of pieces of furniture.\u00a0 Bedroom sets and lounge furnishings from residence halls.\u00a0 Classroom and laboratory furnishings.\u00a0 Office furniture from administrative areas.\u00a0 Plus libraries, kitchens, cafeterias, auditoriums, conference rooms.<\/p>\n

Illinois has a comprehensive Sustainability program<\/a><\/u>, the Illinois Climate Action Plan<\/a><\/u>, which is managed through the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.\u00a0 Waste reduction \u2013 specifically including reuse \u2013 is a central component of iCAP.\u00a0 To the maximum extent practicable, reusable excess furniture is either repurposed on campus or distributed to other state agencies and institutions through the Illinois Department of Central Management Services.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there is little need or demand for used residential and classroom furnishings.\u00a0 There\u2019s an additional issue with residential furnishings, in that they are replaced hundreds or thousands of pieces at a time, typically in projects on a very tight schedule.\u00a0 There\u2019s no time, space, or budget to place and distribute them through the state system, or warehouse them against some future need.\u00a0 So through the years, the vast majority of used furnishings have ultimately been discarded as scrap.<\/p>\n

A Better Way<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Illinois furnishings have been provided to communities in 5 countries and 2 U.S. states<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2013 Illinois first contacted IRN.\u00a0 Melissa Marriott in the Housing Facilities Planning Group took the lead.\u00a0 Her group established that using IRN\u2019s services is consistent with state regulations: once the determination has been made that the furnishings are scrap, with no demand elsewhere in the state system, reuse by nonprofit organizations is the preferred disposition option.<\/p>\n

In 2013 IRN found a home for 2,820 pieces of furniture from three Illinois residence halls.\u00a0 That was the first of a series of projects that continue today.\u00a0 Through the beginning of 2018, Illinois has provided nearly 5,500 pieces of usable furniture to nonprofits \u2013 more than half a million pounds, filling 33 tractor trailers.<\/p>\n

How It Works<\/h4>\n

Handling furniture for reuse is little different than handling it for disposal.\u00a0 University-hired movers dismantle the furniture as needed, and bring it out of the building.\u00a0 There, instead of filling giant metal \u201crolloff\u201d boxes to go to the landfill, they pack the furniture into tractor trailers, and the trailers drive to the charitable recipient that IRN has identified.\u00a0 Reuse takes no more time and no more labor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
June 2016. This University of Illinois bed will be delivered to a Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Indiana.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fact, reuse almost always takes less time.\u00a0 Depending on what\u2019s being loaded, each trailer that\u2019s packed for reuse holds as much furniture as three or four of those big metal boxes.\u00a0 There\u2019s that much less traffic on the\u00a0Illinois campus, less congestion around the project site, and less chance that trucks will get stuck in traffic or otherwise delayed.\u00a0 There\u2019s less crew downtime, because when one trailer is full another wheels in to take its place.\u00a0 Using rolloff boxes, in contrast, there\u2019s a 15 or 20 minute process each time a box is swapped out, and the packing crew comes to a halt every time.<\/p>\n

At the end of each project, Illinois gets a detailed report on exactly what has been loaded, and where it\u2019s gone.\u00a0 Most Illinois furnishings go to recipients for whom the alternative is to have no furniture at all, as a result of natural disaster, war, or endemic poverty.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great story, and a great reality.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Above: One of Illinois’s first projects with IRN, Forbes Hall in 2013 Right: Beds and dressers staged for shipment, Hopkins Hall, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n
Please let us know if you’d like more information or have questions about IRN and what we do.<\/h5>\n

[contact-form][contact-field label=Name type=’name’ required=’1’\/][contact-field label=Email type=’email’ required=’1’\/][contact-field label=Question\/Comment type=’textarea’ required=’1’\/][\/contact-form]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 2013, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has kept a half-million pounds of used but usable furniture out of regional landfills. The furniture has gone to help children and families in the U.S. and a half dozen countries overseas. Click here for a PDF of this case study Every year, the University of Illinois … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Higher Ed: A Half-Million Pounds of Furniture Saved From the Landfill: University of Illinois”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":311,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9492","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9492"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9790,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9492\/revisions\/9790"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}