Furniture waste: the numbers

Unfortunately we have to use overseas statistics because in New Zealand we are not monitoring our furniture waste.

We would like to acknowledge  www.handcrafted.com and www.VINTERIOR.com for the following information.

“There is a substantial issue with the disposal of used furniture at the kerbside, and it is a growing problem,” confirms Kevin Morgan, Managing Director of EC Sustainable, a consultancy that for almost 20 years has been surveying the types of materials disposed of in council clean-up collections.

Based on a compositional survey of more than 2,500 households in metropolitan areas, on average each household disposes of around 24kg of wooden furniture per year. Approximately a third of this are soft furnishings like sofas and armchairs, and two-thirds other wooden furniture.

“If you think of a population of 2 million households in the Greater Sydney Region, this could add up to 48,000 tonnes of used furniture per year disposed at the kerbside,” Kevin says.

To put that into furniture terms – and figuring in average furniture weights – that’s the equivalent of 800,000 three-seater sofas, 1.65 million dining tables, 3.4 million coffee tables or 6.85 million chairs, thrown away every year.

These numbers are for Sydney only and don’t include other furniture delivered directly to tips by households and businesses or illegal dumping. And the problem is getting worse.

A question of quality

While our disposable culture is undoubtedly an underlying cause, Kevin claims that the poor quality of modern furniture is also a major factor. “Much new furniture is generally useless after a few years, particularly the mass-market cheaper end.”

He points out that many of these products are made with veneers and engineered wood that can’t be sanded back or retreated – and they quickly swell and rot if exposed to moisture. On top of that, modern fittings are usually made of plastic rather than metal and are therefore less robust. And when a knob or bracket does break, replacements are often hard to find. Prices are so low, many people just opt to fling it and re-furnish.

If you think New Zealand is different look at the kerb rubbish as you drive around the streets.