Recycle Old Furniture

[This article was originally published in June 2010 and has been expanded and updated.]

There comes a time in every household when old pieces of furniture need to be disposed of. And furniture removal ain't easy!

Maybe the kids have gone off to college and you've decided to buy some more upscale furniture. But how do you get rid of the old pieces?

Should It Stay or Should It Go Now?

No matter how large of a house you live in, almost everyone has a limit to how much furniture they can keep around. And if you've upgraded from your old, not-so-nice-anymore pieces of furniture, you probably don't want them around anyway.

It could be that your older furniture is still in good condition but has gone past it's "in fashion" date. 

Or perhaps the grandkids and your new puppy have been hard at work on your old couches and coffee tables. And now new replacements are in order.

Regardless of the reasons, replacing furniture usually means getting rid of the old stuff. And if you're the eco-conscious consumer that you'd like to think you are, the question you're asking yourself is, "Can getting rid of my old furniture be done in an eco-friendly way?"

And, if you've tried moving old furniture by yourself recently, a natural follow-up question would be, "How can I get someone else to do all the heavy lifting?"

Disposing of Old Furniture Isn't Just Throwing Them to the Curb

We've all seen it. 

The old sofa sitting on a sidewalk or on the dirt shoulder of a backroad. Or maybe it's the sad and badly worn recliner plopped out in a vacant lot with a sign on it that reads, "FREE."

While this might seem like a quick and easy way to dispose of those old furniture pieces you no longer want, it's most definitely NOT the way to do that. 

For one, it's illegal in almost every state and, two, it's just not cool. 

On the other hand, if your old but unwanted furniture is still in good and usable condition, you have other disposal options ranging from selling it to gifting it to family or friends to donating it to a local non-profit. 

And, if your old furniture items are beyond "gently used" and in no shape to be sold nor donated, there's still a far better option than illegal dumping or even hauling them to the local landfill. 

There is a genuinely green and eco-friendly option for old furniture.

Old Furniture Recycling: Doing Good by Being Green

Making the decision to recycle your old furniture is a big one, because it can end up impacting the environment around us.

That's because, without recycling, most all of it ends up filling landfills.

As one source points out,

According to the EPA, furniture waste [f-waste] generated by Americans in 2017 totaled a staggering 12.2 million tons, and 80.2% of it went to landfill. The agency also found that only 0.3% of the f-waste that was sent to landfill was recovered for recycling.

Here are a few more reasons why recycling old furniture is eco-friendly:

• Recycling old furniture prevents the need for new material to be created and harvested from forests - your old furniture will end up getting scrapped and reused instead.
• Recycling old furniture prevents all of the parts of your couches, chairs, tables and beds from ending up in a landfill. If materials like cotton, wood and foam end up in a landfill they can decompose and release harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.
• Recycling old furniture will end up saving precious energy – the amount of power necessary to recycle your old furniture is less than what it takes to build something from scratch.

So how do actually go about recycling your furniture? Here are a few ways:

• Break the furniture apart yourself and reuse parts for other projects around the house. The wood from a table could be re-purposed for a building a new cupboard, and the upholstery from a couch could be used for designing new drapes.
• Break the furniture apart yourself and drop it off at the proper recycling centers. There are recycling centers around the country that accept various materials to be reused. Just make sure you find the right center for the right materials.
• Call in some furniture removal specialists who offer a recycling program. Junk King, the best in old furniture removal and pick up, also makes sure that old furniture end up where it can be reused responsibly.

In fact, while we might be a bit biased in our recommendation, we are proud to be the Number One rated service provider in our industry. And we can think of no one better suited for taking care of all your furniture removal and recycling needs. 

Junk King for Your Old Furniture Recycling Needs

No one should have to load their own pieces of old furniture onto the back of truck and haul and unload them on their own. 

In fact, some old furniture pieces are so large, bulky, and heavy that they can be a  safety hazard for many people if they try to pick them up.

The good news is that Junk King specializes in old furniture removal.

Regardless of how many, how large, or if they're in your home or your place of work, the Junk King team is the preferred solution for furniture removal and furniture recycling 

At Junk King, we specialize in practicing green and eco-friendly junk disposal, too!

In fact, it is at the heart of our company's mission to recycle as much of everything we pick up on every job. And we successfully recycle as much as 60 percent of the junk we bring into our sorting facilities. 

Junk King provides an efficient, safe and eco-friendly furniture and junk removal service so you don’t need to worry about the pick up or disposal of your junk at home or at work.

So, you want to get rid of your old furniture the green way?

Just call Junk King at 1-888-888-JUNK (5865) or book an appointment online.