Office Waste
Millions of office assets sent to landfill
Each year in the UK, an estimated 1.2 million office desks and 1.8 million office chairs are sent to landfill—enough to fill Wembley Stadium twice over. That adds up to over 75,000 tonnes of furniture waste annually, while approximately 300 tonnes per working day are disposed of in this way across the country.
86% of UK desks and chairs end up in landfill
According to environmental action NGO "WRAP", only about 14% of office desks and chairs reaching end‑of‑life are reused or recycled in the UK, meaning 86%—the vast majority—simply go to landfill. In practical terms, that implies around 200,000 desks (roughly 5,000 tonnes) and 295,000 chairs (approximately 3,500 tonnes) are reused each year, with the rest being lost as waste.
USA 8.5 million tons annually
Each year in the United States, the EPA estimates that around 8.5 million tons—equivalent to 17 billion pounds—of office furniture ends up in municipal landfills . Most sources indicate that roughly 80% of discarded office furnishings—desks, chairs, cubicles, filing cabinets—are never recovered for reuse or recycling.