Herman Miller, renowned for its exceptional office furniture designs, has achieved such prestige that its Aeron chair has been included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. However, despite its esteemed reputation, some Herman Miller chairs, valued at over $1,000 each, have met an undignified fate as they were crushed by excavators.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in only half of the office space in the New York City metro area being occupied in June, according to Kastle Systems. This phenomenon has not only raised economic and cultural questions but has also presented a logistical challenge of what to do with the surplus office furniture.
Typically, much of the office furniture ends up in auctions, liquidation sales, or landfills. However, some of it finds new purposes in schools, churches, or the homes of movers. Additionally, there are resellers who repurpose and ship the furniture globally.
Savills reports that over 70 million square feet of office space was available for lease in Manhattan in the second quarter of 2023, a record high compared to pre-pandemic levels. Consequently, a select group of movers and liquidators have emerged to cater to the growing demand for repurposing office furniture. For example, Dumbo Moving and Storage has seen a surge in businesses utilizing their storage facilities since the onset of the pandemic.
The shift in the market has also led to an increase in delinquent storage payments, resulting in more frequent auctions and the donation of unclaimed items to local charities. However, due to the limited warehouse space available, a significant portion of inventory still ends up discarded.
At a Dumbo warehouse in East Orange, N.J., workers were preparing to dispose of a 9,500-pound office lot that had been in storage since April 2021. The discarded items included 25 Herman Miller chairs, 20 computer monitor stands, 10 cubicle panels, nine boxes of carpet, and two flat-screen TVs. The wastage in the industry is astonishing, according to David Esterlit, the owner of OHR Home Office Solutions.
The crew transported the furniture to a waste transfer station in Queens, where excavators crushed the debris. Despite efforts to reuse and repurpose office equipment, a significant portion still ends up in landfills. Green Standards, a sustainability consulting company, estimates that over 10 million tons of office furniture are discarded annually in the United States.
Since the start of the pandemic, Green Standards has diverted nearly 39,000 tons of office waste from landfills. However, the Brooklyn office equipment in question was not as fortunate. The excavator demolished the chairs, reducing them to a mound of plastic bits.
This poignant image serves as a reminder of the wastefulness prevalent in the industry. The final chair, caught momentarily by the wind, performed one last spin before meeting its demise. The destruction of perfectly usable furniture highlights the urgent need for sustainable practices in the handling of office equipment.
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