How to best dispose of furniture packaging
Whether it’s a new bedroom suite or just a small lamp table, there’s one thing all new furniture has in common: it’s got to come in some form of packaging!
Depending on the size and style of packaging however, this can be a much larger issue than you might realize. Furniture can be quite large and if it came in a cardboard box, then there’s a slim chance it’s going to fit in a standard sized recycling bin.
As such, this blog post will cover how to best dispose of your furniture packaging while also trying to minimize your impact on the environment.
Recycle the cardboard
Let’s get the simplest solution out the door first: if the box is small enough to, put it in your recycling bin to be dealt with appropriately. For boxes a bit to large to conveniently fit in the bin, we’d recommend flattening the box but cutting the bottom and folding appropriately.
For larger boxes that won’t fit into a recycling bin normally, we’d recommend breaking them down into small and thin enough sheets so they can. For those particularly tough cardboard boxes, we’d recommend using a box cutter knife alongside the appropriate pre-cautions such as wearing protective gloves and cutting away from the body.
It’s also worth remembering to remove any additional stickers and labels on the packaging such as tracking notes or RFID stickers. Not only does this allow the cardboard to more easily be recycled, but in the case of tracking labels, prevents personal information like your name and delivery details being found by those with malicious intent. The chance of the latter may be miniscule but it’s still another way to help reduce the spread of your personal information throughout the world.
Reuse the packaging material
Unfortunately, not all materials used in packaging are easily recyclable but that doesn’t mean they can’t easily be reused! A lot of the polystyrene wrap can make great filler for smaller packages that need to be buffed up for safe transport.
While we’re not saying you need to use it for your lunches, the cling wrap most furniture is wrapped with can help seal and tighten any smaller parcels. Just ensure to keep it in one piece when unwrapping your chosen piece of furniture.
Depending on the size, even the cardboard box can be incredibly useful for a variety of purposes. Whether it’s hosting a variety of items in the garage with a permanent marker label, or broken down as a backing board for a child’s presentation, cardboard can get a lot of use before it’s eventually recycled.
Offer it back to the company!
Depending on the company you purchased your furniture from, they might actually love to have the packaging to your newly purchased bedroom suite! From cardboard to boxes to the polystyrene wrap, any packing material return can be worth its weight in gold to a furniture company as they can reuse it to help ship off any future products.
Cardboard in particular can also be useful for any store that frequently sells store units, as it can help provide a protective surface for any customer that chooses to pick up said item. So many stores love to have a variety of cardboard sheets at the ready for when the occasion arises.
Even if the original company isn’t interested in having the packing material back, it’s still worth offering it to other companies that may use a large amount of packing materials for any purpose. Because while it may be easy to sell an item, it can be hard to send said item off if you’ve got nothing to pack it with!
Pallet Problems
Often times when you order particularly large pieces of furniture, it’s going to arrive on a shipping pallet for easy and safe movement from the truck to your door. In a majority of cases the delivery driver should take back the pallet, but on the slim chance they don’t then here’s some alternative options to consider to get rid of the pallet.
Firstly, check around your local area for any places that take in scrap wood and give them a call! Most councils are also willing to take in any scrap wood so it also always pays to look on your councils website to see if they’ll take it.
However, a wood pallet can also make for an excellent starting platform for a variety of DIY projects. This article from Houzz covers the many variety of ways you can re-use a wooden pallet in your home, meaning you could get two pieces of furniture for the price of one!
Conclusion
Hopefully by the end of this article, you should have cleared any clutter from your latest purchase and are now enjoying your latest addition to your home. Also by following this article, this should be a moment of guilt-free clarity as you’ve successfully removed all your packaging either through recycling or re-using it in some variety!
Unfortunately, 8 million tons of plastic waste are dumped in the ocean every year, many of which does come from packaging. As such, ensuring we recycle and re-use what we can from our packaging can help minimize our impact on the earth.
FAQ
I would like to purchase some furniture now that I know how to best dispose of it, where should I shop?
If you’d like to purchase some quality furniture to show off your furniture packaging disposal skills, then our selection at Mainland Furniture should have you sorted! We have a variety of furniture for every room in the home, with a majority arriving fully assembled so you can easily unboxing and enjoying your unit before needing to dispose of the packaging!
Should I be concerned of the environmental impact from my furniture?
Absolutely! While the act of purchasing furniture doesn’t inherently damage the environment, purchasing low quality furniture that doesn’t stand the test of time does contribute to the exacerbation of our rapidly filling landfills.
We’ve already made a blog post about this “fast furniture” but in a quick paragraph summary: avoid furniture made mainly using MDF, as due to how it’s made, it quickly degrades over time and is impossible to repair. Instead, try to find furniture using durable materials such as natural wood and featuring build quality features such as tongue and groove panelling and dovetail joining.
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