After 20 years in the construction industry fitting out corporate offices, Gordon Bateup was sick of seeing perfectly usable office furniture being sent to landfill, simply because it was out of style, or an office block was being demolished.
So he decided to come up with a solution.
"Essentially it is diverting unwanted furniture from demolition projects and de-fits and connecting it to not-for-profits, charities and community groups who need to fit out an office and don't have the budget," he told Tom Baddeley on ABC Radio Perth.
"And it's as simple as that.
In less than two years, more than 123,500 kilograms of commercial furniture has been saved from landfill in Western Australia through Mr Bateup's project GreenChair.
About 14,900 items of furniture have gone to 200 WA-based not-for-profit organisations, charities, and community groups in desperate need of office furniture.
"A building owner rang me and said 'Look, I've got 8,000 square metres of carpet in our basement – the carpet is being changed in our building and some of it is new, in boxes still' and we got rid of the lot.
"We couldn't believe it, we still had phone calls coming in afterwards wanting the carpet because it works on a first come first serve basis."
Time management key to success
The WA Government does not currently have a specific program in place to recycle used office furniture, and there is no requirement to record quantities of individual waste products like office furniture disposed of to landfill.
According to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation about 1.7 million tonnes of commercial and industrial waste was generated in Western Australia from 2019-2020.
Of this, 732,000 tonnes was recycled, and 886,000 tonnes was sent to landfill.
Mr Bateup, who was named the 2022 Waste Champion at the industry's WasteSorted Awards, said the success of the GreenChair program was in the timing.
"We don't store this furniture in a warehouse," he said.
"The trick of the model is working with the industry -- we've negotiated with owners and building managers and builders — and we work it in just in time, because it's coming out of the building anyway.
"It's a really efficient process in that sense."
From 'dark and grimy' to bright and welcoming
Homeless Healthcare's after-hours support centre in Perth was furnished by the GreenChair program which transformed their old premises into a homely, warm space for people in need.
Homeless Healthcare director of residential services Zoe Thebaud said the building had previously been a backpackers hostel and was full of broken and mismatched furniture.
"It had a very dark, grimy and grim feel about it and was full of horrible furniture that probably had been that way in the backpackers for about 20 years," she said.
"After we cleaned it out we had a big empty space that we wanted to welcome people into but didn't have a furniture budget, and had bits and pieces that were donated to us."
"Through GreenChair, we actually received quite a lot of donations of practical, and also beautiful, pieces of furniture that really made this place the therapeutic setting that it is.
"So instead of it being kind of a cold, sterile environment with lots of mismatched bits of furniture, we actually had beautiful pieces, some lovely artwork and consistent furniture.
Not-for-profit group Plastic Free Foundation's Fremantle office was also furnished through GreenChair.
Founder Rebecca Prince-Ruiz said when they started the organisation they were "camping" in their office.
"Like all charities, funding is tight and we always try to make the most of any funding to work towards our vision of helping end plastic waste.
"Having our furniture donated by GreenChair allowed us to do this while fitting in with our values for a circular economy."
Company working towards national office waste solution
According to research by private sustainability advisory firm Edge Environment, Perth offices generated about 3003 tonnes of office furniture waste in 2021 with an estimated 90 per cent by weight being sent straight to landfill.
The company is spearheading a project called 'Fit for Office', an industry-led response designed to tackle the office waste that from an end of lease strip out process.
"We will seek to engage stakeholders across the entire commercial furniture ecosystem, including organisations like GreenChair, to co-develop an industry-backed product stewardship scheme to address this complex challenge."
