Annually millions of pieces of furniture are disposed of mainly for incineration and for landfilling. It is quite impossible to obtain detailed figures for bulky waste. However based on the quantities sold every year in the EU and on the replacement rates for the different categories of furniture it can be extrapolated that 12 million wardrobes, 3 million fitted kitchens, 21 million chairs, 7.2 million tables are no longer used and are discarded.

Materials are mainly wooden boards combined with paper or plastic foils, wood, metal, plastic, glass. Very few quantities of these materials are recycled given their limited quotation. However, wood waste is used, as well as glass and metal.

In remote areas or in regions where citizens have to pay to get rid of their bulky waste, some of old furniture is illegally incinerated or landfilled.

Based on the enquiry and calculations, it is estimated that one out of seven EU households annually purchases upholstery. Almost 12 million sets of upholstery are annually purchased of which 80% are replacement purchases. That means that almost the same number of the replaced sets (8 million) is potential waste. One third out of the replaced suites are re-used (for the second or third time).

A simple calculation based on the average weight of a set of upholstery (+/-130 kg) shows that on average an EU inhabitant annually creates 3.2 kg of waste consisting of old upholstery (or 1,176,000 tonnes/year).

In general, upholstery consists of wood structures (57% of weight and 20% of volume), PU foams (15% and 70%), cover materials (13% and 6%) cardboards (10% and 3%) and metal (5% and 1%).

Cover materials include both textile (95,000 tonnes) and leather (55,000 tonnes).

The problem of fire retardants and their chemical compounds should be solved.

Annually, 28.75 million mattresses are sold on the EU market. The market is composed of private households, administrations and companies (hotels, …). More than 75% of purchases aim at replacing existing mattresses, the rest are new purchases (new households, new businesses, …).

Some 18.4 million mattresses are annually disposed of in the EU (431,840 tonnes).

This means about 125,000 tonnes of PU foams, 56,000 tonnes of latex, 100,000 tonnes of metal (from springs) and 80 million mē of textile (110,000 tonnes) are discarded.

Very few mattresses are re-used outside familiar circles and almost all mattresses are discarded. The collection of not re-used mattresses (bulky waste - encombrants) is made with other old furniture, refrigerators, carpets, …, by public administration or private companies paid by the public administrations.

The discarded mattresses are either incinerated or dumped on landfills (the percentage depends on the country). An important remark is that due to the size of the product some, some incinerators refuse to incinerate mattresses.

However, more and more new incinerators accept to incinerate with even recovering heat for combustion. For instance energy generated by a kilo of PU foam can be quantified at 24,000 kJ.

The basic structure of most office furniture has a long life span. Instead of wearing out, it is often replaced because it has simply "uglied out." Colour, fabric and other elements typically become worn or outdated over time.

In the past, an office face-lift or a new colour scheme meant old furnishings were given a life sentence in storage or doomed to the dumpster.

Currently in Europe, average lifetime of a piece of office furniture ranges from 5 to 10 years. A company replaces in general its furniture every 12 years. Reasons to change are various: Move, relocation, wear, computers and screens, …

Annually, the office furniture sector sells almost 20 million seats, 13 million cabinets and 11 million desks and tables.

70% are replacement purchases and almost 70% of replaced old furniture are re-used as second-hand products either in the EU or in Eastern Europe and in Africa. The second-hand office furniture market is estimated at between 600 and 900 million Euro in the EU.