Wood is the largest material category in furniture, with ferrous and non-ferrous metals second. Foams, plastics, glass and other materials are also found in furniture.

Globally, between 8 and 10 million tonnes of furniture are disposed of every year in the EU countries.

This represents around 35 % of EU municipal bulky waste (from households) and 4 to 5% of the municipal solid waste (including door-to-door collection of waste and "reusable materials", i.e. bulky waste, yard trimmings, inert waste, metal, glasses, paper and cardboard, oils, plastics, textile, …).

The sources of wood in MSW include furniture, miscellaneous durable goods (e.g., cabinets for electronic equipment), wood packaging (crates, pallets), windows and materials for construction and some other miscellaneous products.

In the EU, annual wood waste accounts for about 35 million tonnes (mainly from construction and windows but also from packaging, furniture, …).

It is very difficult to estimate the quantity of wood waste coming from old furniture but it is very limited (5-7 million tonnes or less than 20% of total wood waste). If wooden elements for construction are excluded, wood for furniture represents 80% of wood waste.

Part of this volume (80-90%) is incinerated or dumped in landfills.

Only 10% of this material can be considered as used for recycling in wood transforming industries.

By weight, ferrous metals are the largest category of metals in MSW. The largest quantities of ferrous metals in MSW are found in durable goods such as appliances, furniture, tires, and other miscellaneous durables. Containers and packaging are the other source of ferrous metals in MSW.

Metal is widely used in the furniture industry both as metallic parts (legs, doors, panels, components, …) and as hardware (hinge systems, fittings, fixtures, rails, knobs, locks, mounting hinges, trimmings, movement mechanisms, screws, …).

It is difficult to quantify the metal disposed of with furniture but it is certainly a marginal quantity of all metal potentially recyclable.

Conservative estimates give a total amount of disposal of around 1 million tonne (all types of metals). Another important issue related to metal is the fact that the sorting of metal and wood is quite difficult in some types of furniture.

Glass is found in MSW primarily in the form of containers but also in durable goods like furniture, appliances, and consumer electronics. Glass found in furniture is used as windows, as shelves, as mirrors and as tops for tables.

Based on consumption patters, it can be assumed that almost 300,000 tonnes of flat glass waste comes from discarded furniture. This (0.3 million tonnes) can be considered as a marginal part in the generation of glass waste (less than 3%).

Plastics are a rapidly growing segment of MSW. Plastics are found in durable and nondurable goods and in containers and packaging. In durable goods, plastics are found in appliances, furniture, casings of lead-acid batteries, and other products. A wide range of resin types is found in durable goods. There are hundreds of different resin formulations used in appliances, furniture, carpets and other durable goods.

Plastics include both plastics materials used as components, shelves, solid materials (for example for garden furniture) but also materials used for comfort in furniture (PU and polyester foams).

It is very difficult to specify the quantities of plastic waste in total but waste including foams represents more than 200,000 tonnes (0.2 million tonnes).

The predominant source of rubber in MSW is rubber tires from automobiles and trucks. Other sources of rubber and leather include clothing and footwear and other miscellaneous durable and nondurable products. These other sources are quite diverse, including such items as gaskets on appliances, furniture (upholstery and mattresses) and hot water bottles.

Textiles in MSW are found mainly in discarded clothing, although other sources are identified to be furniture, carpets, tires, footwear, and other nondurable goods such as sheets and towels.

Based on EU consumption patterns, it is reasonable to quantify textile waste from furniture at around 200,000 tonnes (less than 4% of total textile waste).

This category includes various types of materials ranging from rattan (based on consumption figures, it is assumed that 0.5% of furniture waste is made from rattan) to card boards (in low end furniture and in upholstery.

Wires can also be found in furniture as well as lighting systems.