By: Erin Fernandez, Space & Scheduling Manager, Facilities Management, The Universities at Shady Grove (USG)

The last time I drove a box truck was over a decade ago, when I moved from Georgia to DC after grad school for my first professional job. Recently I found myself asking, how hard can it be — just like riding a bike, right?

So there I was one afternoon, picking up a 15’ truck to deliver 15 wood study carrels to public schools throughout Maryland. The Priddy Library at USG had recently reconfigured its study zones after research suggested students prefer to use furniture that is mobile, allowing them the flexibility to go back and forth between independent and collaborative work. This trend is prevalent in the classroom environment as well, with modular tables that seat groupings of 3 to 6 becoming much more popular than individual desks.

Now that the library had new furniture, Facilities needed to dispose of the study carrels — a process that can be more daunting than it seems. We are required to give right of first refusal to Terrapin Trader, the University of Maryland’s surplus property operation. If TerpTrader cannot resell the items, we are able to donate to a nonprofit organization.

Furniture is often referred to as the forgotten waste stream because it’s generated less frequently than other waste. However, it is very difficult to dispose of responsibly. It’s often made of material that is challenging to recycle – a single piece may combine metal and plastic which cannot be separated. Or wood pieces may actually be made of a composite, which has lots of little pieces of wood held together with glues and other chemicals. If we can’t recycle it, where does it go? The EPA tracks the disposal of durable goods. In 2018, the last year for which data is available, Americans generated 12 million tons of furniture waste. Eighty percent went to a landfill. Office furniture is actually the primary source of furniture waste, equaling 8.5 million tons of waste per year.

Further complicating this issue at the state level, is the Climate Solutions Now Act which was passed in 2022. Importantly, the Act requires the State to establish a net-zero statewide greenhouse gas emissions goal by 2045. A study by the Furniture Industry Research Association found that the average piece of home furniture generated the same amount of greenhouse gas as burning 5.3 gallons of oil. The study also claims that a building’s interior FFE (Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment) can be responsible for the same, if not more, carbon footprint as the building structure.

When we combine our legal obligations under Climate Solutions Now with USG’s commitment to sustainability, it becomes clear that we have to take action on a number of fronts. It’s not enough to recycle paper or glass; it’s composting, recycling electronics and metals, lowering utilities, buying carbon offsets, and finding new homes for every piece of furniture that crosses our threshold.

Ultimately, we donated 18 study carrels to five nonprofit organizations around the region, including the Dominican Theological Library, Ernest Everett Just Middle School Library, Oxon Hill Elementary Library, and the Spring Grove Hospital Center Patient Library.

We all have to do our part to reduce our impact on the environment.  My contribution was spending a day delivering furniture to communities in need. It wasn’t quite as easy as riding a bike, but it still made a big difference.