I wonder, what would an appropriate amount of office furniture waste be? Sometimes irreparable damage of some sort happens, say flooding, mold, etc. 10 million tons of office furniture a year sounds high and gets even worse when you look at it in detail. Doing a straight up division by population times percentage of white collar comes out to ~100 pounds per year per person. That is certainly more than say "replace the office chairs every five years along with the printer" type sources of turnover.
The pandemic and its aftermath may be to blame for some of it being that alarmingly high. Other times and places would help shed more insight to know what the prior norms were for office work.
The pandemic and its aftermath may be to blame for some of it being that alarmingly high. Other times and places would help shed more insight to know what the prior norms were for office work.