CSUMB reduces waste and saves money on eight tons of furniture

By Marielle Argueza

Furniture may not be the first thing that comes to people's minds when thinking about the university's sustainability mission. More likely, they might consider the project to plant over 2,000 trees and efforts to single-use plastics. But furniture does fall under the last part of the mission: waste diversion. 

Stacey Hadland, CSUMB's space and facilities utilization specialist, thinks a lot about desks, chairs, bookcases, and the lot — specifically, how to reuse them.

Hadland says that waste diversion doesn't simply mean moving recyclables and trash outside of campus into waste facilities. Much of it can be reused on campus. 

In 2022, Hadland and her team saved 15,300 pounds — or almost eight tons — of furniture from the landfill, according to data she recorded. That would-be waste consisted of 134 chairs, 25 desks, 15 bookcases, 11 file cabinets, 10 tack or whiteboards, a handful of lounge chairs, sofas, and other campus staples, and 17 miscellaneous parts. 

Hadland said the process starts when departments decide they don't need a particular piece of furniture due to shifting class sizes or rearranging an office, among other reasons. Before a piece is removed, it gets inspected. Hadland's team decides if it should be reused, salvaged for parts, stored for later use, or donated. 

"We do a complete assessment to decide which path to take," she said. 

This system has allowed Hadland and her team to take the trickiest and most unsustainable pieces of potential waste and give them another life. This helps the university's sustainability mission, but it helps in other ways too. 

"One being the obvious financial savings," said Hadland, who estimates that replacing last year's salvaged furniture with new furniture might have cost $90,000.

That money can now be reinvested back into areas that support student success and campus experiences, creating a win-win-win situation. 

Lacey Raak is the sustainability director in the Office of Inclusive Excellence and Sustainability.

"Stacey is doing an amazing job in big ways, with the furniture, and in small ways with collecting general office supplies that are also being redistributed," Raak said. "Reuse is one of the most sustainable ways to achieve our zero waste goals."