Can You Throw Away An Office Chair? [Proper Disposal Instructions]

Office chairs are among the most common furniture items in an office setting. Most of these office chairs are used for a long time until they become unusable or a better replacement is found.

You can get professional help to get rid of the chair by calling your local waste management department. Depending on the type of material your chair is made of, you can throw it in with regular trash.

Office chairs take space, and keeping an unnecessary item in a work setting is discouraged. There is more than one way to get rid of office chairs. Let’s see what our options are and which one is best for you to dispose of your old office chair.

Don’t Throw It Away; Sell It

Before you decide to throw away your old office chair, you need to give it a good look. What is the condition actually like? Is it just old or not usable? Check the gears and wheels. Are they working fine?

In many cases, these office chairs are still usable, and the look is not that bad. If that is your case, then you might consider selling your old office chairs. This will save you the hassle of going through the disposal process and earn you some cash in return.

There is more than one way to sell an old office chair. You can sell it at a garage sale or something similar if you have the time. Or you can just go online.

Take a picture of your old office chair, upload the details to a trusted re-selling website, and ask for a reasonable price. When you find an interested customer, negotiate the details and sell it to him.

Consider Donating Your Old Chair

It is always a good idea to donate your old office chairs to someone in need who cannot afford to buy them or simply use them. Let’s look at the pros and cons.

The cons are that you will have to carry the old chairs to somewhere where you can donate them. Such as a donating center. Finding a donation center is a task in itself. Then, when you find one, chances are they do not offer pick-up services.

Now, if the donating center is too far from your business office or from your home, which means extra transportation costs. Not to mention, if the number of chairs is large, then your business might not have or might not allow sufficient resources to transfer the old chairs to the donation centers.

Here is a tip: as finding donation centers with pickup service is hard, your goal should be to minimize your own cost of transportation. Search for shipping companies that provide shipping to your donation center.

These shipping companies will get your donated office chairs to the donation facility in a short time. The cost the shipping company will take is usually much less than what it would take if you were to deliver them yourself. It will also save you time.

On the other hand, you will free up your space by getting rid of the chairs, and you will be helping someone. Many people for their personal use and startups for their office, would love to receive these donations of office chairs and other furniture.

Recycling Your Old Chair

If your old chair is in a condition where it cannot be sold or be donated, In that case, you can recycle the chair.

Chairs are made of different materials such as wood, metal, leather sheets, plastic, etc. You can recycle these items, which is also an eco-friendly option.

To recycle your old chair, you should take it to the nearest recycle bin. If your area has a community recycling facility, then you can take it there also.

Recycling saves these materials from being wasted. It is also very helpful for the environment as a whole.

Repurpose Your Chair

Your trash chair can become your treasure with a touch of creativity. There are many ways to repurpose a chair.

Consider making your old chair into a cat bed if you have a cat. You can simply open up the wheels of the chair and remove the armrests. Then leave the rest of the chair in a corner for your cat.

The lower part can also be used in many ways. You can take the wheels off of the main body and use them as separate wheels for other furniture. For example, these wheels can be attached to a trunk or a shelf to make easily movable furniture for storage.

Repurposing has other benefits than just saving the hassle of disposal. It gives you a new item to incorporate into your home. This will save you money by filling up your needs for other things that you might have had to buy otherwise.

Ways To Get Rid Of Your Old Office Chairs

If you want to get rid of the chair at all costs, here is what to do:

1. Hiring Professionals

You can hire professional help to remove your furniture. There are waste management departments that take away large amounts of junk. Whether they would or not is usually given on their website. You can also try your local scrapyard.

If you want more information, then look for a contact number on the website and call them to check if they accept large junk or not. You can also get appointments for special pickups.

Even just leaving your furniture out in the open will not attract the attention of the waste management employees. For bulk pickups, they normally charge a reasonable amount. The amount will differ depending on the amount of furniture and the location of the pickup.

Sure, you have to pay to get rid of your junk in this way, but there are other benefits to it. The first is that you will not have to carry your chairs or other furniture for long distances. Professionals will do the heavy lifting for you.

Secondly, this ensures that the chair will be disposed of properly. Thus, the risk of creating further issues is reduced dramatically. This is good for you and the environment.

2. Carry Your Chair To The Local Scrapyard.

The main problem with large junks is usually transportation. That is why, if you do not hire people to pick up your furniture waste, such as chairs, they will most likely ignore them. What you can do is carry it to the scrapyard on your own.

But the difficulty is that office chairs are not exactly made to be transported by regular cars. If it’s only a chair or two, then you can open them up from the base and make them smaller.

Another idea is to raise it to the roof and tie it up there. This will not look beautiful, but with a few tight knots and careful driving, it will get the job done.

Can I Leave Furniture On The Curb?

Unless you have a scheduled hauler appointment to pick up your furniture from the curb, do not leave it there. The reason is that it is illegal to leave furniture on the curb, and you will be punished if you do so.

There are other negative consequences for leaving your furniture on the curb. Firstly, it ruins the environment of the curb. People are supposed to walk on the sidewalks, and that is why they need to be clean.

Keeping furniture on the curb litters the surrounding environment. This also promotes and encourages other people to keep their old furniture on the curb. And the next thing you know, the whole place is a mess.

Leaving furniture on the curb causes safety hazards for other people. Not only for pedestrians but also for drivers and cyclists. Some of this furniture is infested with vermin.

These vermin and other bacteria living in this furniture come out and can cause physical harm to the people around them. That is another reason not to leave your old furniture on the curb.

However, if you have contacted your local licensed hauler to move your furniture, you can keep it on the curb only temporarily. It should be enough for the hauler to get the job done easily, but not long enough to cause trouble for others.

Can I Throw An Office Chair In A Dumpster?

This depends on what your chair is made of. Metal is what makes the difference here. Large metal items should not be thrown into the trash, and thus, office chairs made entirely of metal should not be thrown away into a dumpster.

If your chair is mostly or fully wood, then you can leave your office chair in a dumpster. Wood does not pose any hazard and is allowed to be disposed of in dumpsters.

There is another catch to this. You cannot put large pieces of furniture in a dumpster. This means that, if your chair is quite big, you have to look for other ways to dispose of it. Do not leave your chair by the dumpster.

How Do I Get Rid Of A Gaming Chair?

Gaming chairs are large and contain a lot of plastic, metal, and other items. If you are no longer in need of your old gaming chair, then you should first consider selling or donating your gaming chair.

You should not put it out on the street. You should drop it off at the nearest scrap yard or recycle center. There might be a necessity for carrying your gaming chair.

In that case, you can open up the base and the top part of the chair. This will make it easier to carry from point A to point B. Do not try to break the metal or the seat of the chair.

You could hurt yourself while you are trying to forcefully break your gaming chair into small pieces. You should also not burn the chair.

There is plastic, leather, and other materials in gaming chairs that create carbon dioxide when they are burned, which harms the environment. If you can find repurposing ideas for your chair, go for it.

Calling out for professional help can be a great solution as well. You can talk to the people responsible for waste management about picking up the chair and disposing of it for you at a reasonable price.

Final Words

Office chairs can help others if you donate them in reasonable condition. You can also earn a few extra bucks by selling them. You can choose to recycle them, which is more environmentally friendly.

I recommend you select one of these three if possible because they provide proper disposal and benefit people in the long run.

By repurposing the chairs, you can create beautiful things. If you have to throw them out, then do it adequately as mentioned above.