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28th January 2021

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FIRA dramatically reduces its carbon footprint by working with Recycling Furniture

Through the help of Recycling Furniture, The Furniture Industry Research Association is now able to recycle a large proportion of the furniture it tests, rather than sending it to landfill.

"At the FIRA testing centre we test thousands of furniture products to life expectancy and in some cases destruction, testing them in terms of strength, safety, stability, durability and flammability," explains Paul Soley, Operations Manager for FIRA Testing Services. "This makes them dangerous for future use, meaning in the past FIRA had no choice but to dispose of them if they were not collected by the manufacturer."

FIRA is acknowledged globally as a leading authority on furniture and flammability testing, offering testing of furniture, materials and component to British, European and International Standards. Since 1949, FIRA has developed many of the test methods which form the basis of furniture standards and regulations, such as BS 4875 (structural testing of domestic seating), BS 6222 (testing of domestic and contract kitchens) and BS EN 14073 (office storage furniture safety testing).

Since FIRA began working with Recycling Furniture last summer it has recycled over 400 pieces of furniture, totalling 16,218kg. This has resulted in a saving a staggering 21,855kg of carbon.

"Sending furniture to landfill creates a huge problem for everyone involved," admits Paul. "Not only does this harm the environment, but it's also a massive waste of natural resources. Now FIRA is not only disposing of the tested products in a more convenient way, with Recycling Furniture regularly collecting the products from us, we are also disposing of the products more responsibly."

Recycling Furniture can recycle 98% of any item of furniture that it collects from FIRA, breaking down the products into each of its different components for recycling. Furniture is notoriously difficult to dispose of, especially products such as office chairs which contain many different elements and can be difficult to disassemble.

www.fira.co.uk / www.recyclingfurniture.co.uk

3rd February 2012