Unwanted Furniture Finds New Homes

What can turn one community's garbage into another one's treasure? An effort called giveasit.com, which encourages libraries, schools, and other institutions to recycle their old furniture by giving it away to similar organizations in need. Mary MacMahon, a sales representative for Palmieri Furniture, Richmond Hill, ON, but located in Connecticut, developed the idea when she came across schools and libraries in affluent areas in her territory that were throwing their furniture away.

“What are you doing with your furniture?” MacMahon would ask clients who were upgrading to something newer and greener. They had no satisfactory answer, often responding that taking apart furniture—separating wood from metal—for recycling was too much of an effort. They didn't want to see it wasted, but when they offered furniture to townspeople, it ended up being thrown away. MacMahon then realized she could help match such organizations with those in poorer communities that couldn't afford anything new.

At first, said MacMahon, donors thought the idea was too good to be true—a scam. Now, they're happy to donate whatever they no longer need. Organizations in affluent communities like Suffield were quite happy to give their furniture away to schools in Hartford. She's “placed” furniture from public libraries, a high school, and an architectural firm, for example, in an entire diocese of parochial schools, a start-up culinary school, and urban schools in desperate need of the most basic furniture.

For now, the service is free; donors are only responsible for moving the pieces. Eventually, said MacMahon, she'll have to charge a fee—the same amount as disposal costs—to cover the web site development (giveasit.com aims to maintain an inventory list, connect people, and accept donations). Currently, MacMahon keeps a running count of all those organizations she comes across that are in need, eventually matching them up with the right donor.