Herman Miller Chairs Are Fast Rolling To NYC Landfills In Aftermath Of Pandemic

Photo 18665537 © Jesse Kunerth | Dreamstime.com

Herman Miller chairs are to the corporate world what the iPhone is to smartphone owners. Unfortunately, one office’s treasure is also its own trash. With spaces in New York City left vacant, many of these prized items—which would set you back above US$1,400—are being tossed out.

It doesn’t matter if the brand’s famous Aeron chair is a resident of the Museum of Modern Art. With only half of the offices in the city being occupied three years after the pandemic, there leave few people at work to admire it, let alone sit on it.

According to the New York Times, in the second quarter of 2023, Manhattan hit a record-high in direct, available-for-lease working space. More than 70 million square feet of real estate awaits new occupants, nearly double the 40 million square feet of available office space from before the COVID-19 outbreak, says the report, quoting numbers from property brokerage Savills.

Sustainability consultancy Green Standards tells the outlet that, as of the most recent statistics on waste from 2018, more than 10 million tons of office furniture are believed to turn up in a landfill each year. This is despite continuous efforts to reuse and recycle the items (Green Standards itself has prevented nearly 39,000 tons from going to waste since the start of the pandemic).

Photo 39848991 © Dhyde1 | Dreamstime.com

“[We have] never seen so many Herman Miller chairs,” shares Lior Rachmany, the chief executive of Dumbo Moving and Storage, which has been helping about 2,000 midsize companies hold on to their lesser-used office equipment in its New Jersey warehouses since the outbreak.

Amid a time of hybrid work and cost cuts, many of these items on reserve end up being abandoned by clients who no longer need as much office space. To free up its inventory, the storage company has been hosting auctions and donating unclaimed equipment, though many of the wares still get disposed of.

Incidentally, Herman Miller’s office chairs—or its newer models, at least—are well-equipped to handle repurposing. In 2021, it unveiled a reworked version of the iconic Aeron chair comprised of up to 91% recyclable materials.

More than half of the new and improved Aeron chair is constructed from recycled components, including plastic water bottles and fishing gear approaching waterways, as well.

Image courtesy of Herman Miller

The switch in materials means the collection could “save the ocean from over 150 tons of plastic annually—equal to approximately 15 million single-use plastic water bottles,” the furniture design giant told DesignTAXI in 2021.

Separately, Herman Miller parent MillerKnoll stresses with Insider that it extended its furniture take-back and upcycling program across its collective in May.

“MillerKnoll is committed to sustainable design throughout a product’s entire life cycle. It starts with the goal of designing beautiful, functional pieces that will stand the test of time,” the conglomerate shared in a statement in May. “That is complemented by purposefully designing out waste, using sustainable materials, and incorporating the ability to easily recycle an item at the end of its use.”

“We’ve always been a company that cares about the environment, and many of our customers share those values. We take great responsibility in helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals,” said Gabe Wing, Vice President of Sustainability at MillerKnoll. 

“Empowering them to make decisions with the planet in mind also allows us to achieve our own goals, which focus on reducing our carbon footprint, designing out waste, and sourcing better materials.”

[via New York Times and Insider, images via various sources]