Reusing furniture is a hit

Ink cartridges, bookcases, desks, and whiteboards are sorted in the basement’s many rooms. Each room offers a new collection of furniture and equipment, sometimes stacked up to three metres high. At the entrance, a row of newly arrived desk chairs are waiting to be placed in the basement.

Wheels and motors from worn-out furniture and machines are dismantled and stored for later use as spare parts. A new initiative reupholsters selected chairs and varnishes selected desks.

“We’re working on a new ‘From trash to trendy’ project where we take old design icons from our warehouse and refurbish and reuse them in selected places. In June 2024, building 313 will be inaugurated at Lyngby Campus with 260 pieces of furniture from our warehouse. DTU Nanolab will also receive more than 100 refurbished Y-chairs for their new premises, which will be inaugurated in February,” says Steen Forsmann.

Reused furniture for laboratory and school in Nepal

The massive influx and demand for reused furniture requires many telephone calls and creative solutions in order to reuse as much furniture as possible.

“When DTU Sport needed to get rid of their old fitness equipment at Ballerup Campus, I asked around and found out that one of our international halls of residence had a basement where they would like to have a gym. It’s not the latest equipment, but now they can exercise and all the equipment is free,” says Steen Forsmann.

Elsewhere on campus, a laboratory has been furnished with everything from reused chairs and desks to massive metal cabinets.

“We were visited by a particle researcher picking up furniture for his new lab. Among other things, there were some lab cabinets, which usually cost around DKK 6,000 when new. Instead of buying new furniture, he could build his own lab for free by picking out furniture from our warehouse. The result is savings of around DKK 140,000 for that lab alone.”

 Although the primary goal is to find a new place the furniture in one of DTU’s own buildings, some of the furniture has taken a longer journey. An entire container full of furniture has been shipped to Nepal:

“A group of engineers taking a summer course at DTU told me that they’re working on a volunteer project building a school. They don’t use computers at the school, because they don’t have the necessary resources. So among other things, they’re pleased to get some filing cabinets for all their papers.”

Reuse option a necessity

The reuse mindset fits in well with DTU’s strategy of creating sustainable solutions.

“I can tell that people really want to reuse. That’s why it’s important that we’re here. The plan is to visit Ballerup Campus roughly once a week and be available if someone needs to get rid of something that can be reused. It’s important not to end up in a situation where everyone wants to reuse but don’t know where to drop off and pick up furniture for reuse,” says Steen Forsmann.

Drawing attention to the reuse potential at DTU has been very successful, and it has therefore also become necessary to develop new solutions that can handle the high demand:

“We’ve become very good at assessing the quality of the furniture we receive for reuse, and we’ve gained a lot of experience in terms of what we can reuse on campus and what we should give a new life outside DTU. The next phase is to make reusing at DTU even more systematic and user-friendly. It’s a welcome challenge that I’m certain we’ll manage.”