« Back to Facilities Management News Home
Concord, N.H. — Jan. 26, 2015 — The Reuse+Recycling Network released the results of its surplus asset reuse program for 2014. IRN provided 6 million pounds of furnishings and equipment to 29 different charities active in 23 countries overseas and 20 U.S. states, where the furnishings are used to support disaster relief and economic development.
IRN has a simple mission: to keep usable furnishings out of landfills and get them to communities where they are needed. When an organization comes to IRN with an inventory of surplus furnishings, IRN makes a match with its network of dozens of charitable partners.
IRN then manages the project to remove the surplus, pack it into tractor trailers, and assure that the surplus reaches its destination.
IRN handles residential furniture, classrooms, offices, laboratories, kitchens and cafeterias. The need for usable furniture and equipment worldwide is nearly infinite, in composition and quantity.
In 2014 IRN completed 207 projects for nearly 150 different organizations, working with colleges and universities (80 projects), corporations (56 projects), elementary and secondary schools (38 projects), and hospitals (22 projects), plus government and other organizations.
IRN worked in 24 states from Maine to California, with the largest concentration in New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the West Coast.
"There is no 'typical' project," says IRN Program Manager Stacey Clark. "We work with small private day schools and Fortune 100 corporations, with shipments as small as a few dozen desks and chairs, as large as three dozen tractor trailers packed to the ceiling."
On the receiving end, furnishings from IRN were distributed in the United States (1.5 million pounds), Central and South America (2.4 million pounds), Caribbean nations (1.2 million pounds), Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa (800,000 pounds).
Furniture and equipment were provided to 29 different charities and 85 separate relief and development projects, including 51 locations in 20 U.S. states, plus 34 locations in 23 countries worldwide.
Some surplus was placed within a few miles of where it was generated; other shipments traveled as far as Mongolia, Afghanistan, Uganda, and Zambia.
“Keeping usable surplus out of landfills has immediate financial, social, and environmental benefits,” Clark said. “Sustainability has become an important goal for so many organizations, and every organization has surplus. Reuse just makes sense.”
IRN manages reuse and recycling for organizations throughout the U.S. Founded in 1999 as a recycling cooperative for education and healthcare institutions, IRN has handled disposition of more than 75 commodities as diverse as computers, fluorescent lamps, paper, and construction wastes. IRN has been one of the most successful managers of construction and demolition recycling in the U.S., achieving reuse+recycling rates as high as 99.6 percent.
IRN is the nation's most experienced and successful manager of reuse for surplus furnishings and equipment from corporate, healthcare, and educational institutions.
