Charities Involved in Furniture Recycling Locally
Despite the fact that furniture recycling has not yet become commonplace in Hong Kong, there are several organisations that provide platforms for people to trade used furniture. A great example is 2nd Chance, an organization that purchases used furniture locally from individual households, private clubs, property developers, and shops that are dissolving or changing their stock. They then resell the furniture at a lower cost than they would for new furniture pieces. Another example is Happy Shop, an online furniture sales platform founded in 2012. They provide a purchasing channel that shows product information, such as photos and the size of the furniture. It is mainly used to sell collected second-hand furniture after restoration or up-cycling. They provide a free-of-charge furniture collection service if you want to get rid of an old piece without it being thrown out.
How the Hospitality Industry Can Help
As an important player in the commercial sector, the hospitality industry contributes a large part of solid waste, and if changes could be made in the industry, it could slow down the exhaustion of the landfills. A great start would be purchasing sustainable furniture in the first place. Hotels can help by buying furniture that is made out of recycled or eco-friendly material. For example, TREE is a local company in Hong Kong that sells eco-wood furniture. When the furniture has been well-used, instead of throwing it away, hotels can donate it to charities such as Crossroads and The Salvation Army. Not only does this reduce the amount of solid waste, it benefits under-privileged families. These are tactics that all hoteliers should consider when furnishing their businesses. As it appears that there has been no large-scale donation of furniture from Hong Kong hotels to charities, check back for our next blog post which will outline furniture recycling by hotels elsewhere around the world.
