For many business owners, refurbished office cubicles represent the absolute last choice for furnishing their offices. These days, it doesn’t have to be.

Refurbished office cubicles are not just cheaper than brand-new, they’re often not much different from brand-new.

It’s not a small benefit, as office managers seek to balance cost, function, and appearance. These days, refurbished office cubicles are the best way to reach that balance.

As used cubicles cost almost half of its new counterparts, it wins hands-down in the price department. As function goes, refurbished office furniture performs as well as brand-new, so office managers suffer no sacrifice in that area.

And as far as appearance is concerned, only the most eagle-eyed of office workers will be able to spot the difference between refurbished and brand-new.

More good news after the jump. (read more)

Refurbished Office Cubicles – Appearances Matter

The restoration process is essential here. While not as extensive as remanufacturing, refurbishing puts a lot of “new” back into the old, with newly-laminated worktops and fresh paint and fabric put in.

The finished product comes in a wide range of designs and configurations. With the glut of used furniture out there in the wild (thanks, sadly, to the recession that seems to be receding behind us), recyclers and remanufacturers have a lot of raw material to work with. And much of that raw material has hardly been used, too!

Used Cubicles = Earth-Friendly Cubicles

This ties back to the best reason to buy refurbished office cubicles – it’s a big green initiative. Buying used cubicles reuses core structural components and reduces the release of harmful pollutants into the environment; hardly a small gesture for the earth!

Buying refurbished furniture offers several key benefits to the environment:

Conserved resources. By sucking up much less raw materials from the environment, energy and natural resources are conserved. In place of new, raw material, refurbished office cubicles use materials already in circulation. The wood, steel, plastics, and aluminum that go into refurbished office cubicles have already made their impact on the environment in the past.

In real terms, estimates the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance, each pound of natural resources used in remanufacturing conserves the equivalent of up to nine pounds of original materials.

The refurbishing process also conserves energy, requiring up to 95% less energy to create furniture compared to building furniture from scratch.

Reducing pollution. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an unavoidable byproduct of the manufacturing process. Refurbishing used office furniture reduces the amount of VOCs released in the atmosphere, reducing the risk of global warming, acid rain, and the other aftereffects of air pollution.

Reducing solid waste. The solid waste stream would be clogged with bits of furniture, if not for the valiant efforts of recycling and remanufacturing professionals. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 3 million tons of office furniture are thrown out every year. Furniture refurbishing keeps this number low, saving on landfill space and returning still-usable refurbished office cubicles back to where they belong – in the workplace.

Refurbished Office Cubicles – A Growing Business

Since the 1980s, office furniture remanufacturing has grown by leaps and bounds to contribute up to $1.2 billion of the $13.6 billion commercial furniture industry. The demand is significant, and the benefits to both businesses and the environment are solid. There are a lot of good reasons to choose refurbished office cubicles, and the old objections to buying refurbished hardly apply anymore. The choice is clear!