Every office chair has a last day. Most of them meet it badly: shoved into a storeroom for two years, then wheeled out to a skip on the morning the new furniture arrives. The chair is mostly steel and aluminium, both of which are worth money and both of which are infinitely recyclable, and it goes to landfill because nobody had ten minutes to work out where else it could go.
This is the practical version of that ten minutes. What an office chair is actually made of, which of the four disposal routes applies to you, what each one will and will not take, and what to buy next time if you would rather not have this problem again. It is written for two different readers: the person at home with one dead chair in the garage, and the facilities manager with two hundred of them and a lease expiry in March.
What an office chair is actually made of
Everything about the end of a chair's life is decided by its bill of materials, so start there. The published environmental product declaration for the HAG Tribute 9031 accounts for the chair by mass: 8,311 g of steel, 5,961 g of aluminium, 4,858 g of polyurethane padding, 3,028 g of polypropylene and 1,532 g of polyamide, on a declared 26.5 kg chair.
Read that list again and the shape of the problem appears. More than half the mass of a big executive chair is metal, which is the most valuable and most recyclable thing in the room. The rest is foam and engineering polymer, which are recyclable in principle and awkward in practice. A task chair is lighter — the HAG Capisco 8106 is 12.1 kg — but the proportions are similar: a metal base and column, a polymer shell, foam, and a fabric or mesh surface.
So the entire question is whether those materials can be separated from each other. A chair that comes apart is four clean material streams. A chair that does not is a skip item.
Route one: council kerbside and hard waste, if you are a household
If the chair is in your house and you pay a domestic waste charge, your council is the first place to look — and the rules are genuinely different from one council to the next, so check yours rather than assuming.
Two live examples show the range. Brisbane City Council lists "Furniture" outright as an acceptable item for its annual kerbside large item collection, with the constraint that "Council will not collect piles larger than 2 cubic metres (equal to a small box-trailer load)". Commercial builders' waste is excluded.
The City of Sydney runs a different and more interesting model: a booked doorstep recycling service, delivered by Resource Recovery Australia, which the council describes as "a free and easy way for you to recycle small, tricky items and donate reusable furniture without leaving home". It accepts "small furniture in great condition" and "metal items", with a limit of "Up to 3 items per collection" on furniture and a minimum of 2 bags per collection. Mattresses, whitegoods, and carpets and rugs are on its not-accepted list.
Note what the Sydney wording is doing: it splits the job in two. Furniture in great condition gets donated. Metal gets recycled. That is exactly the split you should be making yourself before you book anything.
Route two: the scrap metal yard
This is the route almost nobody uses and the one that actually matches what a chair is made of. A five-star base, a gas lift column and the steel in the mechanism are clean, heavy, sortable metal. Scrap yards take it.
The catch is that a yard wants metal, not a chair. Someone has to get the seat, the foam and the shell off the base first — which is a five-minute job on a chair designed to come apart and an afternoon of swearing on a chair that is not. On HAG chairs that separation is deliberate, and we stock the genuine tools for both halves of it: the HAG chair disassembly tool at $45.00 works on the structural joints, separating the seat from the mechanism and freeing the backrest, and the HAG gas lift unblocking tool at $85.00 is the one that releases the gas lift cylinder.
For one chair at home, this is probably more effort than it is worth and route one is easier. For fifty chairs coming out of an office, it is the difference between a waste levy and a cheque.
Route three: give it to someone who needs it
A chair that still works is not waste, and this is where most of the value leaks out of the system. The problem is matching: a charity two suburbs away may want eight task chairs this month and have no way of knowing you are throwing eight out.
For a single domestic chair, ring the op shop before you load the car. Seating is the category charity shops are pickiest about, and a worn task chair is often refused at the door.
For commercial volumes there is a purpose-built route. GIVIT is a national non-profit working with over 4,500 charities across Australia, and it runs a commercial furniture program in partnership with Project Net Zero, an Indigenous-owned social enterprise. It takes office furniture, equipment, fixtures and other usable assets out of office de-fits, hotel relocations and retail closures, and rehomes them through that charity network. It also provides sustainability reporting with a full chain of custody for the items — which matters if your organisation has to evidence what happened to them.
Route four: the office strip-out, where the real tonnage is
The numbers here are worth knowing before you plan a move, because they are much larger than most people assume.
A 2016 feasibility study by Edge Environment with the Better Buildings Partnership, funded in part by a City of Sydney grant, found that 80 per cent of materials removed from offices were sent to landfill, amounting to around 60,000 tonnes of strip-out waste a year in the City of Sydney area alone. The same work found Sydney offices are refurbished on average every six years. The Better Buildings Partnership now targets 60 to 80 per cent resource recovery during office stripouts and refurbishments.
Those three figures together explain the whole problem. The cycle is short, the volume is enormous, and the default outcome is landfill — not because anyone decided on it, but because the strip-out contractor is working to a date and a skip is faster than a plan.
The fix is boring and it works: decide where the seating is going before the strip-out is booked, not during it. Sort the chairs into three piles — still good, metal only, genuinely dead — and get the "still good" pile committed to a recipient while there is still time to move it.
The cheapest end of life is the one you put off
Nothing on this page beats not needing it yet. A chair is normally retired for one of four reasons, and three of them are replaceable parts.
Castors go first — they collect grit and hair, drag on one wheel, and get blamed on the chair. Gas lifts sag next. Glides wear through. Only the fourth reason, a cracked shell or a chair that never fitted the person sitting in it, is a real end.
Flokk guarantees the delivery of spare parts for a minimum of ten years after a chair's production date, covering the parts necessary to maintain the chair's original functionality — and that clock runs from production, not from your invoice. In practice that means a chair bought in 2020 has parts support that most people never find out about.
Our parts collection carries the genuine HAG replacements: gas lifts from $177.30, glides at $99.00, the footring at $210.60 and 65 mm castors at $112.50. Castors are limited at the moment, so ring first on that one. The HAG spare parts guide works through what wears out, what each part costs, and the point at which a repair genuinely stops being worth it.
And before you replace anything, check it is not just dirty. A dragging castor is very often grit wound around the axle. Our guide to cleaning an office chair without wrecking it sets out what Herman Miller and Flokk publish for each material.
Buying a chair you will still be able to deal with in 2038
If you are specifying now, the end-of-life question collapses into two things you can actually check on a datasheet.
Can it be taken apart with ordinary tools? Flokk is explicit about this as a design rule: "At the end of its life, designing for disassembly enables easy separation, sorting, and recycling of the components of our products, to put them back in the loop," and "With all of our new designs, we make sure that most parts are easily removed using common tools, making it easy to sort for recycling as well as making repairs." The reason it matters is the other half of the same statement: "Parts that are fused together (by glues or inaccessible fittings) can be hard to separate and sort, and most likely end up in a landfill."
Are the numbers published per model? A brand-level sustainability statement will not satisfy an evaluation panel. A per-model figure will. Here is what we can put in writing for the chairs we hold:
| Chair | Recycled content | Recyclable at end of life | Published carbon figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| HAG Tion | 94% post-consumer recycled plastic in the seat and back shells; 97–98% recycled aluminium | Designed for disassembly without special tools | 17–27 kg CO2e (2100, no armrests) |
| HAG SoFi Mesh | 46% | 90% | 73 kg CO2 equivalents |
| HAG Tribute 9031 | 44% (incl. packaging) | 89% (incl. packaging) | 126 kg CO2e, cradle-to-gate |
| Herman Miller Mirra 2 | Nylon base and spine changed to 100% recycled material in 2024 | Up to 93%; BIFMA level 3 certified | Not published |
| Kyoto | Not published | 97% | Not published |
Across its own range, Flokk states that it used 1,298 tonnes of recycled plastic in its products in 2022, and that its long-term target is an average of 60% recycled materials across what it makes.
What that means for what you buy, and what it costs
HAG Tion 2100, from $588.75. This is the chair to specify when the end-of-life answer has to be defensible in a submission. Shells at 94% post-consumer recycled plastic, aluminium at 97 to 98% recycled, designed to come apart without special tools, and it carries an EPD, GREENGUARD GOLD, the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, the EU Ecolabel and Möbelfakta. In stock. Our guide to the Tion and the circular office sets out the figures and the certifications in full.
HAG SoFi Mesh, $750 without arms and $950 with adjustable SlideBack armrests. 46% recycled, 90% recyclable, 73 kg CO2 equivalents, and the only HAG task chair here with an adjustable seat depth, which Flokk publishes as 38 to 46 cm. In stock in black in good numbers.
Suits you if you are fitting out a floor and will be asked, in five years, what happened to the furniture. Both chairs give you an answer with a document behind it.
If your constraint is different — a heritage fit-out where the seating has to match existing stock, a single replacement chair for a home office, or a strip-out where the timing is the hard part rather than the chair — ring us on 02 9640 0642 and tell us the schedule. On a fit-out we can plan new seating around the removal of the old, which is the single change that keeps good furniture out of a skip. You can also browse the wider HAG range.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put an office chair out for council hard rubbish collection?
In many council areas, yes, if you are a household. Brisbane City Council lists furniture as an acceptable item for its annual kerbside large item collection, with the limit that it will not collect piles larger than 2 cubic metres. The City of Sydney runs a different model: a booked doorstep service that takes small furniture in great condition and metal items, up to 3 furniture items per collection. Rules vary council by council, so check your own council's accepted items list before you put anything on the footpath.
Can a business put office chairs out for council collection?
No. Kerbside and hard waste services are domestic services attached to a residential property, and councils run a separate commercial waste service that a business applies for. If you are clearing an office rather than a spare room, ring your council's waste team about a commercial collection, or talk to a resource recovery contractor.
Is an old office chair worth anything as scrap metal?
The metal in it is worth something to a scrap yard, but usually not much on a single chair. On a big executive chair like the HAG Tribute 9031, the published environmental product declaration accounts for 8,311 g of steel and 5,961 g of aluminium on a 26.5 kg chair, so over half the mass is metal. On a volume clear-out that adds up. Scrap yards want clean metal, which means getting the foam, fabric and plastic off first.
Will a charity take my old office chair?
For a single domestic chair, ring the shop before you drive over, because op shops are selective about seating and many will not take a worn task chair. For commercial volumes there is a better route: GIVIT, a national non-profit working with over 4,500 charities across Australia, runs a commercial furniture program with Project Net Zero that takes office furniture, equipment, fixtures and other usable assets from office de-fits and rehomes them.
How much office fit-out material actually ends up in landfill?
A 2016 feasibility study by Edge Environment with the Better Buildings Partnership, funded in part by a City of Sydney grant, found that 80 per cent of materials removed from offices were sent to landfill, amounting to around 60,000 tonnes of strip-out waste a year in the City of Sydney area alone, with Sydney offices refurbished on average every six years. The Better Buildings Partnership now targets 60 to 80 per cent resource recovery during office stripouts and refurbishments.
How long can I keep an office chair going before I have to replace it?
That depends on the chair and on whether parts are available for it. Flokk guarantees the delivery of spare parts for a minimum of ten years after a chair's production date, covering the parts necessary to maintain the chair's original functionality, and that guarantee is measured from production rather than from when you bought it. Castors, gas lifts and glides are the parts that usually go first, and all three are replaceable.
Which chairs are designed to come apart at end of life?
Flokk states that with all of its new designs it makes sure that most parts are easily removed using common tools, making it easy to sort for recycling as well as making repairs, and that parts fused together by glues or inaccessible fittings can be hard to separate and sort and most likely end up in a landfill. That is the difference to look for. The HAG Tion is the clearest example in our range, at 94% post-consumer recycled plastic in the seat and back shells and 97 to 98% recycled aluminium.
What should I ask for if end of life matters to my tender?
Ask for per-model numbers rather than a brand-level statement, because per-model documentation is what a green building or government submission usually requires. The figures we can put in front of you include the HAG SoFi Mesh at 46% recycled material and 90% recyclable, the HAG Tribute 9031 at 44% recycled and 89% recyclable, the Herman Miller Mirra 2 as up to 93% recyclable and BIFMA level 3 certified, and the Kyoto at 97% recyclable. Ring us on 02 9640 0642 with what the tender asks for and we will send the documents.
Do you take the old chairs away when you deliver new ones?
Tell us early and we will work it into the delivery plan. On a fit-out we can schedule the new seating around your strip-out so the old chairs leave in one coordinated movement rather than being stacked in a corridor for three weeks, which is usually the point at which good furniture turns into landfill. Ring us on 02 9640 0642 with your schedule.
References
- Flokk, Our Principles for sustainable design, flokk.com
- Flokk, Warranties and product quality, flokk.com
- Flokk, FS_ENG_HAG SoFi Collection 2025 factsheet
- Flokk, HAG Tribute factsheet ENG Nov19 and EPD – HAG Tribute – 2023-08-09
- Flokk, FS_ENG_HAG Tion 2025 factsheet
- Herman Miller, Mirra 2 specifications and product literature, hermanmiller.com
- Brisbane City Council, Acceptable items for kerbside collection
- City of Sydney, Doorstep recycling for tricky items
- GIVIT, Give commercial furniture a second life
- Better Buildings Partnership, Reinventing office fitout waste as a valuable resource, reporting a 2016 Edge Environment feasibility study
- Prices and stock checked live on chairdinkum.com.au, 22 September 2026.
