What's the DIfference Between Recycled, Remanufactured and Refurbished Office Cubicles?
Office furniture won’t last forever, but remanufactured office cubicles can give used cubicles a new lease on life. Extending furniture’s lifespan can take several forms; remanufactured cubicles can have fabrics replaced and worn surfaces refinished. The idea is to end up with re-manufactured office cubicles that work just as well as brand new.
There are different types of used cubicles, with confusingly similar nomenclature. The list that follows distinguishes the different types of used office furniture you might encounter, should you be shopping for refurbished office furniture:
Recycled refers to all used office furniture rescued from the solid waste stream and brought back into the market, with or without repairs. Reused, remanufactured, and refurbished office cubicles are subsets of recycled office furniture.
Remanufactured refers to recycled office furniture with value added - this pertains to products that have been disassembled to their component parts, cleaned, repaired, refinished, parts replaced, all to bring the used cubicles up to “like new” conditions before being returned to the market.
When furniture is “remanufactured,” you can be sure the product has been subjected to more work than refurbished office cubicles. This means higher prices compared to refurbished office cubicles, and more impact on the environment.
Refurbished office cubicles are recycled office furniture that has been touched up, with cosmetic improvements added, but little or no structural work done. Refurbished office partitions, for example, may be structurally unchanged, although the appearance may be far improved from its old state.
While refurbished office cubicles may not meet the same quality standards as remanufactured, the smaller amount of value-added service means that refurbished office cubicles are considerably cheaper than their remanufactured counterpart, with correspondingly less impact on the environment too.
Reused - also called “as-is” office furniture - refers to recycled office furniture that returns to the sales cycle without any improvements done. Compared to refurbished office cubicles, reused cubicles are far cheaper and kinder to the environment.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati