Reclining refuge: Recycling campus furniture on N. Nevada?

With the slew of construction projects in recent years, old furniture and equipment is being replaced and sent to a nearby storage building as part of Facilities Services' furniture recycling plan.

The old furniture, which is taken from buildings that are being renovated and remodeled, such as Dwire Hall a few years ago and the Science building currently, is stored in the old TRW building on Nevada just south of Austin Bluffs.

"From what I understand, over the years as we have a new building come on board, old furniture would be removed or is stored down there and held," said Physical Plant Director Rob Dougherty. "There's various stuff from the bookstore such as products no longer needed and display cabinets no longer needed, and then you have various cables that come from remodeled labs."

"Over the years, there's a variety of collection of things, from furniture to lab equipment, that just gets stored down there," said Dougherty.

The building, which UCCS used to rent, was "bought by the CU-Foundation on behalf of the university," said Executive Director of Facilities Services Gary Reynolds. The building serves as a "transition space," according to Reynolds, where furniture and supplies sit.

Reynolds could not say how much furniture is stored at the building because, as Physical Plant Director Rob Dougherty said, there is no inventory system due to lack of manpower.

Dougherty said that having an inventory system, if facilities had the manpower to do so, could make the furniture recycling program more efficient. "The products come in from a variety of different departments, and they've just been stored down there," said Dougherty. "So yes, in terms of efficiency, if we had the manpower, counting these things, listing them all, and going through a more formal process would make things more efficient."

Both Dougherty and Reynolds said that the building houses a large variety of objects.

"You name it, we have it down there," said Reynolds. The old furniture that UCCS no longer needs or wants is sold or donated to other companies who refinish it.

The fate of the furniture that lands in the facility varies. Metal pieces get melted back down and recycled. The metal that gets recycled is typically steel, and comes from construction work being done on campus. The recycling company provides dumpsters for everything from beams to handrails. The contents are then weighed and the university receives payment, usually for "cents on the dollar," said Dougherty.

Sofas, chairs, and other unwanted pieces of furniture that aren't thrown away are picked up by a third party like Colorado Correctional Industries (CCI) for refurbishing. CCI, a state agency, legally has the right to "first crack" at the piles of furniture stored at the building, said Reynolds. For example, the facility was recently used to house forty old toilets, which UCCS had replaced with eco-friendly, low-flow toilets and urinals. The old toilets were taken by CCI and put to use elsewhere.

Facilities plans to sell the remaining furniture at auction, said Reynolds, the first of which will be held in mid-June.

Part of the building is also used by UCCS Theatreworks to store props as well as to build the sets for up and coming productions. The school previously had rented space from different facilities to store furniture before acquiring ownership of the building. A portion of the approximately 130 thousand square foot facility is also being rented out to generate some revenue for the university.

The building has the potential to be used for other purposes as well. "Strategically, it's a valid acquisition" for the CU-Foundation, said Reynolds. Its massive landscape could allow for a research area later on, it could be leased out, or it could be sold. Reynolds said although there are no immediate plans for other types of use, it could very easily be "utilized beyond storage in the future."