87611Reducing the cost of circular economy office chairsClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKEvery year in the UK, 75,000 tonnes of office furniture goes to landfill, a figure that will increase as a result of COVID-19\. At the same time furniture made from virgin resources overseas is creating substantial greenhouse gas emissions ([research][0] shows that, over a commercial building's 40 year life, office furniture is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions), harming biodiversity and taking jobs out of the country. Rype Office is a circular economy office furniture company, which remanufactures office furniture to as-new condition using quality-controlled engineering processes. This project will enable us to conduct experimental development of equipment for office furniture disassembly. The immaturity of the office furniture remanufacturing industry means that no equipment has been developed to non-destructively, safely and efficiently dissemble office furniture. The experimental development of this equipment and associated processes will reduce the costs of remanufacturing so that our circular economy remanufactured chairs will be able to compete on price with low quality unsustainable imports. The result will be substantial savings in greenhouse gas emissions (remanufactured office furniture has 80% less embodied carbon than furniture made from virgin resources), reduced waste, UK jobs, improved national balance of payments and help the UK to demonstrate global leadership in the circular economy. [0]: https://www.academia.edu/18481731/Embodied_energy_analysis_of_fixtures_fittings_and_furniture_in_office_buildings