In Sydney, office furniture can go round again.
Five stops, from the day it is bought to the day it leaves for another office. What the law asks at each, from the official sources.
General information from the ACCC, the City of Sydney, Safe Work Australia, SafeWork NSW and the NSW Environment Protection Authority. It is not legal or workplace safety advice.
Find Second-hand first, the City of Sydney says: fitting out with used furniture often means higher quality at a lower price. Buy A business that spends under $100,000 including GST can be a consumer, and is owed the consumer guarantees. Fit The code NSW approved says workstations must suit the person and the task, and workers must be consulted when one is assessed. Keep A square metre of clear floor for each person using the eating area at once, and a lockable drawer or locker for each worker in the code's example office. Pass on The City of Sydney names charities and services that take office furniture back for reuse or resale. Round againThe exit The NSW waste levy on landfill in the metropolitan levy area is $180.20 a tonne in 2026-27, the NSW EPA's rate for the area the City of Sydney sits in.
Five stops on the loop
The loop is not one page's route. It is the round trip the official pages describe between them: the City of Sydney opens its office furniture advice with second-hand furniture and closes it with reuse, the Australian Consumer Law follows the goods when a business buys, the code NSW approved for the work environment says what a workstation and the room around it owe the people who use them, and the state's waste levy prices the one way out of the loop and into the ground.
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Yes, the City of Sydney's own advice begins there, and when a business sells you second-hand goods the consumer guarantees still follow them, read with the age and condition of what you bought.
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A business can be a consumer under the ACCC's tests, and then the guarantees, a remedy for a major or a minor problem, and a path through NSW Fair Trading and NCAT stand behind the order.
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The duty is the business's, workers are consulted when a workstation is assessed, and the Code's own worked office gives every worker a fully adjustable chair.
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A square metre of clear floor for each person using the eating area at once, in the Code's own numbers, and a lockable drawer or locker for every worker in the Code's example office.
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The City lists the charities and services that take office furniture for reuse or resale, and landfill is levied at $180.20 a tonne in 2026-27.
Where the City points
The City of Sydney's page on waste and recycling for businesses ends its office furniture advice where the loop ends. It says charities and other organisations take office furniture back for reuse or resale, that some take donations only while others charge for collection, and that its list of furniture donation and reuse services is a starting point because it does not endorse any particular supplier or organisation.
The scale behind the advice is the City's own: around 85 per cent of Sydney's waste comes from commercial and industrial sectors, and only 50 per cent of that waste is recycled. Two duties sit with the business either way. Business council rates do not cover waste and recycling services, and a business arranges its own commercial waste collections.
The City also points businesses to a free Bin Trim assessment for help reducing waste.