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Learn how our recycling program helps to build a greener future
On Earth Day and every day, Raymour & Flanigan is working to create a greener future for our shared home: planet Earth.
We started recycling furniture packaging at our Liverpool, N.Y., campus in 2002. In the more than two decades since, the program has grown and expanded exponentially.
Ahead of Earth Day, we connected with Ed Nesbitt, recycling supervisor at the Liverpool center, who shared some facts and figures about the program.
239.5+ million pounds of packaging diverted from landfills since 2002
4 dedicated Recycling Centers
Located in Liverpool, N.Y.; Suffern, N.Y.; Manchester, Conn.; and Gibbstown, N.J. There are also smaller operations at each of our customer service centers.
5 types of materials recycled by our centers:
We recycle expanded polystyrene (EPS, commonly known as styrofoam), low density polyethylene (LDPE, commonly known as plastic), old corrugated containers (OCC, commonly known as cardboard), office paper, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET, commonly know as PET bottles or water/soda bottles). Through a variety of specialized machines and processes, each material is compressed, baled, and prepared for transport.
100s of uses for recycled materials
For example, EPS can be melted and remolded into new plastic products, LDPE can be made into plastic lumber, OCC and office paper can become new corrugated boxes and paper products, and PET can be made into fleece fabric. Also, recycling cardboard uses only 75% of the energy needed to make new cardboard.
100+ recycling associates across the company
The Liverpool team, led by Ed, includes six additional associates: Garry Cavanaugh, Richard McClrkin, Duwayne Newton, Jeff Carter, Mark Martin, and Mike Allan. (Another important number: 39 — the number of years Ed will mark with Raymour & Flanigan in August. He's been with the recycling program since 2008.)
About 24 trailers are unloaded by the Liverpool team each day.
After a piece of furniture is delivered to a customer, the materials it was packaged in — plastic, styrofoam, cardboard — are delivered to the recycling center. The recycling associates then unload the trailers and sort and process the materials.

99% of packaging materials are recycled by our centers.
“Recycling is the first step in leaving a green footprint,” Ed said. “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
20,296,000 pounds of recycling material processed and shipped by our four recycling centers in 2023 — 768,000 pounds more than 2022.
"That's through the efforts of everyone in the field, of their separation process," Ed said. "We've been reaching out to the field and trying to get the separation even cleaner so that we have to put less and less in the landfill...We want to leave as a small of a footprint as we can as a company."
