When Nathanaël Lisimaque used his nearby landfill in Victoria last week, he says he was "shocked" to find employees from a local furniture company throwing away what appeared to be quality, lightly used couches.

"There was a beautiful beige microfibre suede [couch]," he said. "I thought, 'I could have bought this for my house.'"

Lisimaque said the truck, owned by Dodd's Furniture & Mattress, dumped around seven couches at the Hartland Landfill. When he inspected them more closely, he said a few of them had only a few minor scratches.

"I thought it was inappropriate," he said.

But stores, charities and the local district all say it's challenging to repurpose old furniture in the Greater Victoria area.

'It's a big problem in this city'

April McLeod, operations manager at Dodd's Furniture, said the family-owned company often relieves customers of old furniture when delivering new items.

McLeod said she and the company drivers try their best to find a new home for older furniture by working with local charities, "[but] a lot of people just don't want to take it."

"It's a big problem in this city," she said, adding that customers often tell the company it's very hard to donate furniture in Greater Victoria.

"If we feel like it's something we can't give away, it goes into our garbage truck," she said.

Jude Brown, a former marketing manager at Dodd's, said while most other businesses that house used furniture can be full, others won't accept items like used mattresses due to fear of bedbugs.

He said it's difficult to find staff to inspect used furniture, and it's too expensive for the company to ship quality used goods elsewhere.

"In a perfect world, we all wish every single used piece of furniture was cleaned thoroughly and professionally," Brown said.

'I thought "I could have bought this for my house,"' said Nathanaël Lisimaque, who was frustrated after watching a local furniture company dump what appeared to be good-quality couches into the landfill. ((Adam van der Zwan/CBC))

Victoria residents more 'selective'

Jim Walker, manager of Victoria's Habitat for Humanity ReStore, said "there's a lot of really great stuff out there and I know some of it is going to the landfill."

ReStore takes quality used items from other companies and sells them at discount prices for charity.

Walker said while the store will always acquire items, many of his customers are still "selective" over what they buy — and that's a particular problem in the Greater Victoria area.

"Some of the ReStores in other communities [on Vancouver Island], where the economic conditions are a little tighter, can sell things that I just can't," he said, noting Victoria's generally affluent population.

Walker said that some companies have also refused to work with the ReStore for business reasons.

'There's not the demand to meet the supply'

Tom Watkins, acting senior manager of environmental resources at the Capital Regional District (CRD), which operates the Hartland landfill, said the City of Victoria and the District of Saanich spend "six-figure" amounts of money to dispose of large furniture every year.

"The reality is that there's not the demand to meet the supply of this kind of second-hand furniture," Watkins said.

He said he's noticed Greater Victoria residents often place second-hand items on street curbs in hopes that others will pick them up.

"They [rarely] go anywhere, and end up in our landfill because nobody wants them," he said.

Watkins said many of the older items brought to the landfill have hidden issues, like mould or bedbugs, and added that the landfill operates a mattress recycling service "at great expense."

He said the CRD is currently advocating for the provincial government to fund what would be a pricy recycling system for other types of large furniture.