Remember those pricey Herman Miller chairs that everyone wanted in 2020? Some are now being discarded, crushed by excavators, and sent to landfills.

• Some New York offices are discarding furniture as they struggle to find tenants after the pandemic.
• As a result, the iconic Herman Miller chairs popular during the pandemic are ending up in landfills.

Herman Miller office chairs were once considered by some workers to be the height of office luxury and a cushy work-from-home perk during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, some of those iconic Aeron chairs — which retail for more than $1,400 and were featured in the Museum of Modern Art — are headed for landfills.

More than three years after the COVID-19 pandemic sent employees home, office spaces in New York City are still only half occupied, The New York Times reported. As those deserted offices clear out, their tenants have had to decide what to do with the abandoned office furniture.

The Times reported that even the most costly, souped-up furniture had found itself on moving trucks en route to landfills, though some lucky ones found themselves at auctions or in the hands of liquidators. About 10 million tons of furniture finds its way to US landfills every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Representatives from Dumbo Moving and Storage, a moving company with three warehouses in New Jersey, told the Times that companies rushed to put office furniture in storage in 2021 and 2022.

But the life cycle of office furniture doesn't stop in storage limbo.

Some companies have failed to make payments, prompting storage companies to put their furniture up for auction. The representatives told the Times that Dumbo Moving and Storage did this once or twice a year before the pandemic but now did it five times a year.

Lior Rachmany, the founder of Dumbo Moving and Storage, told the Times that his company had "never seen so many Herman Miller chairs."

Herman Miller's website says its Aeron chair is "up to 91% recyclable based on available recycling facilities."

"And now with the new Onyx colorway" — a new color option that costs $160 more than the basic chair — "made with plastic waste diverted from the ocean, you can experience the same comfort with more sustainability," the site says.

MillerKnoll, which owns the Herman Miller brand, told Insider in a statement that it expanded its furniture-repurposing program in May.

"As the most recognized leader in the office furniture industry, we want to ensure we do our part to keep our products out of landfills and design out waste at all stages of a product's lifecycle," the company said in the statement. "We take great responsibility in helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals and hope that our customers take advantage of the programs and services we offer."

After publication, a PR company reached out "on behalf of MillerKnoll" and shared an additional 240-word statement.

"Disposing unused Herman Miller office furniture is a very rare phenomenon when most people recognize what it is and therefore does not happen on the scale implied in this piece," the statement read in part.