Beijing will launch an old-for-new furniture program this year, following the success of a recent similar program for home appliances, and a boost in sales is likely, an expert said Sunday.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce said Saturday at a working conference that it is making plans for consumers to replace their old furniture with new items through cooperation with some large-scale chain furniture retailers.

The new program will benefit all parties, said Zhang Ren, secretary-general of the Residence Decoration Committee at the China Building Decoration Association (CBDA), an organization under the Ministry of Housing and Rural-Urban Development.

"It is a good way to recycle resources and protect the environment while boosting consumption. And it allows consumers to replace their old furniture and helps furniture companies stimulate market demand," Zhang told the Global Times Sunday.

Some home supplies companies, such as Easyhome and Jimei Furnishings, have already carried out such programs on their own and the method has proved to generate larger sales and more profits.

Easyhome Beijing branch started offering an old-for-new policy last September. By the end of 2011, the program had brought in total sales of 70 million yuan ($11.1 million), or 10 percent of the branch's total furniture sales, an insider at Easyhome who wished to remain anonymous told the Global Times Sunday.

However, the recycling of old furniture is not so easy at the moment, said Zhu Changling, director-general of China National Furniture Association.

"Rural areas don't need to buy old furniture as their living standards have improved. And if the furniture is transported to remote and poverty-stricken areas, the logistics costs would be high," Zhu was quoted by Beijing Business Today as saying.

"Easyhome is exploring methods to treat recycled secondhand furniture. Solid wood furniture can be resold at secondhand markets to cover part of the costs, and those items that cannot be reused could be disassembled into metal, glass and sponge and be recycled," said the insider at the company.

China's old-for-new home appliances subsidy program, launched in 2009 to stimulate consumption, expired at the end of 2011. The program generated sales of home appliance units worth 342 billion yuan ($54.3 billion) in 2011.