A bedder world mattress recycling
In the United States, about 15 to 20 million mattresses are thrown away each year. They take up a huge 40 cubic feet of space in landfills. Yet, only a small part of these materials gets recycled.
Most of the valuable materials from mattresses end up in landfills. This causes pollution and wastes resources. We will look at ways to recycle, donate, and upcycle old mattresses.
Key Takeaways
Mattress recycling
helps
reduce landfill waste
and conserve natural resources.
Up to 85% of a mattress can be recycled or repurposed, including steel springs, wood, foam, and fabric.
Several states have implemented
mattress recycling
laws to encourage
sustainable disposal
.
Donation and upcycling are eco-friendly alternatives for reusable mattresses.
Proper recycling and disposal of mattresses can have a positive impact on the environment.
Understanding the Environmental Impact of Mattress Waste
The environmental impact of mattress waste is a big worry. Landfills across the country are full, with 20 million mattresses thrown away each year. This takes up a lot of space and pollutes the environment.
Mattresses take a long time to break down, up to 120 years. As they decompose,
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Remember the story of
The Princess and the Pea?
She was sensitive enough to feel a pea underneath 20 mattresses. Twenty sounds like a lot for us non-royals, but that’s nothing compared to how many mattresses are thrown away each year—18.2 million in the U.S. alone.
In an average of 7–10 years, our trusty mattress will go from “brand new” to “must be replaced,” and when trashed, it will take up to 40 cubic feet of dwindling landfill space.
While some eco-friendly mattress brands use biodegradable materials like natural latex, most mattresses are made with petrochemical-derived foams and carcinogenic flame retardant
10 Facts About Rubbish Removal & Recycling
Australia has been identified as one of the largest waste producers in the world. Though we do make an effort to recycle, we also produce an alarming amount of waste. Do you just toss rubbish into the bin and forget about it? You’re not alone, but we can do better than that. There’s a right way and a wrong way to manage rubbish.
10 Facts About Recycling & Rubbish
As a consumer, the best way for you to reduce your waste is to focus on sorting your rubbish carefully to ensure everything is disposed of or recycled properly. In addition to kerbside recycling, you can return certain items to stores, use container deposit schemes, or enlist the services of a professional rubbish removal company. The statistics and studies are clear; we have to take more responsibility for our waste.
According to anABC report, Australians send 67 million tonnes of rubbish to the landfill annually. Only 2% of that is converted to energy. That means the average person in Australia produces around 1.5 tonnes of rubbish each year. That’s about twice the rate of the population. To put that into perspective, one Australian family
The mattress landfill crisis: how the race to bring us better beds led to a recycling nightmare
Mike Scollick and Richard Allsopp are talking about the worst things they ever found in a mattress. “We had one where I think a dog had been lying on it, and the whole thing was just jumping with fleas,” Allsopp says, shuddering. No one would touch it, so they had to use a cherry picker to move it. But that’s not the worst of it, Scollick says: “I stripped the cover off one once and it looked like somebody …” “Died,” interjects Allsopp.
It’s fair to say you need a strong stomach to be in the mattress recycling game. Which Scollick and Allsopp have, along with several million pounds’ worth of equipment in their Coventry warehouse. I have come to see Circom, their mattress recycling firm, at work. It’s a dirty but noble enterprise: Circom is one of only a handful of recyclers tackling the UK’s ever-growing mattress problem.
The UK threw away more than 7m mattresses in 2017, the vast majority of which went straight to landfill. Zero Waste Scotland has estimated that if the 600,000 mattresses Scotland throws away every year were stacked on top of each other, the pile would be more than