A new environmental initiative, designed to help prevent illegal dumping of mattresses in urban areas, native bush and waterways around Australia has launched today.
The industry-first, not-for-profit programme is also set to prevent thousands of tonnes of bedding from reaching landfill, by recycling mattresses, sheets and pillowcases into a range of new products.
The company behind the scheme also plans to expand the initiative to recycle a range of other household items including furniture.
Every year Australian consumers discard over one million mattresses into the waste stream, with most ending up in landfills. Mattresses are also believed to be the most common item to be illegally dumped, accounting for an estimated 20% of inorganic waste found in bush areas, riverbanks or left on footpaths.
Eden Benito spokesperson for bed retailer Ecosa says only a very small proportion of household items are recycled – despite alternative uses being available for the raw materials.
He says the company’s new sustainability initiative is designed to make it significantly easier for consumers to recycle items like unwanted mattresses and bedding.
“The disposal of these items is a major problem for the Australian environment, particularly bulky products such as mattresses which can’t easily be transported by consumers.
“Currently there are only a limited number of ways for a household to ‘responsibly’ discard these larger items and most of these result in them ending up in the landfill.
“Even when disposed of correctly, mattresses are operationally problematic for the waste stream as their gas emissions can be extremely hazardous during landfill fires.
“The illegal dumping of mattresses also creates an issue in urban environments impacting the visual aesthetics of city areas,” he says.
Benito says their new recycling initiative will allow households to request a pickup from their home for unwanted mattresses.
He says the programme is brand agnostic – facilitating the recycling of bedding which was purchased from any retailer.
“At the moment, the technology and market exist for recycled bedding however the barriers that prevent the uptake of recycling are primarily cost and logistical.
“Our new programme will provide a more seamless connection between consumers and a local recycling facility by allowing them to book a pickup from their door through us for any unwanted mattresses – regardless of where they originally purchased them.
“We are providing this service as a not-for-profit programme which means the cost of recycling a mattress could be reduced to $80.
“We will also offer a $80 voucher and a $30 voucher for every carton of sheets that are sent to our recycling facility to offset the postage cost in shipping the unwanted bedding to us,” he says.
Benito says Australia has the second highest rate of textile consumption per capita globally but lacks the infrastructure to prevent six tonnes of textiles going to landfill every 10 minutes.
“Textile waste is a significant problem for the environment as polyester can take over 200 years to decompose and, even then, can create challenges.
“Sheets can be broken down into their raw materials and respun into other items, and the wood, metal and foam components from mattresses can be separated and recycled into particleboard, carpet underlay and products for the construction industry.
“By making it easier and more cost effective for consumers we can make recycling your mattress just as convenient as putting your milk container out at the gate – it is really about changing the cultural norms around the reuse of household items – making it just as easy to recycle a product as it is to buy a new one,” he says.
Benito says the recycling service for sheets can be accessed anywhere in Australia and more details on the metro areas mattresses can be picked up from is available at https://www.ecosa.com.au/recycling.
