According to Managing Director at TIC Mattress Recycling, Michael Warren, Australians toss out 1.2 million mattresses each year. Less than 35% of them are recycled, so around 800,000 end up in landfill or are illegally dumped every year.

Mattresses are a real problem in landfill. With an average volume of about 0.75 cubic metres those dumped mattresses will take up 600,000 cubic metre of space, equivalent to around 250 Olympic-sized swimming pools. And mattresses don’t compact well, so it’s difficult to stabilise the landfill when it’s full.

Even when mattresses are recycled it’s often done selectively. Some mattress recyclers just recover the steel springs, with the rest of the mattress being discarded.

A Dutch solution

This is the challenge that one Australian company, TIC Group set out address. They sought a system that offered minimal manual handling of mattresses with maximum resource recovery, and a global search revealed that a company in the Netherlands offered the best solution.

TIC will now operate one of the most advanced mattress recycling facilities in Australia, and with the capacity to recycle up to 450,000 mattresses a year it’s ready to make a major dent in the mattress mountain.

Steel and textiles

TIC’s recycling machinery has two conveyor lines; one to deal with mattresses that contain metal and the other for those that don’t. The textile component is removed first and pressed into bales.

In many mattresses each of the steel springs is enclosed in synthetic fabric. TIC’s machine shreds both spring and fabric and then uses an air and vacuum system to separate metal from cloth, allowing both to be recycled.

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In many mattresses each of the steel springs is enclosed in synthetic fabric. TIC’s machine shreds both spring and fabric and then uses an air and vacuum system to separate metal from cloth, allowing both to be recycled.

The textile component is supplied to the carpet industry for the manufacture of carpet underlay, and metals go into the recycled metal market.

“About 85% of each mattress, by weight, can be recycled,” says Michael. “That leaves some latex, polyester and plastic film that we can’t yet recycle, but research is going on overseas to see if some of this residue can be made into thermal and acoustic insulation or refuse-derived fuel. Our aim is work hard on increasing the recovery rate of each mattress collected for recycling”

Shared costs

Mattresses mostly come from local councils, who intercept mattresses at their waste depots, and from retailers and manufacturers who provide a disposal service for customers buying new mattresses. Hotels, hospitals and other institutions are additional sources.

The value of the materials recovered from mattresses are relatively low value, hence the need to charge a processing fee for each mattress. Councils and waste companies can charge a fee up to $40 to dispose of a mattress. This is a small amount in relation to the total cost of mattress replacement.

Sleep easy

We can all sleep a little more soundly knowing that the mattress upon which we rest can be effectively recycled. So next time you upgrade, just remember to ensure that the company you buy your new mattress from takes away your old mattress and sends it in the right direction.

ticgroup.com.au/mattress-recycling/

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