The St. Vincent de Paul Society is operating the first-of-its-kind full mattress-recycling center in the Oakland, Calif., area.
The Alliance for the Polyurethanes Industry Polyurethanes Recycle and Recovery Council supports the recycling center financially. Don Schomer, PURRC's chairman, states, "We are excited about this opportunity to demonstrate another way of recycling polyurethanes at a minimal cost."
Since opening its doors in December 2000, the center has recovered components from more than 28,000 mattresses.
Mattresses contain from six to eight pounds of polyurethane, which has a high material recycle value," said Lyle Harris, Business Development Director for Recycling, St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County. "Each mattress takes up 23 cubic feet of landfill space. Over the past year, we have been able to divert 93 percent of the material from each mattress from going into landfills."
The key to the center's success is identifying steady markets for all the recycled mattress materials. Saleable materials include the foam, steel and cotton fibers. Although Harris is working on an outlet and quilted topper material, he reports that the reclaimed foam is in demand for carpet underlay use.
Annually, approximately 900 million lbs. of flexible polyurethane foam scrap (from both process and post-consumer scrap) are recycled into bonded carpet cushion and other products according to the Alliance for the Polyurethane Industry.
On average, the facility recycles 100 mattresses each day. Harris is also exploring the possible component reclamation of sofas, hideaway beds and other furniture.