Each year in Australia, over a million mattresses are discarded into landfills. It is also believed to be the most common item illegally dumped – accounting for an estimated 20 per cent of inorganic waste found in bush areas and riverbanks.
In line with this, Aussie bed retailer Ecosa has launched a recycling initiative to help reduce the illegal dumping of mattresses in urban areas.
The non-profit program aims to repurpose unwanted mattresses by recycling them – along with pillowcases and bedsheets – into a range of new products. For example, sheets can be broken down and respun into new materials, wood, metal and foam components from mattresses can be recycled into particleboard, and their carpet underlay can be used in the construction industry.
“The disposal of these items is a major problem for the Australian environment, particularly bulky products such as mattresses which consumers can’t easily transport,” said Eden Benito, spokesperson, Ecosa.
“Currently, there are only limited ways for a household to ‘responsibly’ discard these larger items and most of these result in them ending up in the landfill.”
Benito added that the initiative makes recycling easier for consumers by allowing households to request a pick up from their homes – regardless of which retailer they originally purchased the unwanted bedding from.
The recycling program will also offer an $80 voucher for every mattress and a $40 voucher for every carton of sheets sent to the company’s recycling facility to offset the postage cost in shipping.
“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, about making it just as easy to recycle a product as it is to buy a new one,” he concluded.
Ecosa’s recycling service is available anywhere in Australia. More details are available on its official website. The retailer also plans to expand the initiative to recycle a range of household items in the future.
