Mattress disposal has become one of the major issues that even first-world nations like the States face. With dumping over 20 million mattresses a year, the landfills are reaching a threshold limit. To date, paper and plastic recycling has been into major news, but mattress recycles are taking the globe by storm. This is a very efficient solution as the mounting trash gets a way to get utilized efficiently. But why think about recycling mattresses?
Why mattress recycling?
Landfills have a limited capacity to hold the trash and they cannot hold any more mattresses going in it. The mattresses take up large areas for disposal with each unit occupying about 20 to 60 cubic feet. To reduce your carbon footprint, it is the best idea to recycle your mattresses. To answer mattress recycling requirements, it is necessary to understand what threats they can pose to the natural environment.
- The in-built materials of the mattresses are not built out of any biodegradable materials. They take decades and centuries to get decomposed in the right way.
- The mattresses are very large and are built up of heavy-duty frames which take up a lot of space in the landfill.
- The chemical content in the mattresses can reach out in the surrounding areas, soil, and groundwater.
- The fees are immensely high for landfill disposal of the mattresses.
What is mattress recycling?
This is the simple method of using each of the components of the bed and reusing them to suit other applicative purposes. This is a completely separate process from mattress refurbishing or renovating. Because mattress recycling does not involve reupholstering or reselling the bed.
With recycling, the entire mattress is deconstructed and is used differently.
- Springs and coils are the metals that are melted and formed into new articles.
- The foams of the mattress are shredded and used as padding for carpet, moving pads, or even in fuel sources.
- The cotton and filters from the mattresses are used as filters and insulations or even are burned for fuels.
- The wood is chipped for fuels or mulch.
How would you recycle it?
The recycling facilities are set up through a directory of Earth911.org and the numbers are constantly growing every day. You can take and deposit your mattress into those repositories for the recycle. They accept the mattresses from retails or manufacturing partners or also allow individual drop-off.
You can also drop off your old mattresses at Recyc-Matelas for efficient recycling and reuse.
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