Mattress recycling organisation, The Furniture Recycling Group (TFRG), has joined forces with John Lewis and has already succeeded in collecting 58,000 mattresses for recycling, diverting around 1,500 tonnes of waste from landfill.
Approximately 167,000 tonnes of mattresses are sent to landfill each year in the UK, according to a 2013 report by WRAP, and with the added support of TFRG, John Lewis is able to offer its customers the option to include a mattress disposal and recycling service whenever they order a new mattress for delivery.
As a direct result of the partnership, John Lewis was able to collect and recycle approximately 58,000 mattresses in 2016 alone, diverting around 1,500 tonnes of waste from landfill.
As part of the service, John Lewis picks up customers’ old mattresses and takes them to one of its many distribution hubs. From there, the mattresses are sent to TFRG to be broken down into their components using the company’s innovative new mattress recycling machine. The components are then repurposed and reused by TFRG to manufacture new, superior quality mattresses, creating a circular economy.
Ben Thomas, sustainability manager at John Lewis, says: “For our mattress recycling service, we knew we needed to find a partner who would be trustworthy and had a plan for the future. After conducting thorough research into the industry it became clear that Nick Oettinger at The Furniture Recycling Group was the person we wanted to work with.
“Nick has a solid, well-established end market for the recyclate. He is also very innovative and forward-thinking, and is continually looking to improve the mattress recycling process. His enthusiasm and knowledge of the industry really struck a note with us during the tender process and we trust him implicitly.
“In the future we hope to go even further and find new uses for the materials extracted from the mattresses we send to TFRG, to help close the loop on waste. With the help of Nick and his team, we’re very optimistic about the future of mattress recycling.”
Source: CIWM-Journal.co.uk
