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A NEWSLETTER TO EXPAND MARKETS FOR RECYCLED MATERIALS

Mattress disposal and recycling — nothing to snooze at

Mattresses pile up for disposal at King County’s Cedar Hills Regional Landfill.

Large quantities of mattresses have been discarded for decades. There is no firm statistic on the number of mattresses disposed, but based on sales, it is roughly estimated that 30 million mattress and box springs sets are discarded in the U.S. every year.1 In 2007, King County’s Cedar Hills Regional Landfill received 1,485 tons of mattress waste, which is about 53,000 mattresses.2 A single mattress can take up 23 cubic feet of space and does not compress well in a landfill. In the solid waste system, mattresses can present handling difficulties and cause damage to transfer station and landfill equipment.

Current alternatives to mattress disposal include donating to charities; refurbishing for resale or donation; or recycling to recover the wood, steel, foam, cotton, and other materials. A limited number of charities still accept used mattresses in good condition, but due to health and other concerns many charities no longer accept them. Some companies refurbish used mattresses by sanitizing them and applying new covers. Although donation and refurbishing can temporarily extend the life of a mattress, eventually all mattresses will no longer be usable and will need to be recycled or disposed.

Mattress recycling is a fairly new practice, with little available research and documentation. There are at least three businesses or non-profits operating mattress recycling facilities in four locations in the U.S. All facilities charge fees for recycling to supplement the revenue from the sale of recovered materials.

Mattresses are particularly challenging to divert from the waste stream because the process of recycling them is labor intensive and it’s difficult to make the business financially sustainable. Manual disassembly is the preferred recycling method because it allows for the greatest material recovery. Examples of recycling markets for materials recovered from mattresses include steel from steel coils, carpet padding from polyurethane foam, boiler fuel from wood, and oil filter media from cotton. Markets vary significantly by location.

Successful recycling programs rely on developing mattress processing facilities, the use of existing collection infrastructure, and developing local markets for recovered materials.

St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County Oregon operates two successful recycling facilities—one in Oakland, Calif. and one in Eugene, Ore. Residents drop off mattresses at transfer stations for a fee set by the local solid waste agencies, and the mattresses are hauled to the recycling facilities. Mattress fees at a Lane County, Ore. transfer station are $9 for an individual piece, and $15 for a mattress and box-spring set.

Due to staffing costs and concerns about illegal dumping, these facilities do not accept deliveries of mattresses directly from the public. St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County also works with hospitals, universities and some retailers in Washington, Oregon and California to accept large quantities of commercial mattresses directly at their facilities. A fee of $6.50 per mattress is charged for commercial recycling, and additional fees are assessed if pick-up and transportation services are provided. Both facilities use hand-disassembly to recycle the mattresses they receive.

The LinkUp program team is researching mattress recycling, with the goal of determining how to support the establishment of mattress processing in King County in 2009.

King County focus

King County Solid Waste — Where Does it Go?

The King County Solid Waste Division (SWD) serves more than 1.2 million people, who generate about one million tons of solid waste each year. Understanding how that garbage is handled is essential to identifying recyclable materials, where they are in the waste stream and how they can be collected and recovered.

SWD provides garbage transfer, disposal and recycling services for residents and businesses in all of King County, except for Seattle and Milton. Eight transfer stations are used by private hauling companies, businesses, and county residents to dispose of solid waste, yard waste, and recyclable materials. At transfer stations, loads of garbage are gathered and transferred into larger containers that are transported by truck to King County’s Cedar Hills Regional Landfill for disposal.

Relatively small quantities of recyclable materials are currently collected at SWD transfer stations, but planned upgrades to the transfer system will provide greater capacity and opportunity to recover recyclable materials.

Cedar Hills Regional Landfill, owned by King County and operated by SWD, is the only operating landfill in King County. Nearly all of the solid waste generated by King County residents living outside of Seattle is disposed at Cedar Hills. Solid waste is taken to the landfill by county transfer trucks and by the large commercial hauling companies that provide curbside garbage collection services throughout the county. The City of Seattle and neighboring counties export garbage by rail to distant landfills.

More than 2,500 tons of garbage is added to the landfill each day. The landfill is currently expected to close in 2016; however, recent studies indicate that it is possible to extend the life of the landfill for up to four years or more. Once the landfill eventually reaches full capacity and is closed, solid waste generated in King County will be sent to an out-of-county landfill, or disposed using an alternative technology.

Since 1990, SWD has conducted the Waste Monitoring Program to learn more about the origins and disposal of waste. The program includes waste characterization studies, customer surveys, market analyses and other studies. One of SWD’s highest priorities is to reduce the overall amount of material that is disposed through innovative waste prevention and recycling programs and services at county facilities and in the community. Understanding the waste stream through the Waste Monitoring Program and expanding markets for recyclable and reusable materials through LinkUp are just two examples of SWD programs working to address the long term challenge of waste management.

Industry voice

Interface is a leader in carpet recycling technology and aims to continually challenge itself to “close the loop” in recycling by utilizing post-consumer products to the fullest potential and developing new technology to make that possible.

eNewsLink met up with Eric Nelson from Interface to discuss what they anticipate for the future of carpet recycling.

Is carpet recycling a priority for Interface Carpet? What are the company's goals for recycling carpet?
Carpet recycling is absolutely a priority. We’ve invested several million dollars in new technology for recycling carpet. Our goals are more defined by corporate philosophy than by numbers. First, we aspire to take end-of-life responsibility for every pound of material we’ve manufactured and installed in the past 35 years. Second, and equally important, is our desire to completely remove ourselves from virgin, petroleum-based raw materials. Ultimately, we’d like to use 100 percent post-consumer materials or bio-based materials to make our products.

Tell us about how Interface has worked to develop machinery for processing carpet for recycling. How does the machinery work?
We’ve made two big steps. The first step was five to six years ago called “cool blue” which enabled us to take old PVC or other vinyl polymers and recycle it into new carpet backing. We partnered with a company from Germany to develop the technology. Second, we focused on face fiber. We took this step a year and a half ago when we partnered with an Italian company to find a process that allows us to cleanly separate the face fiber from the backing of old carpet. We are able to cleanly separate fluff — which is 99 percent pure — which allows us to recycle that back into carpet fiber. It works on anything — commercial, industrial, residential, broadloom and carpet tile. The flexibility of this system is one of its greatest assets. Before that technology was developed we were only able to use waste fiber from manufacturing.

The machinery is currently running at an Interface Facility in Georgia, correct? Is that the only location? Is it working well, and have there been challenges?
Yes, the technology is working and yes, it is the only facility of its kind. It’s working well, but not perfectly — like any new machinery there are hiccups to work out. The plan all along has been to regionalize this technology and open regional carpet recycling facilities across the country.

What are Interface's plans for making the equipment available for use in other communities around the country? What are the prospects for the Seattle area?
I think Seattle is either near or at the top of the list for expansion for a couple of reasons. One, it’s a long way from Georgia and so it makes sense to have a location on the west coast. Also, the progressive nature of local government, the sense that people there have to do the right thing in the community and the large amount of old carpet available make it an ideal location for another facility.

What markets are there for the component materials from recycling carpet?
Recycling back into carpet is our priority so that we can close that loop; however, it can also be engineered for plastics and the nylon is popular in the automotive industry. Plastic made from nylon is all over the place. We’d like to focus mainly on carpet though.

Fast facts

Material Composition of Traditional Coil Spring Mattress

The chart shows the average composition of materials in a traditional coil spring mattress. Examples of products made from materials recovered from mattresses include steel from coil springs, carpet padding from polyurethane foam, boiler fuel from wood and oil filtration media from cotton.

Source:Tim Hagen, University of Minnesota — Duluth, Natural Resources Research Institute.

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