Green Bed Recycling

Mattresses and boxsprings are cut open and separated into various components, including cotton, foam, wood and steel. These materials are bailed and shipped out for recycling. St. Vincent de Paul provides a quality service to the community, and diverts millions of pounds of material from landfills every year. The procedure for recycling a mattress consists of the polyurethane foam and cotton fiber on either side of the steel framework is sawn away. The remaining materials are put through a shredder. The metal is removed with a magnet from the shredded mass, and the remaining fiber material is bailed. On average, 60-90% of a mattress can be recycled, depending on its original quality and condition. Polyurethane accounts for six pounds of the average mattress. Polyurethanes can be sent for reuse, chemical recycling, or can be incinerated for energy recovery. In many cases, polyurethane can be just as valuable after it has served its original intended purpose and are ready to be discarded. There are several mechanical recycling processes for polyurethanes currently in use: Regrinding industrial and post-consumer flexible polyurethane foam into powders to produce new foam. Flexible Foam Bonding yields a variety of padding products, including recovered pieces of flexible polyurethane foam used in products such as carpet underlay and athletic mats. Adhesive Pressing coats polyurethane granules with a binder and then cures them under heat and pressure to make contoured parts like automotive floor mats and tire covers. Compression Molding polyurethane granules under heat and pressure can produce rigid and 3-D parts, such as pump and motor housings. The used foam can be turned into carpet underlay or insulation. The wooden frames can be chipped and used as fuel, the cotton is used in industrial machinery oil filters and other textile applications. The springs, made from steel, have a high market value as scrap but are difficult to compress. Mattresses can be up to 90% recyclable. These commodities include foam, which is recycled back into the carpet industry, metal for the steel industry, and the wood that is made into ground covering. While there is a fee to recycle mattresses the benefits greatly out weigh lasting problems that are created by taking these items to the landfill. It takes a mattress 80 to 100 years to decompose and creates hazards.

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Green Bed Recycling posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.