Covey says "Start with the end in mind."
That is exactly how this page was created. Ask enough questions that when all are answered this mattress recycling grass roots program will have a pretty good reference on the industry. So, as you read the questions, if you have an answer -
email it to me and I will do my best to get it posted for all to see.
Funding For Facilities
Are there any grants available for mattress recycling facilities?
Who are the known Lendors for mattress recycling facilities?
Who are the known Angel Investors for mattress recycling facilities?
What are the known tax advantages for non-profit mattress recycling facilities?
What are the known tax advantages for minority owned mattress recycling facilities?
Should you sell or give away reusable mattresses?
- Re-built or re-used mattresses find their way to the poor. Thrift stores often serve as retail outlets for re-built mattresses. But the overwhelming majority of used mattresses are not suitable for re-use for health and sanitation reasons. Source: www.themattresslady.com .
Back To Table of Contents
Who Is Actually In The Business
Who are the known mattress recycling facilities in the USA?
- Bedbusters, California Click Here
- Chicago Grade Landfill Recycling Information
Our recycling programs enable you to safely and easily drop off a wide ... Mattress/Couch(1 set or Unit w/load), $20.00/load up to $47/ton (see Rates) ... Click Here
- Carolina Mattress Recyclers located in Lenoir, NC. Click Here
- Conigliaro Industries (a private firm in Framingham, Massachusetts) Click Here
- Dreamsafe, Moorabbin, Australia Click Here
- Dreams: UK Bed retailer Dreams has installed two new multi-million pound state-of-the-art bed shredders at its distribution hub, to crush and shred old beds and mattresses. Click Here
- FEAT Enterprises in Fife, Scotland. They have just received funding to recycle 6900 mattresses a year. They are a not-for profit social enterprise. Click Here Mr. Chris McCartney
- HOPE Services in Monterey County is helping the community to go green by recycling mattresses and box springs! HOPE now provides mattress and box spring ... Click Here
- MattCanada, Montreal, Québec Click Here
- Moose Jaw Enviro Mattress Depot Inc, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Contact: Dennis Widenmaier Phone: 306-694-2933 Fax: 306-692-2039
- New Zealand: Mattress Recycling Program Instituted by eMattress
Nov 8, 2007 ... New Caledonia · New Zealand ... From the owner's perspective, recycling the mattress is easy... Click Here
- Nine Lives Mattress Recycling, Pamplico, South Carolina Click Here
- Northeast Minnesota Mattress Recycling Program, a facility near Duluth operated in partnership by the Western Lake Superior Sanitation District and Goodwill Industries. Source: www.themattresslady.com
- Ohio Mattress Recovery and Recycling. Source: www.ohiomattressrecovery.com
- PPL Industries, Minneapolis. Contact: Doug Jewett Phone: 612-332-0664 Fax: 612-332-4291
- San Francisco Bay Area Recycle Click Here
- St. Vincent de Paul Society in Oregon and California.
DR3 Mattress Recycling, www.svdp.us/dr3-mattress-recycling.php5
- Transworld Click Here
Who are the known mattress recycling facilities in the United Kingdom?
Back To Table of Contents
Fees Being Charged
What are the known mattress recycling fees charged to mattress owners?
- The Northeast Minnesota Mattress Recycling Program charges $6 per mattress piece dropped off at the Goodwill Industries' deconstruction plant. Source: www.themattresslady.com
- Conigliaro charges a fee of $8 to $18. Source: www.themattresslady.com
What are the known mattress recycling fees charged to new mattress buyers?
What are the known mattress landfill tipping fees charged for mattress disposal?
What are the known fees charged by trash haulers for curb side mattress disposal?
Back To Table of Contents
Cost To Transport Mattresses
What is the cost to transport used mattresses to the mattress recycling facility?
- From Kansas City to Garden City, MO a fully loaded 53 foot trailer cost was between $200 and $300 per about 84 mile round trip.
What is the cost to transport new mattresses to the mattress store?
Back To Table of Contents
Facility Employees
Which type of employee works in the mattress recycling process and what is their job description?
- Garden City, Missouri facility had one laborer who ran the soft component baler.
Do States provide employees to work in the mattress recycling process and what is their job description?
- Attempts at the Garden City, Missouri to use State of Missouri 90 day trainees for mattress tear down proved less than desirable.
Are there mattress recycling process jobs suitable for physically challenged employees and what is their job description?
Does mattress recycling create new jobs?
- At the Garden City, Missouri facility there was 1 new laborer job created per 25 mattresses/day manual teardown using box cutter.
Back To Table of Contents
Facility Equipment
Which machines are used in the mattress recycling process?
- For coil spring mattresses and box springs, we of course hope everyone will use a spring compactor invention (US Patent Pending) machine to optimize their steel recycling efforts.
Which tools are used in the mattress recycling process?
- For manual tear down of mattresses - separation of soft components - a box cutter may be used.
- For preparing coil springs and box springs for crushing in the Spring Compactor Invention (US Patent Pending) bolt cutters may be used. See video.
Back To Table of Contents
Facility Specifications and Costs
What is the size of the mattress recycling facilities in total sf and mattresses per day/sf?
- St. Vincent de Paul Society's facility near Oakland, California is about 26,000 square feet.
What is the start up cost for a mattress recycling facility?
What are the monthly utility costs for mattress recycling facilities?
What are the costs to obtain environmental permits for mattress recycling facilities?
What are the costs to obtain siting and construction permits for mattress recycling facilities?
Back To Table of Contents
Professional Designers
Who are the designers for mattress recycling facilities?
Are there any pre-designed standard layouts for mattress recycling facilities?
What is the best design - storing ready to sell components in transportation units or under cover?
- At the Garden City, Missouri facility - for soft components that had to be kept dry - 53 foot trailers were used when possible as this minimizes material handling.
What is the best loading and unloading design for mattress recycling facilities?
Back To Table of Contents
Used Mattress Pickup Points
What and where are the best used mattress pickup points?
- City clean up days.
- Large furniture stores.
- Hospitals, Hotels, Universities for one time pickups
- Prisons for one time foam mattress pickups.
- Landfills.
- Public drop off at the facility.
What do you use to pickup used mattresses?
- A local large furniture store provided a 53 foot trailer at their site which was upon call loaded into smaller truck pulled trailers for transport.
Back To Table of Contents
How To Perform Mattress Recycling
What is the flow chart for mattress recycling facilities operations?
- Please see the US Provisional Patent application on this site.
How to separate a mattress into its component parts?
- Using box cutters - first take off the top layers of soft components and separate them and then flip the mattress and remove the bottom layers of soft components. This leaves the coil springs if used in the mattress.
How to separate a box springs set into its component parts?
- The Garden City, Missouri operation used a proprietary gig to do this.
How to separate a piece of padded furniture into its component parts?
Back To Table of Contents
Buyers of Mattress Components
Who are the known mattress recycling buyers for cotton?
- Look to paper mills. There are all sorts of problems using recycled cotton in clothes.
Who are the known mattress recycling buyers for foam?
Who are the known mattress recycling buyers for box spring dimensional lumber?
- Local cabinet shops may well use this clean lumber for backing.
- Crate making for transportation of goods is a possibility.
Who are the known mattress recycling buyers for box spring scrap wood?
- Locally, Northwest Missouri State University heats their entire campus with wood pellets they manufacture on-site from excess lumber and forest products.
Who are the known mattress recycling buyers for ticking?
- Ron McMillian suggested making dog pillows with this material.
- Might well work as grocery tote bags as the stiffness would keep them from falling over all the time like soft shapeless bags do.
Who are the known mattress recycling buyers for card board?
Back To Table of Contents
Sources of Used Mattresses
What are the sources for used mattresses?
Back To Table of Contents
Wet Mattresses
How to dry wet mattresses?
Back To Table of Contents
Sanitizing Used Mattresses
How to Sanitize used mattresses?
- Thermal destruction of germs and bed bugs.
Back To Table of Contents
Bed Bugs
How To Keep Bed Bugs Out Of Mattress Recycling Facilities?
Back To Table of Contents
Creative Component Uses
If Appropriate, Please Copyright Your Idea
And, Place the notice on your entry.
What is a creative use for ticking?
What is a creative use for cotton?
What is a creative use for felt?
What is a creative use for foam?
What is a creative use for wood?
What is a creative use for cardboard?
What is a creative use for steel?
