Unless you work in waste management, you may be unaware of how tricky it is to recycle a mattress. Most mattresses are made up of numerous different materials, of which vary in their ability to be recycled. This partly due to regulations on recycling contaminated items, and the limited market for mattress materials. However, we’ve tackled the issue and are successful mattress recyclers!
How Our Mattresses Are Recycled
Our primary solution for mattress recycling is reuse. We have constructed an innovative new method of sweeping the yard by attaching a mattress to our 360 excavator.
Once they have reached the end of their sweeping life, we will then shred them using our shredder. This shredder is part of our recycling investment, which has seen a significant expansion in our capacity to recycle your waste. The machine will shred the mattress into tiny fibres, allowing the fibres and metal coils to separate.
Then, the mixture is fed onto a conveyor belt with a magnet overhead. The magnet pulls the metal away from the fibres, leaving the two grades fully separated.
Each of our waste streams has a different pathway to recycling. Our metal waste is segregated into its different element compositions; iron, copper, aluminium, for example. Each metal waste stream is sent on to our partner metal recycling centres, where they can be broken down further and turned into new metal products. The mattress fibres are also bulked up and sent on to specialised recycling facilities to turn into new products.
Mattresses are commonly found objects on landfill sites, and, unsurprisingly, do not decompose easily. Bailey’s Skip Hire and Recycling, unlike many waste management companies, have found a solution to mattress recycling.
