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BedTimes, Sustainability Report, June 2008

Minneapolis opening mattress disposal center
Center expects to handle 40,000 pieces a year

By Karl Kunkel

Soon landfill operators throughout Hennepin County, Minn., expect to be seeing fewer discarded mattresses and foundations arriving at their facilities.

The county, encompassing Minneapolis and suburbs on the western side of the Twin Cities, hopes to have its first mattress disposal center up and running later this month. Initially, the facility is projected to handle as many as 40,000 mattresses and foundations each year. Currently, county officials estimate that about 300,000 used mattresses and foundations are sent to landfills annually in the Twin Cities area.

Paul Kroening, supervising environmentalist for the Hennepin County Department of Environmental Services’ Solid Waste Division, is leading the project.

“Mattresses are a problem in the waste disposal stream,” Kroening says. “They are voluminous and they don’t compact well. It is difficult getting mattresses to run through any of our resource-recovery and waste-energy facilities. If you landfill a mattress, it just pops right up to the surface.”

The facility expects to charge $12 to $15 to process each mattress and foundation, meaning a set would be assessed a fee of about $30.

The center is located in an industrial park in northeast Minneapolis and will draw used mattresses and foundations primarily from recycling centers and municipal drop sites. Kroening also hopes to work with retailers, such as Slumberland and Select Comfort, both of which are headquartered in the area, to dispose of used bedding. As the 12,000-square-foot facility generates more publicity, it may begin handling other types of home furnishings.

Kenny Larson, president of the 107-store Slumberland chain based in Little Canada, Minn., says he is willing to look at proposals from the Hennepin County disposal center. At present, all the mattresses and foundations Slumberland collects from its customers are scrutinized by a charitable organization to see if they can be given to needy families.

Those that don’t pass muster are run through a shredding machine to reduce their mass and then put in landfills.

Initially, the Minneapolis center will have a work force of five to seven people, eventually topping out at 10 workers operating on a single shift. The center will be run and staffed by People for Pride in Living, a not-for-profit jobs training organization familiar with disassembling items for recycling.
When BedTimes spoke with Kroening in the few months leading up to the opening of the center, he was scrutinizing various types of equipment for use in breaking down mattresses and foundations.

“For the most part, we are looking at the typical materials handling equipment you would see in a warehouse, like forklifts and conveyor belts to move the materials around,” Kroening says. “We are looking at a couple of spinning tables for processing the mattresses.” A cardboard baler and pneumatic shears for cover removal also were needed.
Kroening has consulted with a local equipment manufacturer about the possibility of having some machinery designed or modified specifically for the disposal center.

When a mattress comes through the door, the top will be cut off, the mattress disassembled and the components separated. Components include steel innersprings, cushioning foams, wood, fiber pads, ticking and cotton. Kroening expects about 50% of the materials in each mattress and foundation spring to be recycled or otherwise utilized.
The figure may rise to 80% or more, depending on market needs, he says.

Kroening has been talking with the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota at Duluth for help in finding applications for cotton and other fibers.

The new center is being partially modeled on a mattress recycling center run by Goodwill Industries in Duluth that employs three to five people, depending on the needs at the time. But Kroening expects the Minneapolis facility to handle up to four times as many mattresses as Duluth. He also wants the facility to be more automated.

Industry efforts
The International Sleep Products Association is undertaking a sustainability initiative to increase mattress recycling and to remove used and renovated mattresses from the market. For more information, contact Ryan Trainer, ISPA executive vice president and general counsel, at  rtrainer@sleepproducts.org or 703-683-8371, Ext. 1118.