Does anybody ever query the fundamental assumptions of recycling?
How do we all know vitality consumption and air pollution created throughout assortment, transportation and recycling of some objects doesn’t exceed the environmental profit of constructing a brand new product from recycled materials?
On Feb. 7, the Mattress Recycling Council introduced an in depth evaluation of the environmental impacts of recycling the multi-material product. The council is a nonprofit created by the Worldwide Sleep Merchandise Affiliation, an trade commerce group, to implement California’s Used Mattress Restoration and Recycling Act, mandated by the Legislature in 2013. Since 2016, the council has facilitated the recycling of almost 10 million mattresses and field springs in California and in addition manages compliance with state-mandated packages in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
For the examine, the contracted consultants, Santa Barbara-based Scope 3 Consulting, began by assuming nothing, proceeded by questioning something and concluded by measuring every part associated to mattress recycling.
Their evaluation, accomplished in November, measured each potential affect of assortment, transportation, processing and re-manufacturing with recycled materials, right down to the boots and gloves of staff reducing aside mattresses to ship supplies to finish customers.
When held as much as this diploma of arduous evaluation, recycling carried out nicely — however not in addition to usually assumed in a single regard.
Many measurements of recycling assume “one-to-one displacement.” That might imply, for instance, a pound of previous mattress foam recycled into padding for a brand new carpet displaces a pound of polyurethane in any other case wanted to make the carpet.
Scope 3 analysis modified this one-to-one assumption, substituting extra conservative displacement claims.
The report maintains some merchandise made with recycled materials would have in any other case been made with much less uncooked supplies. In some circumstances, merchandise created from uncooked supplies are extra sturdy than these with recycled materials.
One other deduction: Some merchandise utilizing recycled content material wouldn’t have in any other case been made.
For instance, most wooden floor up from previous mattress frames is recycled into mulch. Mulch is nice, as a result of utility to gardens and farms retains soil moisture with out watering, reduces erosion with out tarping and suppresses weed progress with out herbicides. Nonetheless, gardeners and farmers may not have watered, used tarps or utilized herbicides, so these often-touted advantages of recycling are calculated to be smaller on this examine than often assumed.
Landfill was the vacation spot for 23% of the fabric in mattresses delivered to recycling assortment areas in California. The double-handling and landfilling of this materials, which required extra vitality than sending it on to landfill, additionally counted in opposition to recycling. Landfilled materials was largely textiles, and the mattress council is sponsoring analysis and trials to develop markets for this materials.
The underside line?
Regardless of assortment and processing challenges for this huge, cumbersome, hard-to-handle, multi-material recyclable, mattress recycling in California tremendously advantages the setting.
A slide proven throughout the mattress council’s on-line presentation quantified California’s yearly financial savings in acquainted phrases. The 75 million kilos of greenhouse gasoline emissions lower is like lowering 98 million miles of automotive emissions. The 818 million gallons of water saved in extraction and manufacturing processes would meet the annual water wants of 37,500 common Californians. The 174 megawatt-hours of vitality saved would energy properties of 40,000 residents.
In Ventura County, there are 5 free drop-off areas for mattress recycling. Yow will discover the closest one at byebyemattress.com.
Nonetheless, the simplest strategy to recycle a mattress is to ask the retailer delivering your new mattress to take your previous one. Even on-line retailers are required by legislation to take action with out extra cost.
Another choice, for individuals with residential curbside refuse assortment service, is to name your rubbish collector and ask to your free, yearly allotted bulky-item assortment.
David Goldstein is an environmental useful resource analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Company. He didn’t write this column in his capability as a member of the California Mattress Recycling Advisory Committee. Goldstein might be reached at 805-658-4312 or [email protected].
