City Wide Mattress Collection Trial Launched
Every year about 65,000 mattresses end up as waste in Copenhagen. This equals more than 1,300 tonnes of mattresses.
There is a potential to increase the recycling of materials in the mattresses if they are collected separately and dry.
City of Copenhagen now launches a city wide collection trial to gain data on mattress collection potential, recyclability and ways to optimize logistics.
Trial showed potential
In 2022 the City of Copenhagen collaborated with other municipalities on a small scale mattress collection trial to test the recyclability of Danish mattresses.
The trial showed a potential of increasing the recycling rate of foam and spring mattresses (without wood) from around 20-30 % to over 75 % using the RetourMatras recycling method. This gain was mainly attributed to the large amount of PUR foam (up to approx. 41 %) and textiles (up to approx. 14 %) which can be recycled if the soft mattresses are collected separately.
In 2022 the trial also showed that the box spring mattresses weren't suitable for recycling with the RetourMatras method. However, box-spring mattress composition indicates that shredding of the mattresses and subsequent separation of wood and metal via scanners and magnets could in theory achieve a sorting rate of minimum 65 %.
New city wide trial collecting two types of mattresses
City of Copenhagen now launches a new city wide collection trial based on experience from the initial trial.
The mattresses are collected at two recycling stations and from the household collection scheme of ‘large interior’.
- Soft mattresses (without wood) will be exported to RetourMatras in The Netherlands
- Treatment of hard mattresses (including wood) with separation of wood and metals will be tested at NORRECCO in Copenhagen. Test treatment during the trial period will clarify whether the theoretical 65 % sorting rate from boxspring mattresses can be achieved with known technology.
Mattresses are large and heavy objects that can be challenging to handle for the citizen and in the waste management chain. Especially the need to keep mattresses dry demands new logistical solutions. Optimization of collection logistics is therefore a dedicated focus of the new trial.
In addition, City of Copenhagen is part of the TRACE project, funded by Innovation Fund Denmark. Part of this project focuses on mattress recycling.