Envirogreen Recycling is urging Phil Hogan TD, the Minister for Environment, to place a blanket ban on mattresses being land filled. Industry figures indicate that in the region of 800,000 mattresses and beds annually are being sent to landfills throughout the country. According to Envirogreen Recycling 100% of the components of mattress can be recycled if dry and each mattress recycled saves over 23 cubic yards of landfill space.
Mark Smyth, sales director for the company, says that whilst Envirogreen was making great progress with the number of mattresses it was recycling, tough new legislation was required to put Ireland among Europe’s elite recycling nations.
Conor Guy, managing director of Envirogreen, notes that “implementing new regulations to recycle mattresses would create over 750 new positions throughout Ireland for the sector”. Conor Guy also maintains that the recycling of mattresses is the only viable non-landfill option as the steel content of mattresses and the inability to shred the springs, would rule out the recovery of mattresses at the proposed Poolbeg incinerator.
Envirogreen Recycling currently provide a commercial and residential mattress recycling service and in the three months it has operated the service, recycled over 5000 mattresses, on what it describes a “ small marketing budget”. Envirogreen Recycling was named Repak Recycler of the Year in 2011.