Helping you to sleep more soundly
Last year, we announced our investment, together with IKEA Group, in Dutch mattress recycler RetourMatras, which opened a new recycling plant in Zeeland. Over the course of the year, one million Renewi-sourced mattresses were saved from the incinerator in the Netherlands through automated processes, and around 90% of the materials were recycled or reused. As Renewi CEO Otto de Bont summarises it: “Innovation, partnering and a passion for secondary life for used materials are prerequisites for the circular economy, for really closing the loop.”
Following further investment, a fourth mattress recycling plant in the Netherlands and the first Belgian plant in Ghent are being built. Once the Etten-Leur plant opens, it will be possible for 1.5 million Dutch and Belgian mattresses to be recycled. As of 2 March 2021, in the Netherlands the minimum standard for mattresses was changed from incineration to separation into materials or other processing in which 90% of materials retrieved are recycled. This is positive, but is some way off Belgium, where mattress incineration was banned early in 2021. The next step for this co-operation is to create a truly circular mattress. Through further investment in refinement processes, the polyurethane foam from discarded mattresses can be converted back into a polyol, from which new foam can be created for new mattresses. Once the fourth factory opens, it will be possible to convert 200,000 mattresses into polyol per year.
- 90% Of mattress materials now recycled and reused in the Netherlands
- 1.5 million Expected number of Dutch and Belgian mattresses that will be recycled
- 200,000 Number of mattresses it will be possible to convert into polyol per year