Difficult to Manage Wastes:Mattresses

Kate Hagemann , Product Stewardship Institute

Advancing Recycling & Organics Management:A Sustainable Future

March 29, 2010

Who is the Product Stewardship Institute?

February 25, 2011

Non-profit founded in 2000 Membership 46 States 200+ Local governments 70+ Corporate,

Organizational, Academic & Non-U.S. Government Partners

Board of Directors: 7 states, 4 local agencies

• Multi-stakeholder product stewardship network

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State “Extended Producer Responsibility” Laws

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State Legislative MomentumEPR Laws & EPR 2010 Legislation

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60+ EPR laws in 32 states(including laws on carpet, cell phones and

agricultural pesticide containers)

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914 23*

Trend: Applying EPR to More Products

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•Packaging & Printed

Material

•Phone books

•Pharmaceuticals

•Plastic Bags

February 25, 2011

…And More Products

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• Carpet• Fluorescent lamps• Electronics• Paint• Thermostats•Batteries•Gas cylinders (Pilot program in WI)

•Medical sharps•Radioactive Devices

Legislation introduced in 2011

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….and mattresses

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Photo Courtesy of King County Solid Waste Division - Seattle, Washington

•Motivated to reduce an estimated $400,000 annual cost to dispose of residential mattresses, the City of Hartford has taken the lead on developing a product stewardship solution that will increase mattress recycling and decrease costs to the City.

•has turned this into a national Mattress Stewardship Initiative that will likely result in a legislative solution.

The problem

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Photo Courtesy of King County Solid Waste Division - Seattle, Washington

• don’t compact well

•springs pop out & jam machinery

•Conigliaro Industries, a recycler, estimated that the

“opportunity cost” a landfill incurs by accepting mattresses =

$15 a mattress. (it would be more profitable for the landfill to

pay someone else up to $15 to dispose of each mattress.)

• mattress industry upset too many used beds end up in the

hands of renovators who resell them as new

Recycling

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• small percentage are dismantled and recycled annually

• more than a dozen mattress recycling facilities in North America.

•For a list, check www.sleepproducts.org

• majority are run by nonprofits

• financial viability often depends on collecting a per-piece tip fee.

• approx $6 to $15 per unit.

• some components have value (steel springs, polyurethane foam) but there is still a net

cost to collect and recycle them.

•The Institutional Recycling Network (IRN) works universities across the country to facilitate

the reuse and recycling of mattresses.

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PSI has developed a

briefing document that

will prepare participants

for a

National Mattress Stewar

dship Meeting

.

What can be done?

National Mattress Stewardship Meeting

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Monday, April 11, 20118:30 am – 5:00 pm

Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority Trash Museum

211 Murphy RoadHartford, CT

Proposed Project Goals

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1. Develop a long-term financing system to manage mattresses and box springs in a manner that alleviates the financial burden faced by governments.

Options:

Extended Producer Responsibility Legislation

Advanced Recycling Fee

Registration

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www.productstewardship.us/mattresses

To register visit:

* dial-in participation also available

Recent developments at the local level:

• Seattle, Washington (October 2010)First mandatory opt-out law for phone books; also requires companies to pay for phone book recycling

• San Francisco, California (December 2010)Sought to create a producer-run take-back program for unwanted medicines**Resulted in negotiated agreement to have drug take-back pilot with industry funding

Another Possibility: Local Level EPR Ordinances

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More Information

Kate HagemannAssociate of Policy & ProgramsKate@productstewardship.us

© Product Stewardship Institute –February 25, 2010 16March 29, 2011