The group helps the industry consider end-of-life managment when designing components and mattresses.
What began in 2022 as a small, pilot working group considering circular design challenges and opportunities with mattress adhesives has grown into a larger, broader Workgroup on Circular Design that helps members of the International Sleep Products Association take end-of-life recycling challenges into account as they design components and mattresses.
If you’d like to be a part of the conversation shaping the future of mattress circularity, join the workgroup session at the fourth annual ISPA Sustainability Conference Sept. 10-11 in Atlanta. The workgroup brings together suppliers, manufacturers and mattress recyclers to exchange ideas, address challenges and explore solutions. Last year, more than 100 people attended the workgroup meeting.
The workgroup, formed by the Mattress Recycling Council:
- Facilitates discussions about how to improve the circularity of mattresses.
- Gives recyclers an opportunity to share their experiences with suppliers and manufacturers so they can better understand how their design and materials choices affect mattress deconstruction and end-of-life component recycling.
- Helps recyclers anticipate whether new mattress components and constructions will necessitate adjustments to recycling infrastructure.
- Helps the mattress industry develop consensus on circular design principles.
This fall, the workgroup will meet from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 10.
Presenters will include Ryan McMullan, principal consultant for Lean Green Way, and Kate Caddy, director of sustainability for ISPA. During the workgroup meeting, MRC will facilitate several breakout sessions:
Design for Disassembly
Explore design and assembly choices that can enable easier mattress disassembly, minimize cross-material contamination, reduce manufacturing waste and maximize recovery of valuable materials at the end of a mattress’ life.
Waste Reduction Across the Value Chain
Share and develop strategies to eliminate waste across production and post-consumer recovery by increasing product longevity, closing in-plant material loops and optimizing packaging.
Circular Fabrication Materials
Explore opportunities to integrate innovative materials — such as recycled content and renewable feedstocks — into products and processes to drive circularity and reduce environmental impacts while maintaining high performance.
Reducing Lifecycle Carbon Emissions
Identify emissions hotspots and develop actionable strategies across design, production, logistics and recovery to meaningfully reduce a product’s lifecycle carbon footprint.
Downstream Communication
Engaging Retailers, Consumers and Recyclers: Develop practical solutions to enhance communication across the value chain by educating consumers, aligning with retailers and engaging mattress recyclers.
You can indicate the breakout session you prefer when registering for the conference.
“The workgroup is a great example of industry collaboration to identify strategies that drive innovation, reduce waste and create value by recycling post-consumer mattress components,” Caddy says. One example is the changes that recycling machinery producers, adhesive suppliers, pocketed springs manufacturers and others have made to improve the recyclability of pocketed spring units. You can read a case study on that, “How Industry Collaboration Is Improving Sustainability,” in the February 2024 issue of BedTimes.
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER TO ATTEND
MRC’s Workgroup on Circular Design convenes at the ISPA Sustainability Conference, which also includes networking opportunities and educational sessions designed to advance sustainability in the bedding industry.
For additional details about the conference, which will be at the Wyndham Atlanta Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center in Atlanta Sept. 10-11, and to register for the event, please visit ISPASustainability.com.
Read more news at bedtimesmagazine.com/.
