On the warehouse floor of Goodwill Industries in Duluth, Minnesota, mattresses and box springs are piled almost 20 high, lining the walls and walkways. Workers hustle through the maze. Ultimately, they鈥檒l take each of these mattresses apart, stripping the fabric and foam by hand, and using a machine to peel the spring cages from their wooden frames.
Millions of mattresses and box springs are thrown out in the U.S. each year, and their sheer volume creates an expensive challenge for waste managers around the country. Mattresses are bulky and difficult to handle, even for heavy equipment. And they don鈥檛 easily compress, taking up valuable space in a landfill. Increasingly, waste officials are looking to recycling as a solution.
Duluth鈥檚 Goodwill Industries runs one of two mattress and box spring recycling programs in Minnesota. After deconstructing each unit, officials look to resell many of the materials.
鈥淲e鈥檙e getting four cents a pound [for the cotton],鈥� said Greg Conkins, the facility鈥檚 0perations director. 鈥淲ith the quilted toppers, we are receiving three cents a pound. The foam is at a current rate of 10 cents a pound, and that has been at that rate for probably eight years.鈥�
The most valuable components are the steel coils, the spring cages. But foundries often won鈥檛 accept them in their existing form. They need to be far more compact. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like shipping air when it鈥檚 not compressed,鈥� Conkins said.
At first, Goodwill Industries had no way around this problem. But then it turned to the Natural Resources Research Institute, an applied science arm of the University of Minnesota, for help. The Institute brought in Clint Deraas, a local inventor, to build a specialized machine to crush the springs. For Conkins, that machine made all the difference financially.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to use the word godsend because if we didn鈥檛 have it, we would not be producing a recycling of mattress program,鈥� Conkins said. 鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 be able to be in the business.鈥�
The machine crushes several spring cages into a single brick of steel. Deraas, the machine鈥檚 inventor, said a single brick weighs 80 to 100 pounds.
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