There’s only one mattress recycler in the whole state of Florida. This unicorn is otherwise known as the Mustard Seed of Central Florida and is located in the historical town of Eatonville. The Mustard Seed is known for its work rebuilding the lives of families who have suffered disaster or personal tragedy by providing household furnishings, clothing, and overall, making their house a comfortable home. What’s unique about this non-profit organization is that it has a scrappy approach to carrying out its work while also being environmentally responsible in the community.
Since 2011, The Mustard Seed’s recycling efforts have deconstructed more than 175,000 mattresses and sold their components, diverting nearly 4 million cubic feet of waste from the landfill. Landfills hate when a truckful of mattresses comes in to dump because mattresses have a low bulk density. Mattresses don’t weigh much, so the revenue they generate on the tipping fee is low. Plus the bulkiness of mattresses means that they take up a lot of the landfill’s precious capacity. It’s a win-win for everybody when mattresses are recycled.
Recycling a mattress takes manual deconstruction, and it’s not easy work. Mr. Howard, the supervisor of the Mustard Seed’s mattress recycling program, is always looking for volunteers to help him shuck the ever-growing stack of mattresses and boxsprings. It starts with a sharp box cutter and making a steady incision around the entire length of the mattress. Once you’ve opened the outer part, you can pull off the foam, metal boxsprings, and fabric topper. Oftentimes, the biggest deterrent is the glue that’s holding everything together. Howard has been recycling mattresses for over ten years and knows every technique in the book to break them apart for the valuable materials inside.
In states like California, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, there exists the non-profit organization the Mattress Recycling Council. They were formed by the mattress industry to operate recycling programs in states that have passed mattress recycling laws.
MRC assembles a network of collection sites and recyclers in each state. The consumer/resident drops off the old mattress at the collection site for free. MRC pays a fee to the collection site for each mattress they turn over to them. Many of these collection sites are municipal transfer stations or landfills. MRC pays a fee to transport the mattresses from a collection site to a mattress recycler. In the final step, MRC pays the recycler (like Mustard Seed) a fee for each mattress they recycle and any earnings from the re-sale of steel, foam, wood, etc is theirs.
To get a similar statewide program, the Florida legislature would need to pass a law (like CA, CT and RI) that requires a mattress recycling fee of 15-20 dollars be charged on every mattress sold within the state – by both traditional retailers and online retailers.
At the Mustard Seed, recycling efforts generate income to help fund the furniture and clothing programs. They accept donations of furniture, appliances, household items, linens, dishes, toys, home decor, and anything that makes a house a comfortable home. They serve around 3,000 people each year — and rely on community support.
Volunteer to help out The Mustard Seed by signing up here.
Mr. Howard, the king of mattress recycling.
Composting Advocacy Opportunities
To achieve the goal of a Zero Waste Central Florida, it’s going to take political advocacy and action at the community grassroots level. Going forward, we want to bring together our subscribers, who are willing to write, call, and canvass for political change in support of food waste recycling.
Our subscribers are already doing a lot, diverting their household’s food scraps from the landfill, and deserve all the praise. Although, to live in a zero waste society, we need to unify our voice.
Click on the link below, and send us an email letting us know you’re interested in joining the Composting Advocacy Group, and we’ll be in touch shortly with more information about our efforts. Members of The Compost Advocacy Group will be subject to discounts, and promo codes.
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