Manufacturers embrace greater recycling burden

Photo | Lisa Wilder Rocshay Thomas of Park City Green in Bridgeport breaks down an old mattress into its recyclable parts. Centers similar to this one say they recycle 96 percent of mattress materials into usable products: the covers (which can be turned into mattress pads), the cotton stuffing (turned into fabric), the foam (automobile padding), wood pieces (mulch), and springs (reforged steel).

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Connecticut's latest efforts to force mattress and paint manufacturers to recycle their products at the end of their life are just the beginning.

The state government is eying the philosophy — called product stewardship — for other industry subsectors like carpet and alkaline batteries, in order to increase the recycling rate and decrease the waste disposal burden on municipalities and taxpayers.

"We do have plans to continue in this because it will be part of our entire recycling initiative," said Diane Duva, assistant division director of the Bureau of Materials Management at the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. "Getting the materials moving back into the commerce of Connecticut is really the No. 1 goal."

The new mattress recycling law, signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on May 29, makes Connecticut the first state in the nation to require sleep product manufacturers to take control of their goods once consumers are finished with them. The plan for the paint recycling law, approved May 3, joins Connecticut with Oregon and California in mandating product stewardship on paint manufacturers.

The two new laws come on top of requirements the state already has for manufacturers of residential electronic goods and thermostats to pay for the recycling of this waste.

"The manufacturers, the retailers, and the consumer get the benefit of that product … but once it reaches the end of its use, the burden falls to the municipal taxpayer," said Tom Metzner, DEEP environmental analyst for the office of planning and program development. "That financial liability now will be factored into the cost of the product."

Despite the extra burden, manufacturers largely have been supportive of Connecticut's product stewardship laws, with the added cost passed onto consumers at the point of sale. Mattress costs are expected to increase $8-12 while paint goes up 35 cents to $1.60 per container.

"The industry knows best how to handle its products," said Chris Hudgins, vice president of government relations and policy for the International Sleep Products Association. "We want to run it to make sure it is as efficient as possible for us."

The mattress industry previously fought other recycling proposals in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and California because they placed the entire burden on manufacturers when the costs should be shared by retailers and consumers as well, Hudgins said.

Still, the industry knew the issue had to be addressed, as more local ordinances banned mattresses from landfills and the environmental issues surrounding their products became more readily apparent, Hudgins said.

For this year's legislative session, the industry worked with the Connecticut legislature to craft a law calling for a council of mattress manufacturers to administer the fee collected from consumers to run the recycling program.

"We wanted to make sure it was as industry-friendly as possible, and the Connecticut law does that," Hudgins said. "We don't really want to be in a situation where the state is regulating to us exactly what to do."

Similarly, the paint law was developed in partnership with the American Coatings Association, which formed the nonprofit PaintCare to operate recycling programs in Connecticut, California, Oregon, and any other state that passes similar laws. The Connecticut program starts July 1.

Two businesses already salivating over the new law are the mattress recycling centers in Bloomfield and Bridgeport.

Recyc-Mattresses in Bloomfield, opened in March 2012, processes 750 mattresses weekly and employs six people full-time. The company expects an 80 percent increase in volume and revenue once the Connecticut law gets rolling.

"That is huge," said Pascal Cohen, chief executive of Recyc-Mattresses, which is headquartered in Quebec. "We are hoping to get a good number of municipalities to send their mattresses to us."

Park City Green in Bridgeport sees the new law as a chance to have a steady supply of mattresses for processing. The center opened in 2012 as a partnership between nonprofits Greater Bridgeport Community Enterprises and Family ReEntry of Norwalk. So far, it only can employ two to seven people because inconsistent flow of 100-500 mattresses weekly.

"We have great hope for the new law," said Adrienne Houel, president of the board of directors for Park City Green. "This is a business-to-business type of operation … and you need a very, very long list of folks to supply you mattresses."

Every component of a mattress can be broken down and recycled: cotton for fabric, springs into reformed steel, foam for automobile padding, mattress tops for moving blankets, wood for mulch. The only parts that can't be recycled are those with extreme soiling or mold.

"We are very interested in reducing the carbon footprint for the city and the state," Houel said.

Product stewardship for mattresses, paint, residential electronics, and — soon enough — batteries and carpet is part of Connecticut's initiative to pull more usable goods out of the waste stream and increase the state recycle rate above its current 25 percent. Other facets include sending food waste to anaerobic digesters for power generation, having municipalities work on a regional basis, and encouraging construction and demolition companies to recover more of their waste.

The initiative will lower the burden on municipalities to handle waste disposal, said Metzner. From the new laws, DEEP expects municipalities to save $1.3 million annually on mattresses and $1 million on paint.

The next product stewardship in Connecticut likely will be batteries, Duva said. The industry has been receptive to the idea to solve the problem of alkaline batteries ending up in landfills or incinerators, as long as the legislation spreads the burden evenly for manufacturers and others that benefit from the products' sale and use.

A Connecticut alkaline battery law would be the first in the nation.

"Connecticut has been identified as a good place to do it because of the success we had with paint and mattresses," Metzner said.

The carpet and flooring industry has been less receptive to a recycling requirement, because many of the businesses in that industry are smaller and concerned about the added cost and administrative burdens, Metzner said.

If a carpet recycling law does pass, Recyc-Mattresses already has told the state it can expand operations to handle the additional materials.

The Bloomfield facility can handle up to 360,000 mattresses at one time. As Connecticut spreads product stewardship to other industries like carpet and other states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island adopt mattress laws, Recyc-Mattresses will look to expand in the state and the region, Cohen said.

"We will recycle as much as we can," Cohen said.