CIRCULÉIRE member CIRTEX features in RTÉ One series Heated

Over 500,000 mattresses are being discarded each year in Ireland through Fly Tipping and illegal dumping. This is a staggering volume that could fill Croke Park three or four times over.

As part of their focus on Climate Change, the RTÉ series Heated profiled CIRCULEIRE member CIRTEX to demonstrate how Irish Industry is rising to the challenge of mattress waste through Vision and Smart thinking. Watch here. In this programme, CIRTEX CEO Rick Earley describes the CIRTEX process where mattress are stripped down into component parts, the steel springs are recycled as stainless steel and the polyester coverings are shredded, de contaminated though a 180 degree incinerator process and mattress padding re enters the production streams of the furniture and bedding Industry.

The process of recycling mattress padding is very new. While steel springs were recycled, the remainder of the used mattresses were going to landfill and incineration. Rewind to 2022, when CITEX was awarded grant funding through CIRCUÉIRE’s innovation fund to come up with a solution to turn this soft padding material into insulation and other useful products that can be further upcycled when they reach their “end of life”. CIRTEX partnered with Tipperary County Council and Clothes POD to collect these materials from the public in a clean and effective manner. Through this project, the partners developed a product range that uses previously unrecycled materials from the mattress to make new products, which can be recycled multiple times. Read More

By creating a sustainable business model, developing the market, and having pre-existing large-scale manufacturing equipment in place, the business will be able to scale and make a meaningful impact on the industry.

CIRCULÉIRE members were able to see this innovation in action at the recent network meeting when Rick Earley took them through the process Watch Here

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About CIRCULÉIRE

CIRCULÉIRE is a public-private partnership co-created by Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) and  Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), together with industry partners, CIRCULÉIRE aims to assist manufacturers and their supply chains to switch from linear to circular business models. In November 2022, DECC announced €1.5m continuation funding for CIRCULÉIRE in 2023.

Read more about CIRCULÉIRE here.