Casella recycling program would keep mattresses out of Maine landfills
COURTESY / CASELLA WASTE SYSTEMS
An employee at Casella's Willimantic, Conn. recycling facility processes the interior foam from one of the 225,000 mattresses the company repurposed last year.
Casella Waste Systems is planning to open a first-of-its-kind in Maine recycling program for discarded mattresses and box springs, at its existing Scarborough facility.
Once the operation is up and running later this year, the company projects it will process 25,000 mattresses annually and anticipates capacity will grow.
Casella, which is based in Rutland, Vt., handles waste collection and recycling for close to 400 municipalities in Maine.
The recycler has been processing bedding from other Northeast states for about five years and recently began picking up mattresses from five transfer stations in Maine, from Waterville to Wells.
For now, Maine's discarded mattresses are trucked to Casella facilities in Willimantic, Conn., to be broken down.
Jeff Weld, Casella’s vice president of communications, told Mainebiz, “The units are broken down into their component parts, with more than 80% going on to be recycled. Metal springs are processed as scrap metal, wood is ground up and used for mulch, animal bedding, or fuel, and foam is turned into carpet padding, or utilized in sound proofing materials."
“There are a few companies who do this," Weld added. "We are one of the largest in the region, processing roughly 225,000 units last year, from New England states and New York. This will be the first facility of its kind in Maine.”
Mattress recycling will be incorporated into Casella's site on Pleasant Hill Road in Scarborough.
Casella is awaiting Maine DEP approval. Weld said he expects to be fully operational in Scarborough within the next 4 to 6 months.
The company is not yet predicting whether consumers will see a decline in transfer station fees to dispose of bedding, which are currently as high as $40 at many Maine transfer stations.
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