FEAT Enterprises
The Executive offered FEAT Enterprises £50,000 in 2004-05, £44,000 in 2005-06 and £40,000 in 2006-07 for a mattress recycling project based in Fife - covering Fife, Clackmannan and Falkirk - preventing unwanted beds going to landfill. This was the first such project in Scotland, and indeed by 2007 was still the only one in the UK. There was assistance also from the National Lottery's Transforming Waste programme.
The project aimed to maximise resource use and encourage more sustainable actions by placing recyclable materials back into the market for reuse. FEAT Enterprises is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, and the Mattress Recycling Project - SpringBack - was its third social enterprise project. This project was based on a similar successful social enterprise project recycling mattresses in Oregon, USA, and was a potential model for other areas of Scotland.
It aimed to link into existing community furniture projects - these would pass for recycling beds that they received that could not be re-used. It linked also to local authority area waste plans allowing Councils to offer mattress recycling at their recycling centres. The target outputs were potential maximum recycling of 54,300 beds - with diversion of 3,300 tonnes of beds from landfill - per year once fully operational, employment of 5 disabled or disadvantaged people, and training for 7 people a year via the New Deal programme.
It took longer than anticipated to get guidance from SEPA on the need for a waste management licence due to the innovative nature of the project - the eventual decision was that it was needed. Local authorities took longer than anticipated to restructure their civic amenity sites/ recycling centres, so uplifting from the sites was slow in starting. Delay in finding premises led to the project only starting in June 2005. Mattresses were getting picked up, deconstructed, baled and stored awaiting recycling. At an early stage numbers of mattresses uplifted were very small and not suitable for reuse. It was always intended that the reusable mattresses would come from dealing with manufacturers and retailers of mattresses and not be those uplifted from civic amenity sites.
Lessons learned were to allow enough time to source premises especially if in close proximity to Edinburgh, to allow enough time for local authorities to engage with the project, and make early contact with all relevant health and safety agencies. Animal by-products legislation needed consideration as a result of the use of horse hair in some mattresses - the decision was to classify this as "inert" and therefore not needing special handling or treatment.
Managing growth in the first year was a difficult task. Demand for the service required a move after less than one year from 6,000 sq ft premises to a bigger unit of 20,000 sq ft - very disruptive at the time, but the best move in the longer term for the growth of the service.
There were difficulties in sourcing companies willing to take flame retardant textiles but a UK purchaser took them to make industrial carpets. Wet mattresses also proved a significant problem, with weight increase causing manual handling problems. It was necessary for suppliers to keep mattresses/ bed parts in a secure and dry area - with most local authorities putting walk-in containers on civic amenity sites for deposit of mattresses by the public.
By 2007 FEAT provided a mattress recycling service to a wide variety of customers. FEAT contracted with five local authorities (Stirling and Edinburgh added beyond the original three) for either a kerbside service or civic amenity site clearance of mattresses and other bed parts deposited there by the public. Other customers included the Scottish Prison Service, universities, bed manufacturers and also the retail outlet Habitat, who as a result offered all their customers in the UK buying a new mattress a "take back" scheme with SpringBack recycling the mattresses on their behalf.
The materials arising were mostly low grade with little or no intrinsic value, requiring an innovative approach to recycling. Also, companies interested in some of the material wanted far greater quantities than FEAT could provide, needing storage of bales of material for longer than anticipated. FEAT transported foam to England and Germany, sent cotton to India and spring steel for recycling and plastic to a Scottish-based reprocessing company.
From 2005 to 2007 FEAT provided 180 good-quality mattresses suitable for reuse (based on condition, cleanliness and complying with health and safety standards) to four furniture charities in Fife and Falkirk. However, it became apparent that at least 95% of the mattresses uplifted were not suitable for reuse.
The manual deconstruction process was expensive and did not allow processing sufficient units to meet demand. FEAT therefore secured funding from Transforming Waste and the INCREASE Programme to work with a private sector company Ardmel Automations in Fife to develop the "world's first non-shredding deconstruction machine," that would "fillet" the mattress and give 99% recyclability. It would significantly increase capacity whilst reducing costs. This was expected to make the cost of recycling mattresses as economically competitive as landfill, which would increase customer numbers, and it would allow a move to a two-shift working system, increasing employment
By 2007 SpringBack had recycled 36,603 units diverting 800 tonnes from landfill, hoping to reach the original target of 54,300 units as they were still only operating at 75% of capacity. However, even 100% capacity would not achieve the original tonnage aim of 3,300. This was based on whole beds (mattress and base) with average weights of 35 kg single/ 55kg double. In reality most of the units processed were mattresses only, with average weights of 18kg single/ 25kg double. At 100% capacity over 1,000 tonnes per annum would be recycled. By 2007 SpringBack had 7.5 employees - 30% with disabilities, and others disadvantaged in other ways. The project offered generic employability skills and other training to 35 New Deal clients over 3 years.
An unforeseen outcome was the development of a wood project to deal with bed bases, despite the small number involved. The wood was ideal for making kindling for wood stoves etc. and was taken by a major fuel distributor. FEAT also began to produce prototype biomass products - a briquette from the flock in mattresses (with a calorific output rating of 6.5) and coir/wood pellets (with an output rating of 7.5).
There was demand to locate a SpringBack in other areas across Scotland and the UK. FEAT Enterprises assisted other organisations in Scotland, England and Wales to start up facilities - speeding up their establishment and this recycling option for other local authorities. In Scotland 5 or 6 facilities might cover the whole country. FEAT Enterprises may develop another facility for the Edinburgh and Lothian areas.
FEAT considered the project a very big success - with a steep learning curve for all involved in such an innovative project, but exceeding its environmental, social and economic targets.
SpringBack led to awareness that mattresses can be recycled and showed how an innovative approach should be adopted for dealing with difficult waste streams. Given the waste stream it tackled it was understandably not a cheap option, but over time it should prove to be very economically viable. Although expensive to establish and mechanise, the proactive approach adopted should inspire others to tackle other waste streams thereby increasing our recycling rates as a country. The range and scope of emerging spin-off developments from the project was unexpected.
Contact
FEAT Enterprises, 20/22 Haig Business Park, Balgonie Road, Markinch, Fife KY7 6AQ.
Telephone: 01592 769258.