The best strategy for managing waste is to prevent waste in the first place. That’s why we upcycle.
The Environmental Protection Agency says source reduction—also known as waste prevention—is the most environmentally preferred strategy for getting rid of used products.
Finding new uses for old products keeps them from ever going to a landfill. It conserves energy because none is needed to melt down or decompose a product, as is the case in the recycling process. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions and decreases the toxicity of our waste. And it saves money for consumers and businesses alike.
Upcycling isn’t recycling.
Recycling requires a lot of energy to convert trash into useful raw material for another product. Upcycling uses material in its original form as raw material, the basis for creating a renovated product—in our case mattresses and box springs.
Zero Waste
We are saving more than 90 percent of mattress and box spring materials we acquire from ever reaching landfills.
Conserves Energy
Unlike recycling, no energy is needed to melt down or decompose a product that’s upcycled.
Better Than Recycling
Upcycling uses material in its original form as the basis for creating a post-consumer product.
At our manufacturer, Chicago Mattress Company, we’ve been upcycling since 1996.
We’ve prevented at least 150,000 tons of mattress waste from being dumped in landfills, helping to ease the landfill capacity crisis and protecting sanitation workers from the hazardous byproducts of mattress disposal. In fact, today we are saving more than 90 percent of mattress and box spring materials we acquire from ever reaching landfills. What we can’t use we process and recycle. For instance, unused foam is sold to carpet pad manufacturers and remainders from spring units are sold for metal scrap, continuing the virtuous circle.