Next time you buy carpet underlay it may have once come from the mattress on which you slept.
Resource Recovery Australia (RRA) which won the contract for Noosa Council’s Resource Recovery Centre has salvaged 3.5 tonnes of foam from about 1000 mattresses processed since July and sold 90 per cent of it to Dunlop where is is sanitised and turned into new carpet underlay, RRA manager Matt Curtis said.
In partnership with the University of NSW, RRA is developing ways to recycle the remaining 10 per cent of the material component of the mattress by turning it into acoustic panelling. The metal is melted down to be made into new products. The wood component is turned into woodchip.
Noosa Council’s waste and environmental health manager said RRA was also providing employment opportunities for those facing barriers to gaining employment.
“In the past three months, three staff have gained forklift licences, five acquired test and tag licences, six completed fire warden training and two received first aid training,” he said.
