Millions of mattresses are thrown into landfills every year. 7 Rivers Recycling has a solution to keep them out of our landfills and repurpose “trash” into useful items! While practicing the triple bottom line in business - people, planet and profit!
— Rob Greenfield is an activist and humanitarian dedicated to leading the way to a more sustainable and just world. He embarks on extreme projects to bring attention to important global issues and inspire positive change. 100% of his media income is donated to grassroots nonprofits. His YouTube channel is a source to educate, inspire and help others to live more sustainable, equal and just lives. Videos frequently cover sustainable living, simple living, growing your own food, gardening, self-sufficiency, minimalism, off the grid living, zero waste, living in a tiny house and permaculture.
Did you know that over 80% of all mattresses created
end up in the landfill or dumped in the environment?
Today, I'm at a place that has a solution
for all of this mess.
Most of this stuff all across the nation
goes to the landfill.
But today, I'm at Seven Rivers Recycling
in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where they are repurposing
what others normally throw away
to keep it out of the landfill and to put it to good use.
They are able to recycle about 90% of the mattress,
and that last 10% is actually turned into electricity
to power homes and businesses.
To date, they have recycled over 85,000 mattresses.
If you stacked those on top of each other,
that would be over 60 Empire State Buildings.
And they are just getting started.
Inside of this mattress is all usable materials.
The steel is recycled and turned into things
like appliances.
The wood is chipped for using as a biofuel or as compost.
The felt is used for mover's blankets
and for landscaping fabric.
And the foam is recycled into things
like carpet backing and dog beds.
Of course, the solution is to take care of our mattresses
and to use them for as long as we can,
and to design our stuff with natural biodegradable materials
that have full circle life cycles.
But if we do need to recycle our mattresses,
Seven Rivers Recycling is proof that we do not need
to fill up our earth with trash,
and that we can actually do business
practicing the triple bottom line,
people, planet, and profit, while regenerating our earth.
