Retailers and consumers face further complications in disposing of end of life upholstery.
Under new Environment Agency guidelines local authorities in England are no longer allowed to accept old upholstery – including sofas, sofa beds, armchairs, kitchen and dining room chairs, stools and foot stools, home office chairs, futons, bean bags, floor and sofa cushions – for recycling or landfill.
Instead they will have to be incinerated.
However not all councils have incineration facilities and have no immediate solution to not being able to accept the upholstery. This is likely to lead to an increase in fly tipping and bonfires, despite the agency saying it wants to prevent the release of persistent organic pollutants.
‘Waste upholstered domestic seating often contains one of the following POPs on the back of the covers and in the foam: decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) – the most common; hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD); pentabromodiphenyl ether (PentaBDE) and tetrabromodiphenyl ether (TetraBDE),’ it says in the guidance.
‘These chemicals may also contaminate lining and wadding in contact with foam or covers. The following hazardous chemicals are also likely to be present: antimony trioxide – a carcinogenic synergist often used with DecaBDE and medium chain chlorinated paraffins – often used in synthetic leather to make it flexible. Other flame retardants, and hazardous components of PVC, may also be present.’
If upholstery is mixed with other items, for example in skip, the agency says all items should be considered hazardous.
‘You must incinerate waste domestic seating containing POPs or mixed waste containing it. The municipal or hazardous waste incinerator (or cement kiln) must be authorised to accept POPs waste. You must not use any other waste treatment, recycling or disposal methods,’ says the agency.
The agency has also updated its rules on storage, handling and collection of upholstery. The new guidelines are in the Environment Agency website.
