Ikea has launched a mattress removal and recycling scheme, giving UK customers a convenient and sustainable way to recycle their old mattresses, ensuring that valuable raw materials are fed back into the economy and reused.
‘Our customers can book a collection for their mattresses, either online or in-store for £40 per item. Following collection, mattresses are transported to a dedicated recycling facility operated by Ikea partner, The Furniture Recycling Group. TFR Group diverts 100% of the mattresses it collects or receives from landfill by deconstructing them manually using specialist cutting tools, enabling the materials to be separated into their component parts, which are then sanitised for onward processing,’ says Greg Lucas, Ikea UK sustainability manager.
Since 2012, TFR Group has recycled more than 3.5million mattresses, with 30,000 tonnes of material flowing back into the economy.
In 2022, RetourMatras, a Netherlands based mattress recycling company that is co-owned by Ingka Investments – the investment arm of Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer – acquired TFR Group. This investment has enabled the business to triple its dismantling capacity, which now stands at 1.5million mattresses per year.
‘Beyond recycling, we also plan to use TFR Group’s mattress rejuvenation service in the near future, which involves a bespoke sanitation process for returned mattresses. This ensures returned mattresses do not go to waste and instead are cleaned to NHS standards and verified to be of as-new quality via robust quality assurance checks – ready for resale at discounted prices or redistribution to support local communities,’ says Lucas.
‘The launch of the new mattress removal and recycling scheme strengthens our existing sustainable services offering. This includes in-store areas, now known as “Re-shop and Re-use”, where we can recycle and give products a second life, offering free spare parts and an attractive range of affordable goods including discontinued items, ex-display articles and pre-loved furniture – traded back to us through the BuyBack & Resell service. BuyBack &
Resell encourages customers to sell back eligible pre-loved goods in exchange for store credit, so these pieces can then be purchased by a new customer.
‘We’re very excited to have our new mattress removal and recycling service up and running in collaboration with TFR Group, which is transforming old mattresses that would otherwise go to waste back into valuable raw materials that can be used again and again. Partnerships like this are crucial to overcoming long-term environmental challenges like mattress waste and advancing our People and Planet Positive journey, while supporting as many customers as possible in living a more sustainable life at home.
‘A cumbersome and bulky waste stream, mattresses are manufactured using up to around 19 different materials, making them notoriously difficult to recycle. In the UK, around 6.4million mattresses were disposed of in 2020, according to the National Bed Federation, with the majority ending up in landfill. This represents thousands of tonnes of waste – which is taking up space in refuse centres nationwide and damaging the environment. Recycling a mattress also saves 76kg of CO2 emissions, as compared to incineration. This means that if the mattresses disposed of in the UK were recycled, more than 485million kg of CO2 emissions could be saved.’
Alongside expanding recycling capacity in the UK, RetourMatras and TFR Group are working together to make mattress recycling more efficient by optimising transport, dismantling and material recoverability – ultimately working towards a fully circular mattress value chain.
‘We are proud to support Ikea UK, helping to further strengthen the business’s sustainability offering through our mattress removal and recycling service. By stripping each mattress back and recycling its component parts, we are together able to contribute to the circular economy and ensure that a bulky waste stream is diverted from landfill, delivering long-term environmental benefits,’ adds Nick Oettinger, TFR Group ceo and founder.
