The National Bed Federation has entered a three-year knowledge transfer partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University as it looks to cut the number of mattresses going to landfill.
The agreement sees the association receive funding to appoint a postgraduate microbiologist, Sophie Hibberd, who will research how the industry can measure the cleanliness of reused and recycled materials from beds and mattresses.
The NBF has previously worked with the university to look at testing post-consumer materials to determine their bioburden. The NBF recognised there was a need to find practical solutions to improve the rates of material reuse and reduce the number of mattresses that end up in landfill.
The partnership aims to create an easily replicable, laboratory-free test that will quickly and easily indicate the cleanliness of a mattress filling/bed product.
‘We are thrilled to welcome Sophie to the NBF team and begin work on the cleanliness of fillings test, which has been a long time in coming in supporting the bed industry on its collective sustainability journey. With more than 75% of mattresses ending up in landfill every year, we hope the test will allow more materials to be reused but also provide consumers with the peace of mind that reused does not mean dirty,’ says Tristine Hargreaves, NBF executive director.
