Chemical company BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) and foam specialist Neveon (Kremsmünster, Austria) have announced a corresponding cooperation for the recycling of mattresses. The aim of the cooperation is to achieve a closed product cycle for mattresses, which are currently still mainly thermally recycled after use or disposed of in landfills. BASF is developing a solvent-based recycling process for used mattresses made of flexible polyurethane. According to BASF, the process allows the original polyols to be recovered from the used mattress foams and reused to produce new flexible foam blocks. Their quality is comparable to that of flexible foam blocks produced from fossil raw material sources, it said. Initial small-scale trials have reportedly been successful. Before the end of this year, the cooperation partners plan to produce the first pilot quantities of polyol from collected used mattresses. "Cooperation between all stages along the value chain is crucial for recycling mattresses. Together with Neveon, we want to build a partner network and close the loop step by step," says Dr. Sven Crone, responsible for the European Isocyanates & Precursors business at BASF (photo). For the collection and return of old mattresses, Neveon, which is responsible for mattress logistics in the cooperation, launched a pilot project in Berlin in mid-February with the Remattress business unit (www.remattress.de). The mattress take-back is to be expanded to other German states in the coming months.

Quellen:

• recyclingmagazin.de (Feb. 15, 2022)
• Kunststoff Information (Feb. 16, 2021)
• Photo: © BASF