A WASTE management firm has sprung into action to recycle thousands of old mattresses.

Hartlepool-based J&B Recycling has invested £230,000 in a shredding machine which strips old mattresses down into metal, springs, foam and other materials.

A total of 60 tonnes of mattresses were recycled by the business in September equating to 1,500 double beds or 3,000 single beds.

Production manager Michael Proud said: “With mattresses being so bulky, they take up a lot of volume at landfill sites ... millions are thrown away every year. But there’s no reason at all why they should be going to landfill as so much of the waste material can be recycled.”

J&B Recycling bought the Edge Slayer shredding machine in May to increase the number of mattresses it can divert from landfill.

The machine is capable of processing extremely difficult materials such as wood, railway sleepers, green waste and tyres at a consistent rate of one tonne per hour. Approximately half of the weight stripped from sprung mattresses is metal with the rest going to energy from waste.

J&B Recycling processes mattresses from several recycling centres from councils across the North of England. Other mattresses are collected from hotels, hospitals and housing refurbishments.

Proud added: “On average the Edge Slayer shreds one mattress per minute and it has self-cleaning shafts which means that we no longer have to remove wire from the shafts at the end of the day.

“We’re averaging 60 tonnes of mattresses per month and that’s something we expect to see increase as people understand that old mattresses can be recycled.”