Mattress, furniture recycling site opens. (Municipal Recycling).

Conigliaro Industries, Framingham, Mass., will soon be starting its Mattress Destruction and Recycling Plant. The facility--possibly the only plant of its kind in New England and perhaps the U.S.--started up in mid-October.

The plant will accept mattresses, box springs and large upholstered furniture items to shred and recycle a large portion of what is received. According to company president Gregory Conigliaro, the response from colleges, hotels, furniture retailers, hospitals and municipal waste departments "has been incredible."

"Mattress and upholstered furniture waste generators will now have a viable, cost-effective and long-term recycling program," says Conigliaro. The company will charge a tip fee, but "rates are less expensive than landfilling or incineration," he says.

The new plant, which will be able to process nearly 150,000 mattresses and other items per year, features an AZ-80 ShredPax Pre-Shredder.

The resulting shred is sent through various trommel screens, conveyors and metal separators to recover various recyclable streams. The metal springs are the largest volume and most easily marketable material. Over 60% of the typical mattress (by weight) is metal, according to Conigliaro.

The urethane foam and clean wood will be hand-picked and sent to end markets in the carpet backing and landscaping mulch industries respectively.

The mattress and furniture plant is not Conigliaro Industries' first foray into a recycling niche. It is the third project to result from a Recycling Investment Reimbursement Credit Grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).