Bramming Plast-Industri A/S launches a new product based on discarded mattresses: Setex® Post-Consumer

The industrial production company, Bramming Plast-Industri A/S, has an ambitious sustainability strategy including measurable initiatives. One of the initiatives is to transform discarded mattresses into new products with mechanical recycling.

For more than 30 years, Bramming Plast-Industri A/S has been working with mechanical recycling of post-industrial waste, which enables them to produce new products consisting of 100% recycled materials. Therefore, they launch their new and revolutionary product, Setex® Post-Consumer, based on discarded mattresses from Holland.

“We have just scaled up our production of the new product with mattress waste from Holland, because there is not yet established an infrastructure for separate collection of discarded mattresses in Denmark. However, Bramming Plast-Industri A/S is a part of the project “Partnership for circular economy for discarded mattresses” driven by local authorities of Copenhagen, a project about discovering solutions for recycling of mattresses. So, there is a good chance that Danish mattresses will also be recycled in the near future,” explains Kasper Kamp Jensen, R&D Manager at Bramming Plast-Industri A/S.

For the first time, Bramming Plast-Industri A/S launches a product based on post-consumer waste. For many years, they have been producing bonded foam based on post-industrial waste from their own production and conversion of polyurethane foam. Together with a group of stakeholders, they have proven the possibility of transforming discarded mattresses into bonded foam in their in-house facilities.

At Bramming Plast-Industri A/S, the R&D department has conducted tests to demonstrate the properties of the new product, proving it has the same good properties as the original mechanical recycled product, Setex® Post-Industrial. The tests demonstrate no challenges regarding hygiene:

“We measure the level of bacteria before and after the processing of the material, and when the materials have been through our manufacturing processes, including steaming and sterilisation, the material is cleaned of all potential bacteria. The hygiene is under control,” says Kasper Kamp Jensen.

Besides having the hygiene and compliance under control, Bramming Plast-Industri A/S experiences that the new product has the same – on some parameters even better – properties within noise and vibration damping, comfort and shock absorption:

“It supplements the product we already have. On most parameters it even performs better than our products based on post-industrial waste. It will therefore be added to our product portfolio on equal terms as other raw material,” explains Thomas Tvedergaard Larsen, CEO at Bramming Plast-Industri A/S.
Read more about the properties of the product in this product sheet.

According to Europur, more than 40 million mattresses are discarded on a yearly basis in Europe. The main part of these end up in waste deposit or incineration. It is a challenge within the entire polyurethane industry, and at Bramming Plast-Industri A/S this product launch is a part of their sustainability strategy, aiming to be a part of the solution.

“We have taken this project on with the goal of having at least 1,000 tonnes of Setex® Post-Consumer in our production on a yearly basis by 2026 – and it even appears to be a gentle goal,” concludes Thomas Tvedergaard Larsen.

Read more about Bramming Plast-Indstri A/S’ sustainability strategy here.
Read more about the project ”Partnership for circular economy for discarded mattresses” driven by the authorities of Copenhagen via the links below:

https://circularcph.cphsolutionslab.dk/cc/partnerships/partnership-for-circular-mattresses

https://circularcph.cphsolutionslab.dk/cc/news/postconsumer-foam-recycling-results