In Rennes (France), the recycling of mattresses creates jobs

The SB&WRC project is supported by the European program Interreg VA France (Channel) England and receives financial support from the ERDF.

Bernard Harambillet, General Manager France of Veolia's Waste Recycling & Recycling business, and Daniel Boujard, President of Envie 2E Recyclage Bretagne, inaugurated in Rennes the used mattress treatment unit in the West region. This project will create 14 jobs for people in integration and will recycle up to 90% of mattresses in a circular economy loop.

Veolia and the Envie insertion network were selected by Eco-mobilier, the eco-organization bringing together manufacturers and distributors of mattresses in France, to create a mattress recycling unit in the Greater West. Veolia brings its industrial expertise, Envie 2E Recyclage Bretagne its expertise in integration. Initially, this unit will recycle 4,000 mattresses per month. Once relocated to the Veolia site in Rennes, it will be able to process up to 7,000 tonnes per year.

14 people in integration will be trained and accompanied.

To secure the working conditions of the employees and to guarantee the quality of the recovered material, Veolia is planning a mattress hygiene chamber that will treat 120 mattresses with a fog of disinfectant. The "foam" envelopes of the disinfected mattresses will then be cut on a horizontal cutting line, and the envelopes "springs" with an electric circular knife.
 
90% of the components of a mattress (metal, foam, latex, textile ...) will be recycled for the automotive industry, furnishing, construction and mattress manufacturing.

This project, at the crossroads of the circular economy [1] and the social and solidarity economy, will create 14 local jobs.

"With our partner Envie, we are proud of this project that combines in a virtuous circle circular economy and social economy and solidarity. This mattress valorization unit, the first for Veolia in France, consolidates the Group's position as a reference producer of recycled raw materials for the furniture sector ", explains Bernard Harambillet, General Manager France of Veolia's Waste Recycling & Recycling business.

Read the study on circular economy and British GDP:: « The circular revolution. An Imperial College London report commissioned by Veolia »