At the new facility at Orrion Chemicals Orgaform, end-of-life mattresses will be chemically recycled into polyols, for use in flexible or rigid foam for applications such as building insulation boards or even new mattresses.
Orrion Chemicals Orgaform is a specialty chemicals company headquartered in Semoy, France.
Dow has established the Renuva Mattress Recycling Program as a circular economy initiative, designed to optimize the use and reuse of resources and ultimately minimise the volume of waste going into landfills or incineration.
“Through RENUVA, our ambition is to address some of the circular economy goals set out in the EU’s Green Deal and in national waste management strategies of countries like France,” said Marcel Moeller, global marketing and sustainability director, Dow Polyurethanes. Around 30 million mattresses are thrown away in Europe each year, which, stacked up, equals a pile 678 times the height of Mount Everest.
Hence this initiative can help the EU reach its goal of having 65% of municipal waste recycled by 2030.
For Orrion Chemicals Orgaform, the collaboration with Dow is a validation of its commitment to sustainable development, said the company.
“This will be a major investment that fits the growth strategy of our company, said Christian Siest, president, Orrion Chemicals Orgaform. “We will be proud to build an industrial scale production unit for recycling end-of-life foam and be selected as a partner by Dow."
Dow will be collaborating with its existing partner in the project, process know-how and turnkey installations provider H&S Anlagentechnik, on the construction of the new facility, building on the partnership first announced in 2017 with the Germany-based plant manufacturer to develop the market for recycled polyols manufactured from end-of-life mattresses. The new plant should be complete by the end of the year, with the initial batches of product becoming available in the first half of 2021, said Dow.