Renuva, Dow’s mattress recycling programme, in which end of life polyurethane mattresses are collected and chemically recycled back into polyol, one of the main chemical building blocks of polyurethane, has won Best Sustainable Product in the inaugural edition of Chemical Week’s Sustainability Awards.
The Best Sustainable Product award recognises sustainable products that will have the most meaningful impact on environmental or sustainability performance.
“Congratulations to Team Dow on this recognition from Chemical Week,” said Mary Draves, Dow’s chief sustainability officer and vice president of Environment, Heatlh and Safety. “The Renuva programme is one of Dow’s signature programs and an excellent example of collaborating across the value chain to close challenging resource loops and advance a circular economy, one of Dow’s seven 2025 Sustainability Goals.”
Every year, around 30 million mattresses are thrown away in Europe. The Renuva mattress recycling programme aims to recycle up to 200,000 mattresses a year at an industrial scale production plant operated by Orrion Chemicals Orgaform in France. The result of this process will be new polyols, ready for use in foam solutions - new mattresses or other applications, such as building insulation boards.
“Polyurethane needs to be as valuable at the end of its life as it is at the start,” said Marcel Moeller, global sustainability director, Dow Polyurethanes.
The Renuva project is part of a broader program of Dow Polyurethanes, which aims to transition linear economy polyurethane products to the circular economy by optimising the use of resources and reducing waste.