Sure you would.  Frequent flyer points may well be in mattress recycling’s future.  Today there is an on-going means to get paid for curbside recycling run by a Pennsylvania Company.  The company is called RecycleBank ® and it’s a Philadelphia-based private company that has a very high tech idea about how to interest more people in curbside recycling.  We are sharing this rewards model with you to show how it might be applied to mattress recycling.

RecycleBank®  partners with cities and haulers to reward households for recycling. Households earn RecycleBank®  Points for all kinds of green actions like using renewable energy, reusing products, digital downloads, recycling electronic waste, and much more.  These points can be used to shop at over 1,500 local and national businesses.  Household curbside containers have a computer chip implanted in them upon which resides the resident’s name, address and phone number and  RecycleBank®  account number.  This information plus the on-collection truck computer and barcode system which inputs recyclable types and weight determines how many points a household earns for a specific curbside recycling collection pickup.  Visit how-it-works at recyclebank.com for more information on their system.

Deming told us that which gets rewarded gets done.  The RecycleBank®  system rewards participants for curbside recycling as opposed to punishing them for what they are not recycling.  Their goal is to encourage household recycling via positive reinforcement of the household’s recycling effort with a rewards system. 

Households have access to their RecycleBank®  Dollars for spending at participating retailers or if they like – to  donate their RecycleBank®  Dollars to a local environmental group or non-profit organization.

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Mattress Recycling differs from curbside recycling in frequency.  The average mattress’ life falls between ten and twenty years while most curbside recycling is done once a week.  Even when family size is around 3.5 persons per household, on average a household would be recycling one mattress about every three to six years.  Not exactly cost effective to set up a RecycleBank®  like system just for mattress recycling, but mattress recycling could certainly be included as a subset of such a system.

Would businesses support a mattress recycling for pay system similar to RecycleBank®?
 
Which retail establishments benefit the most from having mattress buying customers come into their stores?  Obviously retailers that sell new or even used mattresses need these customers to purchase mattresses from them.  So, what would happen if retail mattress stores began rewarding customers for recycling their mattresses with “Mattress Recycling Dollars” whenever a customer wanting to buy a new mattress brought in their old mattress and box springs?  The mattress retailer would close a new or used mattress sale from which they should profit.  The mattress retailer removes one bed set from the supply side of the mattress market increasing the demand side by one bed set.  The mattress retailer now has a paper trail on how many mattresses have been diverted from the landfills via recycling (This is a key measurement for mattress recyclers seeking grants in order to determine and show the total tonnage and/or volume of mattress waste being diverted from landfills.)   The mattress retailer can claim their firm’s contribution to mattress litter reduction in the community.  Further, the mattress retailer can incorporate their “green” business model into their unique selling proposition (USP) for their mattress business advertising.

And, if the mattress retailer networks with other retailers as part of the “Mattress Recycling Dollars” program – there is definitely an increase in word of mouth advertising about which retailers are rewarding customers for recycling mattresses (To include those all important pocketbook/mobile device lists of participating retailers.)  People buying mattresses usually desire new bedding, maybe matching drapery, and a host of bedroom related items that consumers could use mattress recycling dollars to purchase.

From such a mattress recycling dollars program, mattress buying customers would feel rewarded and actually get credit for recycling their mattresses.  The Mattress Recycling facility gains centralized pickup points for mattresses at the mattress retailer store saving the mattress recycler transportation costs.  And, the community benefits via mattresses being recycled rather than going into landfills thereby lengthening the life of the landfill.

With the mattress recycling industry being in its infancy, there is more than adequate opportunity for innovation just as RecycleBank®  has done for curbside recycling.  And who knows – someday airlines may actually begin trading frequent flyer miles for mattress recycling dollars or points….  Like the old cliche says – the sky is the limit.