Premier

Tackling Melbourne’s Mattress Mountain

14 October 2016

Australia’s first automated mattress recycling facility has opened in Melbourne’s West.

Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio was in Tottenham today to open the new TIC Group facility made possible by an Andrews Labor Government Investing in Manufacturing Technology grant.

Nearly 300,000 mattresses are disposed of each year in Melbourne and Greater Geelong. They often end up in landfill, and that’s a significant lost opportunity for recovering valuable resources like steel.

In 2014, local councils in Melbourne and Greater Geelong collected about 232,000 mattresses from hard waste collections, transfer stations. Others were illegally dumped.

Using state-of-the-art technology from the Netherlands, Tottenham’s new facility will ensure more mattresses are diverted from landfill – and more valuable materials can be extracted from unwanted mattresses.

The Labor Government has just released its plan for how Melbourne’s waste and recycling needs will be implemented over the next decade and beyond.

Population growth means that waste volumes could nearly double over the next 30 years. To ensure Melbourne remains liveable we have to see waste as a resource, and not a problem.

Quotes attributable to Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio

“Thousands of mattresses are disposed of in Victoria each year, and it’s often a lost opportunity for recovering valuable resources like steel.”

“This new facility is giving us new opportunities to divert thousands of mattresses from landfill and make the most of this important and growing waste stream.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Footscray Marsha Thomson

“It’s great that a company based in Tottenham is providing innovative solutions to how we deal with waste, in particular mattresses.”

“By recovering more of the valuable resources from this waste, we’re opening up economic and employment opportunities too.”

Reviewed 19 August 2020

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