Advancing mattress circularity in Europe: insights from the third Sleep Circular Workshop

ACR+ and fellow partners of the Sleep Circular initiative met for their third workshop. They summarised the current progress of the initiative and presented key outcomes of the first meetings. Participants highlighted Digital Product Passport applications as a key enabler not only for data sharing and traceability of materials but for efficient recycling and rejuvenation of mattresses. Current state-of-play and solutions for each material including chemical recycling were presented and the bottlenecks and the immediate actions needed were discussed.

Regarding specific activities of Sleep Circular, a best practice database is underway aiming to collect different case studies on technology, R&D projects, and solutions addressing the whole mattress lifecycle. A Research and Innovation Action Plan will also be developed to define the value chain research priorities to accelerate technology development, close knowledge gaps, and hopefully guide investment and funding programmes.