The mattress landfill crisis: how the race to bring us better beds led to a recycling nightmare

As the sleep economy grows, online companies vie to sell us new mattresses, offering 100-day returns. This has helped create an impossible waste mountain – and a wild west of rogue recyclers

Mike Scollick and Richard Allsopp are talking about the worst things they ever found in a mattress. “We had one where I think a dog had been lying on it, and the whole thing was just jumping with fleas,” Allsopp says, shuddering. No one would touch it, so they had to use a cherry picker to move it. But that’s not the worst of it, Scollick says: “I stripped the cover off one once and it looked like somebody …” “Died,” interjects Allsopp.

It’s fair to say you need a strong stomach to be in the mattress recycling game. Which Scollick and Allsopp have, along with several million pounds’ worth of equipment in their Coventry warehouse. I have come to see Circom, their mattress recycling firm, at work. It’s a dirty but noble enterprise: Circom is one of only a handful of recyclers tackling the UK’s ever-growing mattress problem.

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Country diary: mistletoe's moon pearls are full of marvellous jelly

Marshwood Vale, Dorset: On a sunny day three Februarys ago, I squashed the berries on to an apple branch. That March, crooked shoots emerged

It was a shock to see green where I thought all had failed. There it was – a tiny wishbone with a pair of propeller-shaped leaf blades reaching up and out towards the sun. The first shoot of a new mistletoe plant.

Mistletoe (Viscum album) takes a long time to establish. Four Christmases ago, I saved some berries to ripen, a handful of rubbery moon pearls salvaged from the darkest days of winter. They need light or they die, so I put them in a jam jar next to the spider-webbed window of the garden shed.

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Moving to a new area? Top tips to help ease moving house Nottingham Estate Agents

Moving to a new area? Top tips to help ease moving house  Are you thinking about moving across the country to start again in a new area? Or even to start a new job? The NAEA Propertymark provides five top tips to ensure moving house runs smoothly. Visit the new area It can take six to eight months […]

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Should you report local drug crime – or keep schtum to protect house prices?

According to police, residents of Melbourne in Derbyshire are reluctant to report incidents for fear of causing property prices to drop. But the town is hardly the drugs capital of the UK …

Name: Melbourne.

Age: First recorded in the Domesday Book, 1086.

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Star property over £500,000 Nottingham Estate Agents

Since last orders were called at The Old Chequers this former pub has been transformed into a beautiful family home. The front door off the quiet street in scenic Welwyn Village in Hertfordshire opens into what was the split level bar area and is now a reception room, with windows to the front of the […]

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How to prepare your garden before selling your home Nottingham Estate Agents

Malcolm Button, Senior Estate Agency Manager at Aberdein Considine, gives some top tips for ensuring that outside space looks fresh and cared for Ensuring that your property looks fantastic indoors is always important but it’s crucial to spare a thought for your garden, which during the cold winter months can often become neglected. To help […]

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The plastic plant boom: here’s how to grow the real thing – for beauty, better air and biodiversity

Sales of plastic hedges, shrubs and lawns are rising rapidly, but they are bad for the environment and not necessarily low-maintenance or low-cost

Low-maintenance, evergreen lushness and an instant garden – it is easy to see why the sale of plastic plants is bursting into life. According to trend forecasters, sales of artificial plants are booming, with hedges, shrubs and lawns leading the trend.

Some are better than others, says the gardening writer Jane Perrone. The cheaper ones “haven’t been particularly well-made with plastic that is UV-stable, so within a short amount of time they are going to look quite miserable. There is work starting in terms of these companies trying to ensure these products are recycled at the end of their lives, but ultimately you’re going to end up with this thing that is probably going to end up in landfill, and has been manufactured with petrochemicals. But I can see why people would want them – not everyone wants to garden or feel they have the skills to maintain plants.”

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