The mattress, redesigned so it never becomes waste.

The problem starts in the factory, not at the landfill. Layers are bonded with structural adhesives: this cuts assembly costs, but forms "a unit that is difficult to dismantle" and makes any end-of-life disassembly uneconomical.^[6] Flexible polyurethane foam, the dominant fraction by weight, does not biodegrade and occupies landfill volume for decades; incineration recovers energy but destroys a valuable polymer for good.

Hygiene shortens the useful life further: a monobloc cannot be washed. When the cover or a single layer degrades, the whole product gets replaced, even though most of its materials are still intact. In Italy, industry estimates put the flow at around 5 million discarded mattresses per year, mostly handled as bulky waste; a dedicated collection and recycling scheme does not yet exist.^[14]

Before recycling, make it last. In the EU waste hierarchy, prevention comes before recycling: the system with the lowest impact is the one that stays in use the longest.^[15] That is why we are working to introduce at-home ozone sanitisation: a periodic treatment, with no water or detergents, that keeps the system hygienic and extends its useful life, deferring module replacement. Every extra year of life lowers the impact per year of use.

Chemical recycling closes the loop. Glycolysis depolymerises polyurethane and returns polyols usable in new formulations, up to about 30% of the foam recipe.^{[1] [2] [5]} The process is already industrial: dedicated plants in France and the Netherlands each treat the polyurethane of 200,000 mattresses per year.^[13] It works on one condition: receiving clean, separated foam. That is exactly what the modular architecture is for. We design modules so they reach the reactor as homogeneous material, not as mixed waste.

This is why development and commercialisation sit in the same company: every system sold is designed to re-enter the loop at end of life, so sales volume directly feeds the volume of material recovered.

Three mechanisms converge. First: the ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation) empowers the Commission to set binding requirements on durability, disassembly and recycled content. The 2025–2030 working plan lists mattresses among priority products, with a delegated act expected by 2029 and a digital product passport that will require a bill of materials, disassembly instructions and recyclability data.^[8] [9] Second: extended producer responsibility (EPR) shifts end-of-life costs onto whoever places the product on the market, with eco-modulated fees: design for recycling pays less. In France, ten years of EPR cut landfilling from roughly 100% to under 4% of the flow; in the Netherlands the legal target is recycling at least 75% of mattresses by 2028.^[12] Third: the Landfill Directive caps municipal waste landfilling at 10% by 2035, progressively closing the cheapest disposal route.^[10]

The perimeter is tightening in Italy too: the textile EPR decree approved in July 2026 covers apparel and home textiles but excludes mattresses, which remain without a dedicated scheme. The European ESPR will fill that gap, and it will reward whoever shows up with a product already engineered for disassembly and recycling.^[9] [11] For a conventional producer these obligations are an incoming cost; for a system born separable and recyclable they are a competitive advantage that grows with every regulatory deadline.

The research programme engages with Italy's bedding manufacturing base and with European operators in polyurethane chemical recycling. Results feed into product specifications, test protocols and industrial property filings.