Las Vegas Market panel to discuss mattress recycling

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, July 20, 2012

LAS VEGAS — The International Sleep Products Assn. will convene a panel of retailers, manufacturers and recyclers Tuesday at the Las Vegas Market to discuss the mattress recycling issue.

The educational session, titled, "Mattress Retailers and Manufacturers Beware: Are You Prepared for 50 Different State Used Mattress Recycling Laws?" will provide information about various bills that state legislatures across the country are considering to regulate the recycling of used mattresses.

ISPA believes that these programs are inefficient and expensive, and that a national recycling program is the only cost-effective and efficient solution for mattress manufacturers, retailers and consumers alike.

The panelists will share their views on existing mattress recycling efforts as well as their thoughts on how the proposed state programs would affect the industry.

The panelists include Doug Guffey, president of Sleep Inc.; Barrie Brown, owner of Sleep. You Deserve More, and Joe Paviglianti, principal and co-founder of Spare Our Landfills. Daniel J. Connelly, executive director of the Product Management Alliance, will moderate.

The panel is set for 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, July 31, in the World Forum on the 16th floor of World Market Center Building B.

"Individual states are attempting to deal with the issue of mattress recycling on their own," said ISPA President Ryan Trainer. "Unfortunately, the different solutions proposed so far will burden retailers, manufacturers, and most importantly, consumers with new obligations that will unnecessarily increase costs and could limit product choices and competition. The result could be a patchwork of 50 state laws that impose different and possibly conflicting mandates on retailers and manufacturers."

According to Trainer, "ISPA continues to believe that the best approach to recycling used mattress materials efficiently is to create a national recycling program. This will eliminate state-by-state differences in rules, and encourage the economies of scale possible with a uniform national program, which will result in more efficient recycling and lower costs."