File Photo
A mattress recycling bill that is expected to become the model for laws across the nation was overwhelmingly approved by the state House of Representatives late Thursday, nearly a year after it was shelved because it wound up on the other side of midnight on the last day of a legislative session.
As fate would have it, Rep. Pat Widlitz (pictured), D‑Guilford and Branford, the major sponsor of the bill, said waiting a year may well have been a blessing because the additional year gave legislators and industry officials time to formulate a plan that others states are likely to adopt.
Entitled “An Act Concerning a Mattress Stewardship Program,” the bill is designed to reduce city and town costs of discarding mattresses while at the same time tackling the environmental fallout after mattresses are discarded in streets. The bill passed by an overwhelming vote, 117 – 21.
The bill must still pass the Senate but it did so last year. “This is actually a better bill so I am very optimistic,” Widlitz said.
In describing how things changed over the past year, Widlitz told the Eagle that the industry representatives while at the table with legislators “were reluctantly at the table. What changed was that there are bills that are starting to crop up in legislatures all over the country.
“They don’t want 50 different versions of a recycling bill. So they decided to work with Connecticut. We have been doing so over the last few months, negotiating a bill that they can use as a national model.”
The collection and disposal of these mattresses is estimated to cost towns and cities $1.2 million annually.
Widlitz negotiated a compromise bill that sets up a non-governmental program in conjunction with manufacturers for proper disposal of mattresses.
Minimal recycling costs would be included in the purchase price of new mattresses.
She told the Eagle she became interested in the mattress problem when she learned the city of Hartford was spending $400,000 a year disposing of mattresses just in that city alone.
“The reality is that over 90 percent of the components of a mattress are recyclable and usable. You can’t put them through our resource recovery burn plants because the springs jam up the equipment so they were getting sent out of the state and buried in landfills in Ohio and elsewhere in the country.”
If the bill becomes law, she said it will boost “our recycling rate, it will save our municipalities significant amounts of money and it will work with the industry to provide a nationwide model. So we are very excited about it.
“This is a landmark bill that we have worked with the industry to develop,” Widlitz said in an interview Monday. “The industry has worked with us because they understand that this is a movement starting to catch on across the country. Rather than deal with many separate bills from various states they want a model bill and the Connecticut bill will be the model for all.
“There’s been a tremendous effort by the industry and the legislature to develop this bill, which will promote recycling, help grow Connecticut companies that do recycling and prevent mattresses from being trucked out of state and buried in landfills across the country,” she said.
She said between 90 – 95 percent of mattress materials are recyclable. The mattresses are taken apart by hand and divided into 4 parts for recycling: wood, metal, foam and cotton. Recycling discarded products creates ten jobs for every one job associated with incinerating waste.
Rep. Widlitz said she hopes the legislation will foster a growth in green jobs like Park City Green plant in Bridgeport where they recycle both commercial and residential mattresses.
Widlitz, who is the House chairman of the legislature’s powerful Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, is also a voting member of the State Bond Commission.
###
