Royal Auping has opened a new factory exclusively for the production of circular mattresses. This marks a significant milestone for the Dutch bed and mattress company, which has been a driving force in the circular transition for years. With the newly developed, automated, and largely robotized production line, the production of circular mattresses can be significantly scaled up. Auping is making its circular technology available as a profitable business model for other mattress manufacturers, aiming to jointly work towards a waste-free and sustainable mattress industry.
In 2020, Auping introduced the world's first 100% circular mattress for consumers: Evolve. In 2022, two mattresses were added to the circular mattress range: Elysium and Elite. That same year, Auping was instrumental in the Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR), a law designed to ensure that over 1.5 million discarded mattresses are processed as effectively as possible instead of being incinerated. This year, two more circular mattresses will be introduced, making almost the entire Auping mattress range circular. Together with the opening of the new factory, these developments contribute to a significant national objective: achieving a fully circular economy by 2050 and halving the consumption of primary resources by 2030.
Jan-Joost Bosman, CEO of Royal Auping: "We have been leading the circular mattress industry for years. The opening of this factory - making the entire process much more efficient - is a world first in our industry and a real breakthrough. Our goals are sometimes very ambitious. We choose this because we believe that organizations share responsibility for the livability of the earth for future generations. This has now resulted in this innovative production line, which prepares us for a sustainable future."
Innovative Production Line
A circular mattress consists of mono-materials that can be well separated and recycled at a high quality. In Auping's circular mattresses, these are steel and polyester. However, traditional production lines cannot process these materials. Therefore, until now, the production of circular mattresses was done by hand. To increase processing and production speed, Auping, in collaboration with Machinefabriek Geurtsen and Hollander Techniek - united in the joint venture Robotize - set up a new, automated production line.
During development, several challenges were taken into account: the production line had to be able to produce a large variety of different mattress variants - because Auping delivers customized products - and it had to be able to work with other types of materials and a different connection technique. Both tasks were successfully accomplished. The new production line is largely robotized and is automatically controlled. As a result, circular mattresses can be produced efficiently and in large quantities; Auping is now able to produce a custom-made circular mattress every minute.
Closed Loop Ecosystem
In collaboration with various partners, Auping has set up an ecosystem - the Circular Mattress Ecosystem - that ensures the materials of circular mattresses can be recycled in a high-quality manner. This creates a closed loop: all materials used in the production of a mattress can be recycled after its lifespan and reused in the production of a new mattress.
Sharing Circular Technology
Auping began the circular transition with the dream of creating a world without waste and realizes that this is only possible when forces are combined. Therefore, the company wants to actively share its circular technology with other parties in the chain and competing mattress manufacturers. Auping hopes that now the production of circular mattresses forms a profitable business model, more manufacturers will join the circular transition, working towards a sustainable, waste-free sector.
For more information:
Auping
[email protected]
www.auping.com
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