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Belmont U.'s Mattress Recycling Program Wins Competition
October 3,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Green on October 4, 2012
A mattress recycling program developed by students from Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., has won the Enactus World Cup.
Enactus is the new name for an organization formerly called Students in Free Enterprise or SIFE. The Enactus World Cup is an international competition featuring students who acquire entrepreneurial and leadership skills by creating socially responsible businesses in their communities.
Competing in Washington, D.C., against 38 other Enactus teams from around the world, the Belmont crew won the World Cup Tuesday afternoon.
These students have demonstrated, through their hard work and ingenuity, that it is possible to make a difference in our communities while maintaining sustainable businesses models, said International Sleep Products Association President Ryan Trainer. Their win at the World Cup level will raise awareness of both used mattress recycling and the need for a national mattress recycling program.
Belmont Universitys entry in the competition featured the innovative student-developed Spring Back Recycling enterprise, which is a used mattress recycling program intended both to help the environment and create jobs. Through the program, previously incarcerated workers are taught the skills they need to gain employment at Spring Backs recycling facility, where mattresses are dismantled and their component materials are recycled for use in new products.
Were certainly proud of the students from Belmont University for representing the United States so well and for developing and launching their successful recycling venture, Trainer said. ISPA will continue to support their efforts as they license their approach in other U.S. cities. Proven business models like Spring Back will be invaluable as we advocate for a national mattress recycling program. Operations like this would benefit from important economies of scale possible under a national approach, as opposed to the inefficiencies and added costs that piecemeal, state-based legislation would create.