PSP firm's washable mattress made from recycled bottles

Mattresses are a huge environmental problem which might be about to be solved thanks to a brainwave by Squirrel Medical, a company based at the internationally renowned Plymouth Science Park.

Currently, the UK sees some 169,000 mattresses dumped into landfill. Hygiene concerns mean many of the parts mean cannot be recycled.

It’s a global issue with industry experts saying America saw more than 20 million mattresses thrown away last year alone.

“The scale of what we’re dealing with is unbelievable,” explains Gary Baker, Research and Development Director at Squirrel Medical.

“They’re a top fly tipping menace and make a bulky deposit for landfill where they’re considered a biohazard and cannot be recycled.”

“As a company, we decided to sit down and look at ways we could make a real difference. As such, we invented the world’s first washable mattress.”

The team didn’t just stop there. Their green credentials extended to ensuring the washable mattress is made of recycled plastic.

It even comes with its own seven-year guarantee with the team testing the springy mattress to replicate regular usage over a number of years.

Knowing you can wash the mattress will be a huge relief for lots of people who are conscious of the bacteria build up in beds – at home and elsewhere.

“Currently, 1.3 pounds of human flesh ends up in your mattress each and every year."

"Humans tend to sweat around 1.5 litres a day and, on average, more than 2,000 people will have slept in your hotel bed before you’ve even checked in. We believe producing a hygienic mattress is crucial for your health.”

“Our Noodleflow Washable mattress is specifically designed for you to be able to pop it in the garden and hose wash it before leaving it to dry for a couple of hours and putting it back into the bedroom.”

The applications for the mattresses are immense as the design team has provided a number for the NHS to trial in hospitals.

“It’s absolutely ground breaking,” says Gary. “To have achieved all of this from plastic bottles, which cannot be recycled in a standard fashion is, frankly, amazing.”

“More than 10 million people have a dust allergy in the UK and around 20,000 dust mites live in an average mattress."

"Our washable mattress will help reduce the number of these critters and so help improve the lives of many users across the country.”

It’s designed to be super springy and, as such, returns to the same shape every time (with the cost of a mattress starting at £395).

Squirrel Medical was one of the first companies to be based at Plymouth Science Park and Gary puts much of the firm’s success down to the excellent facilities, on-site management team and the location of the site itself.