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The mattress, which is one of the most important features of a hotel room, is increasingly becoming the focus of sustainability efforts, as its environmental impact and waste of raw materials remain particularly high. In the DACH region alone, millions of mattresses are disposed of via waste incineration every year. In addition, the hotel industry is increasingly being held accountable for significantly reducing its carbon footprint. As a result, those responsible at both the national and EU level are developing concepts for integrating mattresses into the circular economy. There are no uniform guidelines yet, but Swissfeel, a Swiss manufacturer of fully washable and recyclable hotel mattresses, believes that too little attention has been paid to how the costs associated with conventional circular models can be offset by other economic advantages. Philipp Hangartner, owner and CEO of : «In everything that has been discussed so far, we unfortunately see hotels as the ones who will ultimately have to foot the bill. We want to prevent this, because a successful model is one in which all parties involved share the burden equally or all benefit together.»

Economic advantages through circular economy

In particular, linking sustainability with economic advantages creates greater acceptance and better and faster implementation. «So far, only SWISSFEEL-2-CYCLE offers these advantages, where we link two cycles and realize direct cost savings for the hotel industry,» adds Philipp Hangartner. This is because Swissfeel, which operates branches in Austria and Germany in addition to Switzerland, has established another cycle in addition to the usual recycling cycle for mattresses. «In Swissfeel's first cycle, we extend the life and useful life of our mattresses made from Swiss mineral foam by washing them,» adds Kai Rittmeier, senior engineer at Swissfeel. «This means that hotels need fewer mattresses over the years and ultimately make significant savings. After all, true sustainability begins above all with extending product life cycles. Only when products are used for a sufficiently long time is the purchase worthwhile for the customer. And the longer a product can be used, the more it naturally protects the environment, as less needs to be produced and disposed of.»

The challenge of single-use or disposable mattresses

The large quantity of today's non-washable disposable mattresses, which are mass-produced by the mattress industry every year, is a problem. Understandably, the industry wants to continue selling high volumes – especially pocket spring mattresses (TFK), which are inexpensive to produce, or the even cheaper Bonell spring mattresses. These spring mattresses also consist of up to 60% foam in terms of weight. However, the use of CO2-critical metal springs, which create physically resilient cavities, allows high-quality mattresses to be produced inexpensively, which are currently popular in the hotel industry. However, these are not washable and also have a significantly worse CO2 balance. In contrast, foam mattresses, which can achieve the same height without cavities, are fully washable – provided they are made of washable, high-quality Swiss mineral foams.

However, washing a mattress is always cheaper than buying a new one: as a means of achieving greater sustainability, this leads to a conflict of interest for mattress manufacturers who make their living solely from selling mattresses.

Significantly extending the life cycle of hotel mattresses through washing and subsequent recycling is the solution

Swissfeel does not have this conflict of interest and sees the combination of mattress manufacturer and service provider for the complete washing of mattresses as a new and forward-looking business model. Swissfeel also offers its mattresses on a leasing basis, similar to hotel linen rental, except that a mattress should only be washed every three to five years, or every 12 months for an allergy certificate. SWISSFEEL-2-CYCLE thus contributes to sustainability with the effect of cost savings as well as improved hygiene and allergy certification. All in all, SWISSFEEL-2-CYCLE offers a sustainable solution without disadvantaging the hotel industry.