Specialist chemicals company DSM has reached agreement with Dutch mattress manufacturer Auping to make mattresses 100% recyclable within three years, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

In a joint venture with start-up company Niaga, DSM  is going to replace the latex layer used in the mattresses with polyester which will make it easier to recycle.

Last year the DSM-Niaga partnership came up with the technology to completely recycle carpet. It is aiming to make mattresses recyclable by 2020.

‘Only 3% to 5% of all carpet products in the world is recycled at the moment,’ the FD quotes DSM-Niaga director Josse Kunst as saying. ‘Each year some €30bn worth of carpet is sold globally. Most carpets are a mix of materials, wool, nylon, latex, pvc and bitumen. Some companies recycle parts of the carpets but not whole carpets,’ he told the paper.

Kunst is keeping mum about the company turnover except to say it is ‘significant’. DSM and Niaga have been in partnership for the last three years. Niaga, which is Again spelled backwards in a reference to recycling, wants to promote ‘a new way of thinking about the design of products,’ the paper quotes Kunst as saying.