Terryl Plotnikoff had just finished reading the student internreport on how her company, Canadian Mattress Recycling might expandits business in other cities across Canada. She wondered if thereport was too optimistic: Outside of big cities such as Toronto,Montreal, and Vancouver, would consumers be interested in paying acompany like hers to take away their used mattresses for reuse andrecycling? In Vancouver, where her business was started in 2011, adecision by city officials to ban mattresses from landfills andgarbage dumps created a business opportunity that had met withgreat success. Would she be able to replicate her business model incities that didn’t have this type of civic support?

Mattress Recycling

Mattress recycling is a relatively new industry in NorthA­merica; most recycling organizations having entered themarketplace only in the past few years. The business modeltypically involves used-mattress pickup from either homes orinstitutions (e.g., hotels, university residences, hospitals) for afee. Alternatively, consumers can drop off their used mattresses atthe local recycler for a reduced fee. The mattresses are thenseparated out into their material components—cotton, felt, wood,metal, plastics, even coconut fibre—which are then sold off to avariety of manufacturing entities to use as raw material. It isestimated that approximately 99 percent of box springs andmattresses can be recycled, thus preventing hundreds of thousandsof pounds of material from ending up in the landfill.

In Canada, mattress recycling businesses have been started inMontreal (Matt Canada), Toronto (Recover Canada), and Vancouver(Canadian Mattress Recycling and Mattressrecyling.ca). In everycase, the businesses have met with ­success and growth. Forexample, in metro Vancouver the recycling depots handled over 47000 mattresses and box springs in the first few years they had beenopen. City officials indicated their satisfaction with thesebusinesses, holding them out as a great example of public policyand private business working together to maximize reuse, recycling,and resource recovery. Indeed, these businesses had created morethan 45 jobs locally and had significantly reduced both landfillwaste and illegal dumping.

Expanding the Business

Terryl was interested in growing and expanding the business. Apassionate advocate of sustainability, she had built a businessthat sought to recycle nearly 100 percent of everything that movedthrough the door. Equipment, supplies, even warehouse staffoveralls had been pre-owned or made with recycled materials. Theoperation sought a minimal ­carbon footprint, and every employeeenjoyed the creative and ongoing challenge of reducing the impactof consumption. Initial success in all aspects of the business hadinspired Terryl to seek new opportunities.

Already she had seen some success in expanding her business intorecycling metal appliances and furniture. However, she wonderedwhether expansion in the core competency of mattress recycling mademore sense strategically. As a first step, Terryl had commissioneda student summer intern to investigate possibilities. The intern’sreport indicated that Canadians in general were very open torecycling behaviours, but typically didn’t want to pay for it anddefinitely weren’t excited about changing behaviours if it involvedsignificant effort and changes in their consumption patterns.

Terryl wondered how this information might be useful informulating her growth strategies. She wondered whether moving intoother Canadian cities was a viable growth strategy. Larger citiessuch as Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, or Halifax seemed like obviouschoices, because they would probably map behaviours seen in Torontoand Vancouver, but what about smaller cities and towns? Wouldconsumers in smaller population centres be interested in this typeof recycling? Perhaps the fact that these communities typically hadfewer issues and less pressure with respect to waste managementmeant that the need for this type of recycling initiative was moot.Further, Terryl wondered how critical civic policy was in fosteringa business climate in which she could succeed. Did the consumerneed to be prodded into recycling behaviour, or had Canadiansociety matured to the point that consumers would naturally seekout her business regardless of civic policies?

Setting the report down on her desk, Terryl turned to hercomputer to begin mapping out the new strategy that would guide herorganization into the future.

• How have disposal behaviours changed in Canada? Do you thinkthere are differences in behaviour across provinces and in ruralversus urban centres? What do you anticipate for the future?
• Should Terryl expand her operations across Canada? If so, howshould she proceed?
• What is the role of public policy here? Do you agree with thenotion that government should play an active role in guidingsustainable consumption behaviours among the population? Why or whynot? Does Terryl need favourable government policy to succeed?Explain.
• How would you convince consumers to adopt specific recyclingbehaviours? What positioning strategy/messaging would you utilize?What barriers exist here? How would you overcome them?