Protecting Mother Earth
Breaking down mattresses is one way to build a new life.
Employees at Mother Earth Recycling often arrive without prior work experience and other barriers to employment, from limited access to child care to a criminal record.
The six-month training program is a safe, supported place to learn and grow, said Jessica Floresco, MER’s general manager.
As an indigenous owned and operated social enterprise, MER was founded in 2012, by shareholders including Neeginan Centre, the Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development, and the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg. In 2015, the operation moved from its original location on Gomez Street to the current 11,000 square-foot space at 771 Main Street.
Mother Earth Recycling’s services are strongly connected with the aboriginal worldview of respecting and caring for Earth’s resources. Cultural components are also available within their workplace program, from accessing sweat lodges and powwows, to being able to smudge before or after a shift. Reconnecting people with their culture is important, says Floresco.
MER’s mattress recycling program recently expanded to include the City of Winnipeg’s Brady 4R Winnipeg Depot as a free drop-off site. This pilot program will see 8,000 units diverted form the landfill. According to Floresco there are approximately 30,000 mattress units discarded each year in the city. To help people understand the impact they have, she calculated that the mattresses would fill Portage Avenue’s Manitoba Hydro Place, from the ground floor to the top of the building’s 22 stories.
The business also teamed up with the Province of Manitoba and IKEA so that when people buy a new IKEA mattress their old one can be removed and recycled.
All the recycling is done by hand, as the mattresses are taken apart and the padding, metal and wood are sorted for re-use. Many people wonder about the part of the work dealing with mattresses of “questionable” condition, said Floresco, putting a polite spin on the ick factor of old mattresses.
The mattresses are placed in a decommissioned refrigerator unit, repurposed to heat the mattresses to 160F for four hours – a recipe that destroys any unwelcome stowaways.
Similarly, any electronic items are also wiped clean of previous data. Donors have the option to allow their computers to be refurbished and re-sold. It is never done without permission, said Floresco. Having the electronics available for sale is another way MER breaks down barriers.
“Tech is not a luxury item. You need to have tech, for work, for a student doing research… we can provide access to a computer that costs $99.”
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All Photos by Claudine Gervais
