The Many Ways of Reusing Foam Products

With many consumer products, if a mistake is made in production, the whole batch gets tossed out, and with it, all the money invested in each item up to that point. With foam however, even the biggest mistakes can be salvaged by a manufacturer and repurposed as shredded foam. At home, an old mattress or sofa cushion can become packaging foam or serve a million other little uses. This versatility makes foam one of the most surprisingly re-usable materials on the market.

Companies that produce multiple foam products out of bulk forms used to be faced with excessive amounts of remnants that were too small or irregularly shaped after a cut to be made into a new product. Back then, these remnants went right into the bin, and the only re-use of these materials was from the occasional customer requesting to pick out a few pieces of scrap for a minor project.

Today, foam manufacturers have nearly zero wasted material, due to shredding machines. The foam filling used in pillows, bean bag seating, or any other cushioning product is produced from unusable scrap from other projects. While some people may scoff at the idea of their comfort foam being “scrap,” it actually guarantees that customers are getting high-quality materials. The remnants used to make shredded foam are trimmings and excess from products like mattresses, acoustic foam, and packaging. That means the shredded foam is made of material with enough quality to be a premium end-product; it just simply had the misfortune of being on the wrong side of a cutting blade.

Even in-home scrap foam can be re-used. An old mattress can be used as arts and craft supplies, padding during a move, or packaging for items in storage. Couch cushions can be torn up and used to make DIY throw pillows or even as wall-protecting pads behind paintings and mountings. The re-usability of foam is one of its greatest character traits, and one that benefits people directly, whether in the form of a store bought shredded-foam pillow or a DIY project from salvaged materials at home.