The Vita Group wins industry awards for its advanced sustainable foam technology

Vita's Middleton Innovation Centre

A Middleton-based foam manufacturer has won two prominent awards at the world leading furniture trade fair Interzum in recognition of its sustainable foam innovations.

The Vita Group, which is headquartered in Middleton, has developed a range of foams that utilise fossil fuel alternatives and recycled post-consumer mattresses to reduce the environmental impact of bedding and furniture.

The two products that won awards at this year’s Interzum event were: 

• Orbis™, the latest addition to Vita’s sustainable foam collection, was recognised for its advanced, environmentally friendly properties and received the ‘Best of the Best’ Interzum Award. This foam is created out of a partnership with Dow that will see 200,000 mattresses a year recycled into material for brand new bedding and furniture as part of the RENUVA™ Mattress Recycling Program.
• The VitaRest Origin pillow, incorporates castor oil to help achieve a better night’s sleep and is made using bio-polyols, won the prestigious ‘High Product Quality’ award at Interzum 2021.

Ian Robb, CEO at The Vita Group, said: “We pursue sustainable alternatives and these efforts have been recognised in two leading industry awards – the ‘Best of the Best’ for Orbis foam and ‘High Product Quality’ for VitaRest Origin pillow.

“We’ve set some tough sustainability targets for the next several decades as part of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy.

“These targets include all plants being able to manufacture sustainable polyols by 2030, sending zero manufacturing waste to landfill by 2040 and achieving demanding carbon neutrality benchmarks by 2050.”

In 2000, Vita became the first company in Europe to manufacture flexible foams using sustainably sourced polyols. It now has a collection of sustainable polyurethane foams made using plant-based bio polyols; polyols derived from captured CO2; and polyols sourced from recycled post-consumer foam mattresses.

Today, 100% of Vita’s trim foam is recycled and re-bonded into a range of products such as carpet underlay, foam shock pads for sports pitches, landscaping and children’s playgrounds.

Over 30,000 tons of its own and its customers’ process trim goes back into Vita’s recycling processes to be turned into new products.