RESTI
Overview
Resti is a service that provides short-term mattress rentals including delivery, installation, removal, and cleaning. Rentals can be anywhere from 3-12 months, and are charged on a monthly basis. All mattresses available are Resti manufactured mattresses that are designed to be resistant to bed bugs and other pests. Users are able to choose the mattress size and firmness when ordering.
Background
Approximately 20 million mattresses end up in the landfill each year due to being old, unclean, or being unable to be brought when people are moving. Many of these mattresses have the potential for further use and are thrown away prematurely for the sake of convenience. All of these mattresses also have the potential to be recycled if broken down correctly, but because of improper disposal they end up in the landfill instead where they take up space and off gas toxic fumes as they break down.
...our goal was not just to create a more sustainable mattress model but, unlike many sustainable products, to improve the user convenience as well.
Resti reduces mattress waste by taking responsibility for the travel, use, and disposal of each mattress. Resti customers are no longer responsible for packing, moving, selling, or disposing of their mattresses, and therefore do not need to worry about understanding the lifespan or recycling needs of the mattress. Resti’s services ensure that each mattress is used to its full potential life and then disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way.
Process & Research
We started by doing research into the reasons and circumstances behind mattress waste, since we really wanted to address this issue of environmental impact. The first challenge that we discovered in this landscape was that of contradicting information. Because most of the reporting on mattress waste was done through articles, it was very regionally dependent and often highlighted only information from a specific city or state. In this way we had to parse together what the largest causes and factors for mattress disposal were, and how those reflected on the mattress user’s need.
We eventually identified three primary pain points for users that we wanted our service to address: mattress disposal, mattress lifespan utilization, and moving difficulty. Once these had been identified we were able to develop our service features to include solutions for each of these pain points.
Challenges
The biggest challenge that we encountered with this project was the issue of stigma, especially in the US against used mattresses due to uncleanness. Because of the short timeline of this project, we were unable to properly address this concern in our service and design. This challenge is one that would be addressed in the next steps if the project was to continue.
Collaboration
For this project, I collaborated with Shuyi Wang and Danica Dou.