Josh Glanville joined the mattress recycling industry at 19, when he was looking for work after a stint as an interstate removalist. 

He started as a casual at Landsavers, which used to run the Soft Landing Newcastle site, and was offered a full-time position in his first week.

Josh, now 27, became site manager for Soft Landing Newcastle in June 2020, having worked on the site for eight years.  

“It’s a good family feel here. Everyone is friends and a lot of guys meet up after work to kick a football.    

“Everyone had respect for me because I’ve been around. I’ve always been good at organising and telling people what needs to be done.”   

The appointment of Joe Rasmussen in February 2020 as State Manager NSW, with oversight of Newcastle, Smithfield and Wollongong, made a big difference to the Newcastle team of 11.  

“Joe took on the role at a time when we knew we had to make some changes, to increase our productivity,” Josh said.  

“We were stuck in old ways. Everyone was setting bars for themselves. Having Joe was a big key. He was someone we could take questions to. 

“I took the reins under Joe, held a meeting with the team and said, ‘this is what we have to do’. Profitability and volumes went up in the first month.”  

Joe said: “Josh understands there is a job to be done and he’s open to the idea that we should be ambitious. We want to be better.”  

A big change this year was bringing in-house a third-party logistics loop in which mattresses were collected from landfill and transported 600km for processing. Through this change we added one FTE employment opportunity and reduced both cost and the amount of fossil fuel burnt to get the job done. 

The Newcastle team is now looking at more opportunities to process mattresses closer to their collection points.