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Patrick Kennedy deconstructs a mattress into its individual materials, which are then packed into bales and shipped off-site for reuse.<\/p>\n
STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN \u2014 THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE<\/a><\/p>\n It recycles air conditioners, scraps appliances and, as of July, has a rare international certification to do data destruction, scrubbing and overwriting on hard drives and solid state drives. The company also reclaims precious metals from computers, including gold.<\/p>\n While the mattress and appliance recycling market is limited to a radius of about an hour\u2019s drive, recycling computers means the business can reach a national, and even international market.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be a one-stop shop for all recycling,\u201d Danforth said. \u201cIf we have a facility big enough, whatever someone throws at us and we can solve that problem, we want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Foam material and fabric from mattresses are baled into 1,000-pound bundles and stacked high in the company’s warehouse. It takes 40 of those bundles to make a truck load that will get shipped to points as far away as Indiana.\u00a0<\/p>\n STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN \u2014 THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE<\/a><\/p>\n Kennedy and Danforth, along with co-owner Dan Haskins, who serves as chief financial officer, are looking to expand in Adams, seeking a special tax assessment from the town for seven years.<\/p>\n Under the name DG Investments, Dream Green Recycling<\/a> on July 14 bought a 16,000-square-foot building, where it has leased space, for $840,000. It has an $800,000 mortgage with the previous owner, Shaker Mountain Properties.<\/p>\n If Dream Green Recycling wins the special tax assessment, it would give the company tax breaks for each of the next seven years in return for putting 12 more people on the local payroll by Dec. 31, 2028. Today there are four.<\/p>\n At the company\u2019s Pittsfield warehouse, Dream Green Recycling Co-Founder Patrick Kennedy deconstructs a mattress into its individual materials before they are packed into bales shipped off-site for reuse.<\/p>\n STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN \u2014 THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE<\/a><\/p>\n Winning that special tax assessment will require both the endorsement of the Select Board as well as an affirmative vote at a town meeting, possibly as early as September.<\/p>\n Specifically, the special tax assessment would give Dream Green Recycling a 100 percent tax abatement in the first two years, 75 percent in the third and fourth, 50 percent in the fifth and sixth, and 25 percent in the seventh and final year.<\/p>\n Adams has a commercial property tax rate of $21.51 for fiscal year 2026. Nicholas Caccamo, town administrator, estimated the taxes of the property, at nearly $16,000.<\/p>\n Blueprints for an additional 11,000 square-foot warehouse in Adams are on the wall of one of the offices in the building.<\/p>\n Dream Green Recycling is breaking down computers and is certified to scrub data.<\/p>\n JANE KAUFMAN \u2014 THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE<\/p>\n But Danforth says the 1.5-acre parcel Dream Green Recycling now owns won\u2019t be large enough to accommodate the expansion he\u2019s planning in the next five years, and he\u2019d like to stay in Adams. He\u2019s looking for 5 acres to build on.<\/p>\n \u201cMy five-year plan is to be a $20 million revenue company,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Part of realizing that kind of revenue might depend on whether the company can move into solar tile recycling.<\/p>\n Dream Green Recycling also rents about half of a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Pittsfield with 20-foot-high ceilings. Height is important for baling the foam material and fabric from mattresses into 1,000-pound bundles. It takes 40 of those bundles to make a truck load that will get shipped to points as far away as Indiana. But with a $3.8 mllion price tag on the Pittsfield building, the company isn’t looking to buy that warehouse.<\/p>\n At the company\u2019s Pittsfield warehouse, Dream Green Recycling Co-Founder Patrick Kennedy deconstructs a mattress into its individual materials before they are packed into bales shipped off-site for reuse.<\/p>\n STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN \u2014 THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE<\/a><\/p>\n Dream Green Recycling picks up mattresses with a 16-foot box truck. And recently, it was expected to add a used 20-foot box truck at a cost of $60,000, doubling the size of the fleet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
While the company has hired two people in the past month, it\u2019s also looking to hire more immediately to drive that new truck, do e-commerce, administrative work and general labor.<\/p>\n On a recent Tuesday, two workers came back with the company truck loaded with mattresses and appliances. Offloading took place in about 15 minutes, with a stove going directly into the scrap bin outdoors, and mattresses piled up and moved with a forklift.<\/p>\n Danforth, who is CEO, and Kennedy, COO, have researched placements for every part of a mattress except the styrofoam corners and the plastic sheathing. On clean mattresses, that\u2019s all that goes to the landfill. If a mattress is dirty, soiled fabric and foam goes to landfills as well.<\/p>\n Springs go to scrapyards. Toppers and foam go to textile manufacturers in those 1,000-pound bales. Cotton felt gets separated out for use as insulation, carpet padding and dog beds.<\/p>\n And the wood frames?<\/p>\n While they\u2019d like to send them to people in need of wood for home heating, the state has rules about what recyclers can do. So they get reused in the wood stoves of maple syrup producers.<\/p>\n While precious metals from computer components command a lucrative price, scrap metal is the next most-valuable commodity on Dream Green\u2019s resale market. Baled foam and cotton command just 4 cents a pound.<\/p>\n So their costs are covered by the $55 fee customers pay to toss out their mattresses and the fees customers pay to recycle other appliances and computers.<\/p>\n Still, last year, Dream Green Recycling made close to $500,000 in revenue, Danforth said, up from $75,000 the previous year. This year, he expects to clear $1 million.<\/p>\n Danforth and Kennedy went to Drury High School both graduating in 2003. They remained friends.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Danforth was national sales director of National Hanger Co., got his real estate license and owns K. Danforth Enterprises, a construction company. He also owns The Rainbow Shack<\/a> in Adams.<\/p>\n Kennedy worked for Central Radio in sales. This business was his brainchild.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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