From Festival Waste to Global Impact: Sam Ninaber van Eijben’s Mission to Redesign the Air Mattress
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Last week, entrepreneur Sam Ninaber van Eijben , founder of OOMPH Industries, joined Herman de Bruin and Christine Bel in the Omroep Delft studio to discuss a problem most of us have never given much thought — the humble, disposable air mattress.
“We’ve all seen it at festivals,” Sam shared. “Tens of thousands of people arrive, pick up a cheap PVC airbed — maybe €10 or €30 — use it for the weekend, and then leave it behind. And those mattresses? They can’t be recycled. They end up burned, releasing toxic dioxins. It’s a massive, invisible waste stream that no one was tackling.”
Sam’s journey began while researching festival gear on-site. He was struck by how everyone, regardless of tent size or type, used the same type of blue, disposable mattress — products originally designed for occasional indoor use, not for the rough ground of a festival. And whether cheap or expensive, they all failed quickly.
But instead of focusing on making the toughest mattress, Sam’s team flipped the problem:
What if they designed a mattress specifically for short-term use, but with minimal environmental impact?
Their answer was radical. They created a lightweight, single-material polyethylene mattress, strong enough for five nights, but built from just one recyclable layer. It has no valves — it’s heat-sealed after inflation — and contains 36 separate air chambers. Even if one chamber punctures, the sleeper stays off the ground.
To tackle the logistics, they developed a compact machine (the size of a shoebox) that inflates and seals one mattress every 18 seconds, synchronized with a standard card payment. This lets festivals dispense ready-to-use mattresses on site, eliminating the need for visitors to lug in their own or bring pumps.
At the end of the festival, customers return the mattress (tracked by a QR code linked to a deposit system), and the material is sent for chemical recycling — breaking the plastic back down to its molecular building blocks to create new material, closing the circular loop.
What started in the festival world has now expanded dramatically.
“We began with just five festivals,” Sam explained, “then twenty, and now we’re at over forty across Europe. But soon, distributors approached us for humanitarian and emergency applications — and that opened everything up.”
"Everyone deserves a dignified place to sleep — even in crisis. Especially in crisis."
Soku’s mattresses are now being used in refugee shelters like Ter Apel, in disaster zones, and even by airports needing to house stranded travelers after flight disruptions. With 2,000 mattresses fitting on a single Europallet, Soku’s system enables rapid deployment by car, truck, or even helicopter — a logistical breakthrough compared to bulky cots or foam mats.
“Our mission is simple,” Sam told Herman and Christine, “Everyone deserves a dignified place to sleep — even in crisis. Especially in crisis. We’re proving that small ideas, when combined with circular design and smart logistics, can ripple out into big global solutions.”
The company operates under two brands:
When asked about what’s next, Sam smiled: “Every week, someone calls with a new implementation idea or need. We’re growing fast, and at the heart, it’s all about impact. About reducing waste, protecting the planet, and giving people that basic right — a good night’s rest, even in the toughest circumstances.”
For more, visit www.zzz.land or www.soku.global.