About 18.2 million mattresses are disposed of in the US every year, of which only 19% are recycled, according to the EPA. You might fill 1.5 million dump cars with that! Most of these mattresses wind up in landfills, where their breakdown may take decades. Furthermore, mattresses have a risk of leaking dangerous substances, such as lead and flame retardants, into the environment. Consider contacting Mind Your Mattress to recycle any old mattresses. 

The Truth Regarding Recycling of Mattresses

Getting back to the initial issue, a lot of mattress companies are now offering sleep trials that are valid for anything from 100 to 365 days. In theory, this means a consumer may switch between mattresses at little to no expense. The customer, however, is trying to game the system without thinking about the future landfill problem they are generating.

Donating a mattress to a thrift store or a charitable organization is the ideal starting point for getting rid of a mattress. Used mattresses are readily accepted by these groups as long as their condition is clean and in good repair. 

A mattress frequently ends up in a landfill if it is unable to be donated and there is no recycling facility to handle it. Since the materials used for creating them possess little value in the secondary market, traditional mattresses or mattresses generated for a lower price typically fall into this category. 

You would think recycling a mattress would be easy, but sadly, that is not the truth. States that take part in the Mattress Recycling Council program find it simpler to reuse mattresses in the US. 

The Mattress Recycling Council: Who is It?

The bedding industry established the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC), a non-profit organization, to manage the Bye Bye Mattress recycling initiatives in these states. This means that for every mattress and foundation sold in any of these states, the retailer pays an affordable price at the point of sale. Afterward, the fees are distributed to the state to pay for its recycling program. These fees are mandated to be paid by any merchant that sells mattresses or foundations; the state decides the amount of each fee, which is not determined or controlled by the retailer.

Reusing or upcycling an outdated mattress

If you are creative and can not find a place to donate or recycle your old mattress, thinking about upcycling or finding another use for it instead of throwing it away can be worthwhile.

It may be fun as well as environmentally friendly to turn an old mattress into something “new” and useful. The majority of mattresses in local landfills are made of artificial foam or traditional spring coil mattresses, which can take up to 120 years to degrade completely. These mattresses take up a lot of space.