Home » Mattress Reviews » Real Bed Mattress Review » How to Recycle a Mattress

Mattresses often feel like a gentle cradle helping us doze off to La La Land, but physically speaking, they tend to be big, heavy, clunky, and bulky. This can make them a hassle to get rid of and tens of thousands of them are dumped each day in the United States.

If your mattress has served its purpose for you and it’s time to ditch it, your first stop should be checking how you can recycle it. More than 75 percent of a mattress can be recycled into other products and be kept out of landfills, according to the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC). 

Curious just how the layers of your mattress can be reused? Let’s start from the top down.

Mattresses can destroy trash compactor machines due to their metals and bulky materials, which makes it harder to shred them. A queen-size mattress typically weighs around 50 to 100 pounds (or more), so that’s dozens of pounds of materials you could be sending to a better place.

An estimated 22 million mattresses end up in landfills each year. This can be dangerous as mattresses decompose slowly (most take around 50 to 100 years ). They have a tendency to absorb hazardous chemicals and become fire hazards while they break down. The chemicals inside them can leak into the ground and then transfer to water sources — creating an even larger environmental issue. For these reasons, it’s best to recycle your mattress if you can.

So let’s go through the steps of where to begin.

What I’d first recommend doing is checking your mattress warranty. Every warranty is different and will call for its own qualifiers, but some warranties will cover mattress replacement and removal. So, it’s definitely worth checking.

If the warranty doesn’t pan out for you, then it comes down to where you live. This is where it gets tricky. There’s not one easy option or way for everyone to recycle their bed because each state has its own laws and regulations.

The MRC currently has recycling programs in three states: California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and a soon-to-be-program in Oregon. If you live in one of these states, there are MRC collection sites near you along with curbside pick-up services you can easily connect with.

Click to find your nearest services for the following:

However, the majority of us — myself included — do not live in one of those states. The MRC is pushing to get more programs in more places (it requires legislative action), but in the meantime, I’ve compiled some options for recycling if you live in the rest of the country.

Since there unfortunately isn’t a mattress recycling program easily available to everyone, here are some other great options for getting rid of your bed. 

It may not be the easiest of actions to take depending on where you live, but working to find a way to recycle your mattress can help create a sustainable future for everyone. And if your old mattress is still in good shape, you could be giving one of the greatest gifts of all if you donate it — the sweet, sweet gift of sleep.

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