 out onto the street! A number of companies and nonprofit agencies now accept mattresses, break them down and recycle their component parts for new uses. To see if there's one near you, go to earth911.org and locate by zipcode.)
Don't toss that old mattress (or box spring) out onto the street! A number of companies and nonprofit agencies now accept mattresses, break them down and recycle their component parts for new uses. To see if there's one near you, go to earth911.org and locate by zipcode.
Image: Mark Nockleby, courtesy Flickr
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Dear EarthTalk: How can I recycle my old mattress if the place I buy a new one from doesn’t take it? What do mattress companies do with old mattresses when they do take them? Do they recycle any of the material?
-- J. Belli, Bridgeport, CT
A typical mattress is a 23 cubic foot assembly of steel, wood, cotton and polyurethane foam. Given this wide range of materials, mattresses have typically been difficult to recycle—and still most municipal recycling facilities won’t offer to do it for you. But along with increasing public concerns about the environment—and a greater desire to recycle everything we can—has come a handful of private companies and nonprofit groups that want to make sure your old bed doesn’t end up in a landfill.
The Lane County, Oregon chapter of the charity St. Vincent de Paul Society, for example, has spearheaded one of the nation’s most successful mattress recycling initiatives via its DR3 (“Divert, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”) program. “Keeping [mattresses] out of landfills is a matter of efficiently recycling them so their core materials can be reincarnated into any number of new products,” reports the group, which opened a large mattress recycling center in Oakland, California in 2001. (Why hundreds of miles away in Oakland? To “go where the mattresses are,” says Chance Fitzpatrick of the group.) The facility has been processing upwards of 300 mattresses and box springs per week ever since.
During the recycling process, each mattress or box spring is pushed onto a conveyor belt, where specially designed saws cut away soft materials on the top and bottom, separating the polyurethane foam and cotton fiber from the framework. The metal pieces are magnetically removed, and the remaining fiber materials are then shredded and baled. The whole process takes one worker just three to four minutes per mattress.
On a slow day, the DR3 facility recycles some 1,500 pounds of polyurethane foam, which totals a half million or more pounds over the course of a year. “A well-oiled recycling factory can reuse 90 percent of the mattress,” reports Josh Peterson of Discovery’s Planet Green website. “The cotton and cloth get turned into clothes. The springs and the foam get recycled, and the wood gets turned into chips.”
While the DR3 facility only takes mattresses from a small group of waste haulers and individuals around the San Francisco Bay Area, other mattress recyclers are popping up around the U.S. and beyond. Some examples include Nine Lives Mattress Recycling in Pamplico, South Carolina; Conigliaro Industries in Framingham, Massachusetts; MattCanada in Montreal, Québec; and Dreamsafe in Moorabbin, Australia. To find a mattress recycler near you, consult the free online database at Earth911.org.
Those who aren’t near a recycling facility might consider giving their old mattress away. But many health departments prohibit donating mattresses to charities like the Salvation Army or Goodwill. So what’s an upgraded sleeper with a perfectly good old mattress to do? The web-based Freecycle Network allows people to post stuff to give away to anyone willing to come pick it up; likewise, chances are your local version of Craigslist also has a “free” section where you can post that it as available.
CONTACTS: DR3 Mattress Recycling, www.svdp.us/dr3-mattress-recycling.php5; Nine Lives Mattress Recycling, www.geocities.com/ninelives29577; Conigliaro Industries, www.conigliaro.com; MattCanada, www.mattcanada.com; Dreamsafe, www.dreamsafe.com.au; Freecycle Network, www.freecycle.org.
EarthTalk is produced by E/The Environmental Magazine. SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php. EarthTalk is now a book! Details and order information at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalkbook.
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5 Comments
Add CommentYou know what - the landfill works just fine for mattresses. Besides, if you put it out for the trash collector a day early, chances are a scavenger will come by and take it to sell or use themseleves. What better way to recycle is there?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSoccerdad...that's not true about matteresses ok in the landfill. You need to read more.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat's the problem? Whether it breaks down or lasts for 10,000 years, what's the difference? It's buried and it's not affecting anyone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe can ooffer excellent quality of MDI BASE PREPOLYMER for the adhision of crushed flexible foam to produce recycle mono block , for more details and technical assistance you can contact me as under
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisfriaz@baalbaki.ae
00971509427903
RIAZ
I recycled my old mattress. It was easy, they picked it up at my house and carted it away. Cost me a few bucks but definitely worth it and its great to know it isn't in a landfill. My new mattress, found it here: http://www.mattress-wiz.com/ is totally biodegradable natural foam. When it comes time to replace it I know it won't be causing any harm to the environment and there won't be any hazardous chemicals involved. Mattresses are one of the largest household items and most of the time they are not recycled.
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