The Environmentally Friendly Way to Dispose of Your Mattress

The Environmentally Friendly Way to Dispose of Your Mattress

Did you know that over five percent of the landfill space is occupied by old mattresses? On top of that we are adding about eight thousand more to that total each day. For anyone who even cares a little bit about the environment and sustainability, these numbers are staggering.

What’s more concerning about this issue is the fact that up to ninety percent of a mattress is recyclable, yet for some reason or another it is just something that even reasonably environmentally aware people often don’t think about. Maybe it’s the excitement of getting a new and comfortable bed, maybe it’s just the excitement of getting rid of the old, broken down one.

Regardless of the reasons this little courtesy to the planet keeps slipping our minds, we need to become more aware of the subject and make a better effort to dispose of our mattresses and bedding assembly in more responsible manners. Here are a few helpful suggestions:

Try Donating It

It’s not always easy to donate a mattress. It needs to be clean, in fairly decent shape, and still have a little bit of life left in it. If you have completely worn it down and kept it for longer than is recommended, donating it really shouldn’t be a consideration. But for those who still have something that would be useable and none of your friends or family wanted it, here are a few places you might try:

● Goodwill
● Habitat for Humanity
● The Salvation Army
● Local charities
● Homeless shelters

Ask the Mattress or Delivery Company to Take It to a Recycling Center

If donating it really isn’t an option, the next thing you can do is to check to see whoever hauls off your old one after delivering your new one will take it to a local facility that handles this type of recycling. There may be an extra charge if it is not something that they normally do, but a few bucks really is worth it when you consider the fact that you are doing your part to contribute to the health and wellness of our planet.

Break It Down Yourself

If all else fails and you find yourself without anyone to take your mattress, and the folks handling the delivery of your new one don’t offer any way for you to recycle it, you still have one option left and that is to break it down on your own and transport it to a recycling center yourself. It really is a much simpler process than you might think.

As we stated before, up to ninety percent of it is recyclable, and once you actually get in there and see that, you will realize how much of a waste it has been that we have been throwing them away for all of these years. Consisting of steel, fabric, wood, and memory and poly foam, the fact is some of it even has value. Steel can be melted down and sold at a profit to be reused later, and the wood often times is repurposed for new mattresses or other items