Most people have been there: a new mattress arrives, and suddenly you are staring at the old one wondering what on earth to do with it. Dragging it to the curb feels wrong, and it probably is. In most areas, municipalities prohibit placing mattresses in regular trash because they damage landfill equipment and consume an outsized amount of space (Environmental Protection, n.d.). The good news is that mattress recycling is a real, growing, and genuinely useful solution, and the materials inside your old bed have a surprisingly productive second life.
The Scale of the Problem
Americans discard roughly 18 to 20 million mattresses every year, which works out to more than 50,000 per day (TheRoundup, 2026). Each mattress occupies around 40 cubic feet of landfill space, and because of their bulk and mixed-material construction, they tend to resist decomposition for a very long time (1-800-GOT-JUNK, 2024). Older mattresses also present a chemical concern: many contain flame retardants and adhesives that can leach into soil and groundwater over time (Turmerry, 2026).
Here is the frustrating part: up to 85% of a mattress’s materials can be recovered and put to productive use (Turmerry, 2026). The gap between what is possible and what actually happens, however, is enormous. Currently fewer than 5% of discarded mattresses in the United States are recycled, and only 59 dedicated mattress recycling facilities exist across the entire country (TheRoundup, 2026).
A Growing Industry
That gap is starting to close, slowly but meaningfully. The mattress recycling market is growing as environmental concern and regulatory pressure increase, with manufacturers and recyclers now collaborating to design products that are easier to disassemble at end of life (Business Wire, 2024). Several states have moved from voluntary programs to legislated ones. Connecticut was the first state in the nation to pass comprehensive mattress stewardship legislation in 2013, establishing a fee at the point of sale that funds statewide collection and recycling. Since then, over 1.9 million mattresses have been recycled through Connecticut’s Bye Bye Mattress program alone (American Recycler, 2025). California, Oregon, and Rhode Island have followed with similar frameworks.
On the technology side, innovation is accelerating. Specialized compression trailers now reduce mattress volume by 50% during transport, cutting total transportation costs by 26% in real-world trials (Mattress Recycling Council, 2025). Robotic disassembly is also emerging as a scalable solution, with the global robotic mattress recycling market valued at $382.5 million in 2024 and projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 12.1% through 2033 (DataIntelo, 2025).
How Mattress Recycling Actually Works
The recycling process is more hands-on than most people expect. A trained technician uses cutting tools to slice through the outer fabric layer, peel back the quilting and padding, and systematically work down through each layer to expose the internal structure. A well-run facility can process a single mattress in three to four minutes (The Junk Pirates, 2026). The goal at every step is clean separation: mixing materials creates non-recyclable waste that cannot be sold to secondary processors.
Before disassembly begins, mattresses are inspected for bed bug infestation, severe moisture damage, and hazardous materials. A mattress with an active infestation cannot enter the recycling stream and must be destroyed separately (The Junk Pirates, 2026). Assuming the mattress passes inspection, it moves through a four-stage process: dismantling, material separation, processing, and sale to secondary markets. Dedicated recycling facilities can recover 80 to 95% of a mattress’s original material (Connecticut DEEP, n.d.).
Where the Materials Go
Once a mattress is broken down, each component travels a different path.
Steel Springs and Coils
Steel is the most straightforward and highest-value material in an innerspring mattress. The springs and coils are compacted into dense cubes, then sold as scrap metal and melted down to produce new construction materials, appliances, cars, and even new mattresses (1-800-GOT-JUNK, 2024; C&EN, 2025). Steel can be recycled endlessly without losing its core properties, and recycling it requires significantly less energy than producing virgin steel from raw ore (Sanitation Services, 2025).
Polyurethane and Memory Foam
Foam is the most complicated material in the recycling stream. In mechanical recycling, foam is shredded and rebonded with adhesives to create carpet padding, athletic mats, furniture cushioning, and animal bedding (1-800-GOT-JUNK, 2024). Memory foam presents additional challenges because its unique density and composition make it less compatible with traditional shredding and rebonding processes (Mattress Recycling Council, n.d.).
Chemical recycling represents the frontier here. Researchers and companies like Dow are working to break polyurethane foam down to its original chemical building blocks, which can then be used to manufacture new foam with recycled content (C&EN, 2025). Dow has been operating an industrial-scale chemical recycling process at its plant in Semoy, France since 2021, handling up to 200,000 mattresses’ worth of foam annually (C&EN, 2025). The work is promising but still in early stages, and the biggest growth in foam chemical recycling is currently happening in Europe under more aggressive waste-management policy frameworks.
Fabric and Textiles
The quilted outer fabric, ticking, and fiber layers present the most limited secondary market of any mattress component. These textiles, often a blend of cotton, polyester, wool, or rayon, are typically shredded and blended into carpet padding, industrial filters, sound insulation, and geotextile products (Sanitation Services, 2025; Mattress Recycling Council, n.d.). Visually contaminated or heavily soiled fabric is more likely to end up landfilled even at a recycling facility, which is one reason why the Mattress Recycling Council has ongoing research into expanding textile end markets (Mattress Recycling Council, 2025).
Wood Frames
Wood from box spring frames is chipped or ground into small pieces that serve as landscape mulch, biomass fuel, or raw material for engineered wood products like particleboard and pallets (Sanitation Services, 2025). The specific end use depends on wood quality and local market conditions.
Specialty Components
Some box springs are built with coconut husks as a natural cushioning material. Once separated, these can be repurposed into coir-based growing media for gardens and farms (1-800-GOT-JUNK, 2024). Plastic components and adhesives are the most difficult to recover and are typically disposed of according to local regulations.
We Recycle Mattresses
At Recycle IT Utah, we handle mattress recycling so you do not have to figure out where to take yours. If you have an old mattress you need to get rid of responsibly, reach out to us and we will get it taken care of. Click here to fill out an inquiry.
References
American Recycler. (2025). Report highlights valuable impacts of mattress recycling.https://americanrecycler.com/solid-waste/report-highlights-valuable-impacts-of-mattress-recycling/
Business Wire. (2024, December 11). Mattress Recycling Market Report 2024-2034.https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241211545176/en/
C&EN. (2025). Mattress recycling wakes up. https://cen.acs.org/environment/recycling/Mattress-recycling-wakes/103/i4
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. (n.d.). Mattress recycling.https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Reduce-Reuse-Recycle/Recycling/Mattress-Recycling
DataIntelo. (2025). Robotic Mattress Recycling Market Research Report 2033. https://dataintelo.com/report/robotic-mattress-recycling-market
Environmental Protection. (n.d.). Referenced via Sanitation Services, 2025.
1-800-GOT-JUNK. (2024). How mattresses are recycled from start to finish.https://www.1800gotjunk.com/us_en/blog/furniture/how-mattresses-are-recycled
The Junk Pirates. (2026). How mattresses are recycled: The complete process explained.https://thejunkpirates.com/how-mattresses-are-recycled/
Mattress Recycling Council. (2025). Research: Completed reports. https://mattressrecyclingcouncil.org/research-completed-reports/
Mattress Recycling Council. (n.d.). Why recycle. https://mattressrecyclingcouncil.org/why-recycle/
Sanitation Services. (2025). How to recycle your mattress: A complete guide to sustainable disposal. https://sanitation-services.com/blog/how-to-recycle-your-mattress-a-complete-guide-to-sustainable-disposal/
TheRoundup. (2026). 39 official mattress industry statistics. https://theroundup.org/mattress-industry-statistics/
Turmerry. (2026). How are mattresses recycled: The process and its environmental impact.https://www.turmerry.com/blogs/dreamerry/how-are-mattresses-recycled