The Mattress Recycling Council (MRC) announced it has recycled more than 6 million mattresses in less than five years through its Bye Bye Mattress program. Laid end to end, these mattresses would span more than 7,000 miles from coast to coast between program states—from California to Connecticut and Rhode Island and back again, equating to more than 210 million pounds of material diverted from landfill by MRC’s recyclers.
“As we approach the 50th Earth Day and MRC’s fifth anniversary, MRC is proud of the work we have done to build successful mattress recycling networks across our program states, keeping more than 6 million mattresses out of landfills and supporting a greener Earth,” said Mike O’Donnell, MRC’s managing director, in a statement. “Since 2015, MRC has substantially increased the number of mattresses recycled and generated tremendous awareness of our recycling program. We thank all those who have helped make it possible.”
MRC is a nonprofit organization formed by the mattress industry to operate recycling programs in those states that have enacted mattress recycling laws. Point-of-sale fees in program states fund robust statewide mattress collection, transportation and recycling programs. Mattresses are collected through a variety of channels at no cost, offering consumers and businesses recycling solutions, including retailer takeback and collection events and no-cost drop-off at hundreds of participating solid waste transfer stations and landfills.
More than 80 percent of a mattress can be recycled and turned into new consumer and industrial products. The most prominent commodities extracted include metal springs, foam, quilt panels, wood and cotton. MRC supports these efforts by investing in research to identify new end markets to increase recycling rates, improve the efficiency of used mattress collection and improve mattress dismantling and recycling best practices.