The Journey of a Mattress from Production to Disposal

On average, a mattress is replaced every 7 years, meaning it's not an everyday purchase, but it is a decision that is highly considered and thought of. After all, you don’t want to make an investment only to find you cannot get a good night's sleep on the mattress, do you? 

Consider this: the average person spends around 300,000 hours of their lifetime sleeping. A mattress is not just a piece of furniture; it's crucial to ensuring a restful night's sleep. This makes the decision to purchase a new mattress a significant and thoughtful one with a profound impact on your comfort and the environment.

However, when it comes time to purchase a new mattress, the mattress lifecycle, production and disposal aspect of what your new purchase means for the environment isn't often considered or looked at.

Traditionally, the process of creating a mattress is far from what is considered sustainable or environmentally friendly. There are a lot of chemicals and pollutants involved in the creation of a mattress, but something that not many people know is that over 75% of mattresses can be recycled. This means that they do not need to end up in a landfill, and they can extend their lifespan by being repurposed into something easier to help them become more sustainable.  

If this is something you haven't considered before, let's examine some statistics about the mattress industry.

• According to the Mattress Recycling Council, Americans discard around 50,000 mattresses per day.

• Most discarded mattresses end up in landfill

• According to the EPA, only around 19% of discarded mattresses are recycled

• TheRoundup found that US consumers purchase around 46 million mattresses each year

• The average household has 2 mattresses (TheRoundup)

• The IS generates 25% of the world mattress sales revenue each year (The Roundup)

• More than 75% of mattresses can be recycled, but only 5% are actually recycled. (TheRoundup)

These figures are not just numbers; they are a wake-up call. Before we delve into mattress recycling, we must first understand the alarming reality of their creation and disposal.

How Are Mattresses Created

The detailed creation of mattresses depends on the type you choose. For example, a hybrid mattress will have a completely different production method than a memory foam or coil spring mattress. All are material and labor intensive, but the construction is relatively similar on the surface.

However, a range of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are used in mattress creation to help make them more comfortable and safe for use.  

Flame retardants such as polyurethane foams and formaldehyde are commonly used for fire safety, durability, and comfort. The use of flame retardants is required for flammability laws and is what keeps your mattress from bursting into flames. This, coupled with the plastic packaging of mattresses that come sealed and are full of VOCs, gives you that "new mattress smell." For some, the "off-gassing" of a new mattress can be really off-putting, but the chemicals are essential.

Other chemicals used in the production of mattresses include  

• Chlorofluorocarbons—found in nontoxic mattresses—are a blend of chemicals with atoms including carbon, fluorine, chlorine, and hydrogen. They aren't frequently used as they are known to impact air quality. 

• Toluene - a chemical compound commonly used to make paint thinners, gasoline, adhesives, and rubbers 

• Benzene - a chemical compound that is naturally released from volcanoes and fires but can be found in plastic, dyes, and detergents

• Trichloroethane - or methyl chloroform, is an organic compound used to produce adhesives, oil cleaners, and inks.

• Perfluorocarbons - nontoxic organic compounds used in solvents

Additionally, in more cases, mattresses use adhesives to bond the different layers together and ensure your mattress is secure and fit for use night after night.

We haven't even discussed the materials used to create mattresses. Not all of them are eco-friendly, and multiple resources are required to comprise a single mattress to high-quality standards. From metal coils to foam, natural fibers, and synthetic fabrics, the composition of one mattress can be used anywhere from one single resource, i.e., the foam mattress, to multiple fabrics to create a comfortable sleeping surface. 

The North London Waste Authority found that the production process for one double mattress produced a carbon footprint of 79kg CO2e. To put this into perspective, 1kg of CO2 is the average car driving 3.7km or around 2.3 miles. Globally, there are nearly 300 million mattress users. This means that the production of mattresses contributes significantly to carbon emissions, highlighting the urgent need for more sustainable production methods.

Sustainable Mattress Production

Despite the current challenges, there is a beacon of hope. Thanks to modern technology, machinery, and a growing commitment to sustainability, the mattress industry is making significant strides towards more eco-friendly production methods. This is a promising sign for the future of mattress production and our planet. 

Researchers such as Mathias Irgens found that it was possible to halve the carbon footprint of the mattress.

"We've revealed the total environmental impact by looking at the bed's entire lifecycle, from use of the materials, through production to final incineration," says SINTEF researcher Mathias Irgens. "Then we looked at how we could reduce the carbon footprint." 

Starting with addressing the use of fibers, more manufacturers are shifting towards recycled materials and sustainably grown natural fibers to help reduce their carbon footprint. These actions, along with an effort to reduce waste produced from production and implement energy-efficient manufacturing processes and water-saving processes, result in a more sustainable mattress that benefits the environment without compromising on the quality of the user. 

However, their focus on making mattresses more usable is accompanied by a drive to recycle mattresses as much as possible and extend their lifespan so that mattresses aren't discarded as frequently and, when they are fewer, end up in landfills. 

Why Is It Important To Recycle Mattresses?

When you discard a mattress, the first thing to consider is its size. Mattresses are big and chunky and take up a lot of space. If they're dumped on the ground, they will, over time, emit gases and chemicals into the environment, contributing to air and soil pollution. This not only poses a threat to the local environment but also adds to the global issue of climate change. 

It's a stark reminder of the importance of responsible disposal and recycling of mattresses.

But a mattress in a landfill is only half the problem. The other issue facing the industry when a mattress is discarded is the requirement of new and additional resources to make new ones to replace the discarded mattresses.  

It's important that mattress lifecycle, production, disposal aspects are looked at as a whole to tackle the issue with mattresses and address the areas the industry should do better. This is where consumer awareness plays a crucial role, making us all more responsible and engaged in the life cycle of our mattresses.

When you consider that over 50,000 mattresses are discarded each day across the country, you can start to see the importance of recycling your mattress. By recycling, you can help reduce the amount of waste in landfills, minimize the environmental impact of mattress production, and contribute to a more sustainable future. 

How To Recycle A Mattress

There are multiple ways you can recycle your mattresses, extending their lifespan and ensuring that the materials used are used in other initiatives that tackle excess waste.

The only barrier to recycling your old mattress is that you cannot recycle a dirty or bed bug-infested mattress. Anything that can harm the workers tasked with recycling your mattress will not be allowed, and in these cases, the best option might be for it to go to a landfill if it can’t be salvaged.

Recycling Companies

A great place to start is to research local recycling companies in general and specifically for mattress recycling. You want to make sure you're not looking for garbage disposal services but instead looking for those who offer recycling services. Don't be afraid to make contact and specifically ask if they take mattresses so you know you are in the right place.

Great resources are Earth 911 and Bye Bye Mattress, which can help you find what you are looking for more easily in your local area. 

Recycling programs like St. Vincent de Paul employ ex-convicts and people who face other barriers to work. They break down mattresses and upcycle the covers into dividers for shelter housing. The additional unused materials are then sent to the appropriate sites.

Manufacturer 

Call the manufacturer and ask if they have a mattress recycling scheme or can take back the mattress. It can help you find suitable ways to discard the item. If you are purchasing a new mattress from them or another manufacturer, ask them if they take away an old mattress and what they do with it to ensure it's being used responsibly once you send it back. Not all old mattresses will be recycled if you send them back or use a delivery and removal service when having a new mattress delivered, so it's worth checking.

Donate It

Another way to extend the life of your mattress and avoid it going to landfill is not to donate it. You can find charities that accept donations of old mattresses to people who are less fortunate and can make use of them. Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army are two companies that will accept mattress donations as long as they are clean and in a usable condition. You can also drop it off at thrift stores if it's legal to do so in your state. 

Alternatively, you can inquire with animal charities to see if they can make use of it in their organization, too.

Upcycle It

If you are crafty and creative, you might find that you can remove materials and use them for other purposes. Of course, this depends on the size and the construction of the mattress, but if you're able to, you could remove the foam and the cover and fashion pet beds together. For example, you can recover oil springs, which you can recycle in most places. 

You can use fabric to make cushions over repurposed wood frames for use in the garden or anything else your mind can come up with.

Sell It

This is not always an option that is going to work for everyone. Your mattress needs to be in impeccable condition and free of things like bed bugs, stains, or rips and tears to be able to get someone else to buy it.  

But if you meet the condition and you can show that it's in great condition, someone might want to buy a used mattress and take it off your hands, avoiding the need for it to go to a landfill. 

The Role of Consumers in the Mattress Lifecycle, Production, Disposal Journey

It would be remiss to underestimate the importance of the consumer's role in relation to the mattress's lifecycle, so the beginning starts with manufacturing and purchasing supplies. 

However, great strides are being made to reduce the carbon footprint of the mattress-making process, and efforts and research have shown that this can halve the CO2 produced for each mattress, which is a great place to start.

From here, the onus is on the consumer to extend these practices and prolong the life of the mattress once it's being used for the purpose it is designed for: sleeping on.

From ensuring you clean and care for your mattress correctly to keep it in good condition to being mindful of how you use it and following recommended practices for extending its life to understanding how long it should last, the average person replaces a mattress every 7 years, but some modern mattresses can last up to 20 years. There is a lot to consider.

But when you reach the point where you no longer want or need the mattress or it no longer fulfills its purpose, identifying how you can further reinforce its sustainably is a priority, and there are multiple methods you can use so your mattress can embark on its next journey.