How to dispose of an old mattress

Here at ProSkips, we have the answers to almost every enquiry we’ve ever received. If you want to know how much waste a big, small and medium-sized skip will hold, how much they cost to hire, how soon we can get one out to you or whether we deliver to both residential and commercial customers (answer: yes we can), then give us a call or take a tour of this website and we’ll be able to help out.  

But there’s one question we haven’t yet been able to figure out the answer to: Why do so many people feel they’ve a right to dump an old mattress into a skip that’s been hired and paid for by someone else?    

We accept that pedestrians who come across a large container full of rubbish outside a residential address might be tempted to toss a small item of litter into it, particularly if a bin is not in sight.

We’re not condoning such actions of course, any more than we’d approve of sneaking into a stranger’s kitchen and dumping rubbish in their swing bin. But we understand the thought process.   

A mattress, on the other hand, is a large, cumbersome, fairly heavy item which is going to take a degree of time, effort and planning in order to make it safely into someone else’s skip. 

Bye Bye Mattress

America might have the answer to this problem.

Mattress retailers and manufacturers in California have sponsored new legislation to be introduced next year that will create an industry-managed recycling programme.

Known as Bye Bye Mattress, the scheme will see retailers charge a fee every time a mattress is sold, with the money being used to fund the collection and recycling of old beds. The hope is that this will stop them either clogging the waste collection system or being dumped illegally in public places.   

Unfortunately, the UK doesn’t yet have a national mattress recycling scheme, so if the company you buy your new bed from doesn’t offer a recycling service one option could be to hire a skip and start decluttering your home.  

With many local authorities now charging householders for the removal of bulky items – and often having a waiting list of up to eight weeks – hiring a skip could save you money and shrink your environmental footprint.

Instead of taking dumped mattresses to a landfill site, our partner firms make every effort to transport them to a materials recovery facility where up to 90% of a skip’s contents – including wood, plastics, textiles, bricks, concrete and cardboard – is separated and recycled. 

What happens to a recycled mattress?

The recycling process for a mattress largely depends on what it is made from, but most recycling facilities will ensure that each type of material has a new life.

Cotton and foam from mattresses is often turned into pillow stuffing, furniture upholstery, carpet foam or underlay padding, while textiles such as rayon and sisal might be used to manufacture new mattresses.

Meanwhile, the steel from sprung bedding can be melted down for reuse in a great many other products and the wood from box springs is often chipped and recycled as garden mulch or animal bedding.

With 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16-yard skips available, we have the perfect solution for getting rid of your waste. As a skip hire broker, we can arrange any permits you need and even provide a wait and load service. Contact ProSkips now and take the first step towards diverting your unwanted clutter away from landfill sites.