Grandbrothers | stock.adobe.com
Closing on its seventh year of operations, Connecticut’s “Bye Bye Mattress” program—overseen by the Alexandria, Virginia-based Mattress Recycling Council (MRC)—reported a strong end to 2022 with 205,000 mattresses and box spring units recycled.
To offer the program at no cost to towns and cities that MRC works with, those who purchase a mattress or foundation in the state must pay a recycling fee of $11.75 per unit. According to MRC, the fee makes it possible to disassemble the box spring units and set up collection locations.
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Dan McGowan, MRC’s northeast program coordinator, says the program was able to divert 3,744 tons of steel, foam, fiber and wood from the waste stream this year. Major uses for the reclaimed material included carpet padding, insulation, filters and new steel products.
MRC obtained the units from participating Bye Bye Mattress collection sites at town transfer stations, recycling centers and public works yards, seasonal collection events and waste haulers operating curbside collection of bulky items. This collection network footprint spanned 147 of Connecticut’s cities and towns. Recyclers also received over 1,500 tons of mattresses from other entities including mattress retailers, hotels, colleges and universities, hospitals and property managers.
Since the program began in 2015, more than 1.2 million mattresses have been recycled with more than 21,000 tons of steel, foam, fiber and wood being diverted from incinerators and landfills.