Yolo County, CA Landfill Recycles More Than 103,000 Mattresses with the Mattress Recycling Council

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Even mattresses need to be put to rest after years or decades of use, but folks can rest easy knowing that their beds will find sanctuary at the Yolo County Central Landfill, where dreams come true, and mattresses get recycled. In partnership with the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC), the Yolo County Integrated Waste Management Division has reached a significant milestone in an eight year-long agreement with MRC by recycling 103,274 mattresses and box springs at the end of 2024. Through the free “Bye Bye Mattress” program, available to all residents, mattresses are collected at the Yolo County Central Landfill, transferred to a local processing plant in the industrial part of Woodland, and stripped apart for recycling so that beds are not bed-ridden forever.

Mary Vixie Sandy, Chair of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, expressed her enthusiasm for this achievement by stating, “We are supporting a circular economy by accepting and recycling these mattresses giving these components a second life, we are providing free options for proper disposal to reduce illegal dumping in our county and are contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable future.”

Mattresses can be bulky, flexible, and heavy, making disposal challenging, but over 75% of the materials used in a mattress or box spring are recyclable, according to the MRC. The wood frame from box springs is repurposed into shipping pallets, converted into fuel pellets and biomass fuel, or turned into mulched. Steel coil springs from mattresses are melted down and reused in construction materials or new metal products, saving 75% of the energy used in producing new steel. The various foams and fibers, such as cotton, rayon, and polyester, are separated and blended into products such as carpet padding or insulation. Additional applications are constantly being discovered such as a modified mattress foam that can absorb oil from water in oil spills.

Diverting 100,000 mattresses from the landfill saves a tremendous amount of space. If we lined up 100,000 mattresses, split evenly between twin and queen-sizes, they would cover 60 acres of farmland. That’s enough to fill 46 football fields. Since the mattress recycling program began in 2016, if all the mattresses collected at the Yolo County Landfill were laid out end-to-end, they would stretch 126 miles, from Woodland to South Lake Tahoe. If stacked on top of each other, they would reach a height of 6.3 miles, taller than Mount Everest at 5.5 miles.

As the Mattress Recycling Council approaches their ten-year anniversary, we celebrate their impact of recycling more than 15,000,000 mattresses across four states, saving 14.9 million cubic yards of landfill space, and diverting 500 million pounds of material from landfills. According to Ryan Trainer, President of the MRC, by their diversion of 1.6 million mattresses and box springs per year, the program has generated the following environmental benefits: 100 million miles of a gas-fueled vehicle saved (in greenhouse gases emitted), 818 million gallons of water saved, and enough energy saved to power 40,000 homes for a full year.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com