How to Dispose of a Mattress: 2025 Old Mattress Disposal Guide

DEC 23, 2021

1342 views , 4 mins read

Still hanging on to that lumpy old mattress? Not sleeping like you used to? Maybe it's time to let it go. We get it—ditching a mattress isn’t as easy as dragging it to the kerb. What if it won’t fit in the bin? What if the council won’t pick it up?

In Australia, thousands of mattresses end up in landfill each year, but did you know most of them can be recycled? If your back’s sore, the springs squeak, or you wake up more tired than when you went to bed, your mattress might be telling you something. Let’s talk signs, tips, and how to get rid of an old mattress in the right way.

In this article

1. Why Do You Have to Recycle the Mattress? 2. What are Mattress Recycling？ 3. 4 Signs that You Should Get Rid of Your Old Mattress 4. Extra Tips for How to Dispose of an Old Mattress

Why Do You Have to Recycle the Mattress?

You would not believe how many mattresses go into the waste stream every year in Australia. The answer is around one million. Unwanted mattresses are disposed of illegally every day, accounting for at least 20 percent of the inorganic waste around the blocks or alleyways.

To put it in picture, laying the mattress end-to-end is about the distance from Melbourne to Brisbane.

This problem exists due to many reasons. For one, they are too big to be dragged out of the house and too heavy to be transported.

Secondly, the available options are rather limited to local households, and the most common place to find unwanted mattresses is the landfill.

Last but not least, when the mattresses reach the landfill, they can cause problems for the waste stream as their gas emissions can be hazardous. Their large and heavy-duty frames can damage expensive equipment, and chemicals in some materials can leach out into surrounding soils and groundwater.

Landfills are limited spaces, and there is a finite amount of trash they can hold. Expanding landfills are threatening animal habitat and reducing households’ living spaces.

The burgeoning recycling industry has made it possible for mattresses to be better recycled and turned into something positive for the environment.

What are Mattress Recycling？

Mattress recycling is essentially a process of taking apart the components of beds and reusing them in other applications. Manufacturing companies are finding new ways to use old bedding materials. Don’t be surprised if a new pillow can be made out of a mattress.

The companies out there are certainly building recycling programs or donation collaborations for you to send the old mattress to, saving the planet while benefiting others.

Depending on your mattress materials, usually, the following could happen to the separate components:

Springs & coils: metals can be melted and made into new items.
Foams: mattress foams can be used as insulating materials or shredded and used as carpet padding or support pillows.
Fibers: cotton and other fibers can be used as fuel for burning or making DIY doormats.

What should you do when you have an unwanted mattress?

If you bought from us

In Newentor, we offer a 30-day free return policy 30-day free return policy as well as a 120-night trial for you to make sure that the mattress from us is the right choice.
If during this period, you have any second thoughts, we will help to contact our local charity partner to pick up the item for free, given the product and packaging are staying intact.

4 Signs that You Should Get Rid of Your Old Mattress

If you have an old mattress, the consensus is that mattresses should be replaced, on average, every 5 years.
There are some things to keep in mind when it comes to evaluating the lifespan of your mattress. Depending on the material, some mattresses last longer and stay stronger.

For instance, hybrid mattresses have the longest lifespan, typically lasting 8 to 10 years. Next are memory foam mattresses, which generally last around 4 to 7 years, although high-quality memory foam models can also reach 8 to 10 years with proper care.

While the above is for reference, the lifespan of a mattress relates highly to its design, its materials, how well it’s taken care of, and its surroundings.

The best way to tell how old the mattress is is to feel it with your hands and sleep on it. Is it bouncing like the old days?

If any of these following signs show:

Sagging: waking up feeling tired or achy
Lumps: Not comfortable
Hammocking: Feel your partners’ movements all the time
Noisy spring: sounds when people move around

And of course, if you simply need to upgrade from single to queen or king-size because of a partner or family members, then congratulations!

Other than buying a new mattress from us, we also have the perfect topper for people with too old or too firm mattresses.

Not only the breathable, skin-friendly mattress protector leaves no room for dust or mites, the topper also combines a 2-layer design to fit various preferences.

We highly recommend it.

Make sure it's up to the standards.

If your mattress has any of the following four issues, it’s not recommended to donate or recycle it. First of all, there is a features checklist you need to run first with your old mattress.

Features

Infestations: infestations are rooted deeply and hard to completely get rid of. If you are sure that the bed/mattress is inflicted, the item should only go to a landfill and no other way.
Major Structural Problems: severe issues such as broken, jutting, or bending coils also make a mattress unsuitable to pass on to someone else.
Do not donate a mattress with large, obvious rips, tears, or holes. You should also make sure that the mattress cover is firmly attached before donating.
Stains: Mattresses with large stains should not be donated. If you have a mattress, unfortunately, wetted with small spots, stains, or other issues, you can still save it and bring it to donation. Try vacuum or use a non-toxic enzyme cleaner to break down the stains.

Extra Tips for How to Dispose of an Old Mattress

Donate
If the mattress is proved to be up to standards, we suggest the most important thing do is to contact local recycling programs or charity organizations for them to pick up the item.

Sell
If your mattress is up to standards, it is also possible to resell it in a thrift store or on eBay. There are a lot of online sites or marketplace where you can sell the mattress for someone else to save some money.

Recycle it yourself
If there are metals in the mattress, the manufacturers could pay you an amount for that.
If you are into DIY, some internet search may give you ideas on how to turn an old mattress into new crafts.

Bottom Lines

We hope this sums it all up for you. If you are interested in understanding better if your old mattress is good enough for donation, or how to find the best mattress that fits you, welcome to write to us at service@newentor.com.au and we are always happy to help.

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