Almost three years after MRC first launched Bye Bye Mattress, MRC recyclers have collected 3 million mattresses from hundreds of cities, towns, solid waste facilities, landfills, and other entities like retailers, hotels, and universities in California, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
MRC works with ten recyclers that dismantle the discarded mattresses and recycle the reclaimed steel, foam and other mattress components. These recyclers are located throughout the three states providing local jobs. Groups like the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Institutes of Health estimate that for every 10,000 pounds of material recycled, dozens of jobs are created.
“Although the early years of this Program have been successful, we still have lots of work to do,” said MRC Managing Director Mike O’Donnell. “We continue to focus on improving consumer access to recycling, deterring illegal dumping and growing public awareness of our programs.”
MRC’s progress has also attracted international attention. In 2017, IMM, an international interior furnishings show in Cologne, Germany, asked MRC to host a mattress recycling educational session. It provided MRC the opportunity to learn from similar programs in Australia, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. MRC is furthering those discussions at ISPA’s 2018 EXPO as leaders from mattress recycling programs in Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the European Union take part in a Mattress Recycling Summit.