When the time comes to replace your mattress, you are faced with the difficulty of getting rid of the old one. Sure, you could throw it into a skip bin or take it to the rubbish dump, or even store it until one of the dates when your local council offers kerbside collection of bulky items. This could be a waste. Just because you no longer need your old mattress does not mean that it can't be of use to someone else. This is preferable to having that old mattress slowly decomposing in landfill. So how can you ensure that your old mattress is put to good use?

Charity Shops

Ring a few local charity shops to ask if they accept old mattresses. It's not certain that they will, since specialist cleaning equipment is needed before the mattress can be resold. The mattress needs to be in an acceptable condition for it to be used by someone else, so any tears or holes might rule it out. But still, have a word with the charity shop as they might not have any issues with minor imperfections. The charity shop will simply steam clean the old mattress and offer it for sale. If you're lucky, the charity shop will even collect the old mattress from your home. You know that your mattress is going to someone who needs it, and all proceeds from the sale will go to the charity.

Mattress Refurbishing and Recycling

There are a number of companies in Australia who specialise in both the refurbishing and recycling old mattresses. They will collect the mattress for a fee, or you can drop it off at one of their outlets. Mattresses that are deemed suitable for refurbishing then go through a process to make them ready. 

• The mattress is steam cleaned to remove any mildew or bacteria that can accumulate from years of standard usage.
• The surface upholstery is removed and the foam padding is taken out and recycled. New foam padding is then installed and the surface upholstery is replaced. The finished unit is then sold as a refurbished mattress at a reduced rate.
• When a mattress is not suitable to be refurbished, it is disassembled and the individual components are recycled.

So while an old mattress can simply be thrown out, it's nice to know that it could also be recycled or could go to someone who really needs it.