MRC has recycled 15 million mattresses and foundations and helped inspire the entire industry to focus on sustainability. That’s a good news story to share with consumers.
During its 10 years of successfully managing statewide mattress recycling programs in California, Connecticut and Rhode Island, Mattress Recycling Council has recycled 15 million mattresses and foundations. If you laid those mattresses end to end, they would cover 19,000 miles.
Here’s another way of looking at it: With more than 75% of a used mattress able to be recycled, MRC has diverted more than 500 million pounds of materials from landfills, saving 14.9 million cubic yards of landfill space.
“In early 2017, we celebrated recycling our 1 millionth mattress,” says Mike O’Donnell, MRC chief operating officer. “It was exciting. I thought, ‘We’re really doing this.’ Every year since, MRC’s programs have added another 1.5 million to the pile.”
As MRC celebrates its 10th anniversary, the nonprofit organization has much to celebrate, including the launch of its mattress recycling program in Oregon in January.
While the recycling statistics are impressive, they represent just a portion of MRC’s impact over the past decade.
MRC has funded more than 30 research projects that have, among other things, led to advancements in used mattress processing and discoveries of new uses for used mattress components.
Along the way, MRC has honed its model, which includes educating consumers about mattress recycling, working with retailers and large-scale mattress buyers to recycle their used units, reducing illegal dumping, and setting up transportation and recycling networks.
MRC has also helped foster bedding industry interest in recycling, sustainability and circularity and has brought together suppliers, manufacturers and retailers to tackle those issues.
MRC accomplishments are worthy of celebration — and of sharing with consumers.
Fair and Consistent: Benefits of MRC’s Recycling for Producers and Retailers
MRC grew out of the mattress industry’s experience with flammability. After navigating the implementation of a federal open-flame mattress standard in 2007 that protected the bedding industry from dealing with a patchwork of state flammability laws, the International Sleep Products Association sought a similar approach to mattress recycling. Initially, it focused on federal legislation that would give the industry consistency across the country, says Ryan Trainer, recently retired president of ISPA and MRC.
When federal legislation failed to gain traction and several states started considering their own bills, ISPA changed tact, advocating for bills that funded mattress recycling programs via a simple process — requiring all purchasers to pay a small fee when buying a mattress or foundation in the state.
In a spirit of transparency and fairness, it was important to ISPA that the recycling fee be listed clearly on all purchase receipts. It was also important that the industry, with its expertise in mattresses, run each state program, Trainer says. MRC has since created a replicable model for other states that want to create a mattress recycling program that is harmonized and supported by the industry.
Alison Keane became ISPA and MRC president in summer 2024, but she had an early hand in helping ISPA navigate passage of the first mattress recycling laws in California, Connecticut and Rhode Island and in creating MRC. ISPA consulted with her on both efforts. Keane is well-versed in product stewardship. She was general counsel and secretary of the American Coatings Association’s product stewardship arm, PaintCare, and later was president and CEO of the Flexible Packaging Association.
The recycling laws ISPA supported and the creation of MRC as an industry-led organization have been good “in terms of making sure that it’s a level playing field for all producers and retailers, really, for the entire supply chain,” Keane says. “MRC has been doing great work for 10 years. We’ve got a lot to celebrate.”
The Vital Role of Retailers in Successful Mattress Recycling
Retailers are vital to MRC’s success.
Under MRC’s programs in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island, retailers and other entities that sell mattresses and foundations to end users in those states (whether individual consumers or large-volume buyers) collect the point-of-purchase fee and remit it to MRC to fund the recycling programs.
Given retailers’ key role in how the programs are structured, it’s important to MRC to make it as easy as possible for retailers to register with MRC and to remit the fees they collect. In addition, MRC and its consumer-focused website, ByeByeMattress.com, provide consumer education materials to retailers, including posters and videos, that retailers can use to explain the fees, as well as the mattress recycling process and the importance of recycling.
MRC also aids retailers in moving the used mattresses they collect from customers into the mattress recycling stream. Retailers operating in MRC program states that have at least 100 used mattresses can arrange for pickup through MRC’s Commercial Volume Program, and retailers that accumulate at least 100 mattresses a month can request a collection container with scheduled, recurring pickups. For retailers with smaller volumes, ByeByeMattress.com offers a locator tool to find places where they can drop off units at no cost.
And for retailers operating in states outside the four that have mattress recycling programs, Bye Bye Mattress also maintains a list of recycling facilities across the country.
Since its formation, MRC has grown into a “high-performing product stewardship organization, and I’d say it’s quite an accomplishment. We’re meeting all our state program goals,” O’Donnell says.
MRC’s harmonization was important as MRC launched its fourth mattress recycling program in Oregon at the start of the year. As part of that launch, the organization is “contracting with additional solid waste facilities throughout the state to build the framework of the collection network for Oregon residents, retailers and large-volume generators,” O’Donnell says. “We’ll see rapid expansion in that state throughout the year.” (See story on page 20 about other states considering mattress recycling laws.)
More Than Just Recycling: Creating Value from Used Mattresses
In addition to its recycling efforts, MRC also has a robust research arm, investing nearly $1 million annually to make mattress collection, transportation and deconstruction more efficient and to develop new uses for recycled mattress materials to create new markets for components. Its research has been fruitful.
You may be surprised by some of the potential new uses for recycled mattress components. A recent project sponsored by MRC led Edge Global Innovation, based in Clearwater, Florida, to convert post-consumer polyurethane foam into moldable elastomers through a process called vitrimerization. Potential uses include gaskets, rubber mats, rubber hoses, even phone cases, like the prototype currently enrobing O’Donnell’s own smartphone. The company has formed a new subsidiary, Vitricycle LLC, to oversee commercialization.
Other recent MRC-funded research has shown that modified polyurethane mattress foam can absorb oil and perhaps other chemicals from contaminated water. Another project has found that recycled nonwoven textiles can be used for rechargeable energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors and batteries. (You can read reports on all of MRC’s research efforts at MattressRecyclingCouncil.org/Research.)
Transforming the Bedding Industry: MRC’s Wider Influence on Sustainability
MRC’s recycling and research efforts have helped spur industrywide interest in sustainability and circularity and expanded ISPA’s efforts in those areas. ISPA launched an annual Sustainability Conference in 2022 for manufacturers, suppliers, retailers and others. This year’s event will be Sept. 10-11 in Atlanta.
“(Sustainability) has been a natural progression for our industry,” says Kate Caddy, ISPA’s director of sustainability. “The industry prioritized mattress recycling and has continued to ask important questions like ‘What are we doing to improve the environmental performance of our products?’ ‘How can we grow in this area?’ ‘Who can we collaborate with to achieve this?’ Many within our industry were already working on sustainability initiatives, and ISPA’s goal is to support and amplify these efforts, driving sustainability forward to help reduce waste, improve recycling rates and ultimately improve circularity in the sleep products industry.”
Manufacturers are incorporating more sustainable components into bedding designs. They’re also rethinking how beds are constructed, with an eye toward making disassembly and recycling easier at the end of a mattress’ useful life. These are advancements retailers can share with customers as a selling point when talking about such mattress models.
Richard Diamonstein, who has been a member of MRC’s board since the organization’s founding and who has served as chair, has seen how the industry’s sustainability efforts have accelerated in the past decade.
“Sustainability is now the art of the possible and not just something on the wish list. Manufacturers are looking to build products that can be recycled more easily and talking about building sustainable products,” says Diamonstein, managing director of Paramount Sleep Co., an independent bedding producer based in Richmond, Virginia. “That’s a very positive direction for the industry, and I don’t think it would have happened if we didn’t have MRC and its programs in place.”
