We understand that for retailers, mattress recycling can be a costly logistical nightmare, but there is an innovative solution that champions sustainable mattress recycling in the UK, helping retailers to save time and money while achieving environmental goals.

The bulky waste problem

Currently 7.5 million mattresses are sent to landfill each year, amounting to 167,000 tonnes of bulky waste taking up limited space in refuge sites across the UK. These staggering figures are due to the mattress industry growing significantly in the last few years. The sector has not only introduced a range of innovative types of mattresses from latex and memory foam to innerspring and hybrid, but online retailers have seen sales soar during the pandemic.

While demand for mattresses increases and thousands of consumers return their products through comfort guarantee periods, the scale of the problem continues to rise. This not only impacts the planet but retailers’ bottom lines too.

The landfill crisis

With 45.4 million tonnes of waste dumped in Britain’s landfill sites each year and only enough space for 175.1 million tonnes of waste left in total, the next few years are a crucial time to review how we recycle and what items we should send to landfill.

Bulky waste is a huge problem with over 1.6 million tonnes sent to landfill every year, with furniture and mattresses accounting for 42% of this.

As our landfill sites fill up and no longer contain the increasing amount of waste produced in the UK, manufacturers and retailers will have to look to more innovative solutions to solve the issue of mattress recycling.

The circular economy solution

There are a number of practical solutions that can be put in place to help retailers to sustainably manage mattress recycling, while also supporting a more sustainable business model.

Partnering with a mattress recycling company allows businesses to rejuvenate returned mattresses that have been sent back due to comfort night guarantees. This approach diverts bulky mattresses from going straight to landfill and allows retailers to recoup soaring costs. Mattresses can also be recycled, stripping down the product and sustainably reusing the materials within, including the metal coils, springs and foam.

We are a circular economy specialist that provides sustainability solutions; recycling and refurbishing mattresses, and providing logistics and recommerce services. We divert 100% of mattresses away from landfill through recycling or reuse, using circular economy principles to ensure no materials are wasted.

With four facilities across the UK, a dedicated team of trained professionals and decades of industry knowledge, we tackle bulky waste to support businesses and limit the impact on the environment.

Over 3 million mattresses have been diverted to landfill using this method, a figure that’s increasing on a daily basis as we work with some of the UK’s biggest brands, businesses and local authorities, including Eve Sleep, Simba, John Lewis and Bensons for Bed.

Discover their big brand sustainable stories via our case studies.