When we at Gardner’s Mattress and More deliver you your brand new mattress we remove your old mattress at no extra charge. Did you ever wonder what happens to that old mattress?
In most cases, mattress retailers will discard the old mattresses by taking them to a local landfill. “Old mattresses are nightmares for landfill operators,” the L.A. Times notes, citing John Bell, director of green business solutions for nonprofit recycler Hope Services Monterey. “Each piece takes up 23 cubic feet, doesn’t decompose, and ‘floats to the top’ of dumps because of its flexible construction.” And old mattresses that are improperly discarded can become refuges for bedbugs and other vermin, creating public health problems. (full article:http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=657fa901-7fb1-4182-99ca-323205c15bc9)
You’ll be happy to know that at Gardner’s however, we do our best to recycle every mattress that we take out of peoples homes. Non-profit groups like the Mount Joy Furniture bank and a local homeless shelter browse through our trailer (old mattresses never enter our building) and will take lightly used and clean mattress for the less fortunate. These agencies however mostly are in need of Twin and Full(Double) mattresses and don’t have much of a need for Queen and King sized mattresses. The Queen, King, and smaller ‘not so nice’ mattresses are taken by a recycler. Some they will sell as used bedding. Some will be gutted and the springs used as the insides of re-manufactured mattresses and the fabric will be recycled into things like moving blankets. Only the “worst of the worst”, horror show type mattresses go to the landfill. Approximately 95% are recycled.