Can you recycle a mattress?
Believe it or not 90% of the components in a mattress can be recycled.
An incredible 1.8 million mattresses are thrown away each year in Australia. If you laid these end-to-end, they would stretch from Darwin to the tip of Tasmania.
Of these 700,000 mattresses each year end up in landfill adding to pollution in the environment. Many are dumped on our streets or in our bushlands. Meanwhile, the valuable resources contained in mattresses (like steel), are wasted. You can find out more about mattress recycling at Mattresses - Planet Ark Recycling Near You
The City of Greater Dandenong provides services, such as our free Reuse and Recycle Drop Off Day, for residents to dispose of unwanted household items such as mattresses.
Once collected the parts of the mattress are separated. Steel is sent to Australian scrap metal recyclers, the foam to carpet-underlay manufacturers, and the timber from frames and bases can be turned into mulch.
The next Reuse and Recycle Drop Off Day will be held on Saturday 24 August at Greaves Reserve, Dandenong.
