The Bye Bye Mattress program offers services to make recycling old mattresses and bed parts easy. The Recycling Council created this program to create an easy and free way for students and residents to dispose of their mattresses and old bed parts with an emphasis on reducing, reusing and recycling.
“The Mattress Recycling Council’s Bye Bye Mattress program allows people to drop off old mattresses and box springs at no cost at participating locations,” Amanda Wall, the Director of Marketing for the Mattress Recycling Council said in an email brief. “The mattress and box springs are deconstructed, and parts are recycled keeping tons of materials out of the waste stream.”
Many landfills and energy plants do not want to take unwanted bed parts as they are large and hard to process.
Dan McGowan is the New England coordinator for the Mattress Recycling Council. He spoke on the company’s mission and emphasis on the importance of recycling mattresses.
“It’s set up so it has no cost for recycling,” McGowan said. “Any Connecticut student, resident or business is eligible to use the program to recycle a mattress, instead of throwing it away. We have bins at most of the municipal transfer stations for people to place their old mattresses or box springs.”
The state of Connecticut was especially influential in the Mattress Recycling Council’s ability to grow and create a successful Bye Bye Mattress program.
“In 2013 the state of Connecticut passed a law that allowed us to set up the program. We have been operating since 2015 and have collected over $1 million [in] mattresses, as 75% to 80% of their parts are recyclable,” McGowan said.
As the semester is coming to an end, the program highlighted it’s want for University of Connecticut students to recycle their possibly unneeded bedding.
“UConn students may dispose of their mattresses at the Town of Mansfield Transfer Station,” Wall said.
McGowan spoke about the relationship the Bye Bye Mattress program has been able to create with UConn and its dorm bedding, while also emphasizing how individual students can recycle their mattresses.
“We work directly with UConn so that the on-campus bedding can be switched out effectively,” McGowan said. “Anyone with off-campus housing can either reach out to me directly, go to a transfer station or talk to their property manager to recycle individual mattresses.”
McGowan shared his passion for recycling, specifically mattresses and bedding, which many people do not look to recycle in order to help the planet and combat climate change.
“Reduce, reuse, recycle,” McGowan said. “We should always look to recycle and not always look to get virgin products and start over. It’s really that ability to do something better with products you are looking to get rid of that we want.”