Americans send more than 50,000 mattresses to the landfill each day and less than 5% are recycled. Stacked up, this pile would be higher than Mount Everest! But refurbishing instead of trashing mattresses reduces energy and greenhouse gas emissions – and up to 90% of mattress components are recyclable.

How can we recycle more mattresses and protect the environment? Extended producer responsibility. In 2012, PSI developed model mattress EPR legislation with our state and local government members and industry input. The following year, Connecticut used our model to enact the first mattress EPR law in the country; since then, we have helped pass mattress EPR laws in California, Rhode Island, and Oregon. In 2015, PSI published the Advancing Mattress Stewardship: A How-To Guide. Since then, programs in Connecticut, California, and Rhode Island have recycled more than 12 million mattresses and diverted more than 450 million pounds of material – steel, foam, cotton, and wood – from disposal.

In its first year of program implementation, the mattress recycling rate in Connecticut rose from 8.7% to 63.5%, and in California more than 23,700 illegally dumped mattresses were collected in 29 counties. In 2022, a lifecycle analysis of California’s mattress program found that materials reclaimed from just one mattress saved 500 gallons of water, enough energy to power a home for three days, and greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to a car driving 60 fewer miles.

EPR programs like these incentivize the design of more sustainable products and build supply chains for those made with recycled materials, which are the building blocks of an emerging circular economy that protects our environment and builds a better future.

What can you do? Tell your representatives that you support mattress EPR legislation. Then, learn where to recycle or safely dispose of mattresses in your community.

If you’re a PSI Member or Partner, search our Resource Library for in-depth information on mattress stewardship in the United States and around the world and our Legislation Library for a detailed history of mattress EPR bills and laws in the U.S.