Statistics show that a mattress will last you between eight and ten years. The Sleep Council recommend that you replace your mattress every seven years! This based on, during that time, having been subjected to no less than 20, 000 hours of usage, equivalent to 2,555 nights sleep. When you start to think about adults losing an average of a half a pint of fluid every night and shedding a pound of skin cells every year, that is when it gets scary!
So, at some point you are very likely to have this mattress disposal problem; developing a suitable strategy for it is not a bad idea.
Looking at the different types of mattress in a box – Memory Foam mattresses tend to last longer than Sprung Mattresses according to tests done by consumer organisations.
How to Get Rid of a Mattress
There are many different ways. If you want to know how to dispose of an old mattress, here re your options:
- Collection by a company who is delivering your replacement mattress. This is a very good option as it takes away all of the hassle and can be a good bargaining tactic when buying a new mattress; you may have the item collected free of charge if you play your cards right!
- Collection by the Council. There will, of course, be a charge and you will have to be sure to be available on the day of collection in order to hand it over. If you place it outside your house, pending collection, it will be an eyesore and your neighbours may not take too kindly to it!
Top Tip:
Putting your postcode into the gov.uk website or your local council’s website will help you to find out the cost of the service
- Recycling Centres. These are usually free of charge but you are faced with transporting it to the centre which can be a palaver even if you have the appropriate transport.
- Charity Shops. These people will take old mattresses from you, but they must be in reasonable condition and be accompanied by any required fire regulation information. If taking this option, it is always best to contact the shop first and perhaps send photographs of the mattress in order to establish whether or not they will take it.
What Not to Do!
Other methods of mattress disposal will damage the environment or could be ant-social or illegal.
Burning your old mattress should not be an option that you should consider. A mattress fire is hard to control and could give off toxic fumes which are damaging both to health as well as the environment.
You could use a skip, but that will only contribute to the landfill problem.
Finally you should NEVER dispose of a mattress by putting it in someone else’s skip or my simply dumping it at the side of the road. This is fly tipping which is not environmentally friendly and also illegal. Large fines are imposed if and when the culprits are identified.