What Really Happens to My Old Mattress?

After you buy a new mattress, have you ever wondered what happens to your old one once it’s hauled away for disposal? If you’ve ever asked yourself, “what really happens to my old mattress once a junk removal company picks it up”, then you’re in the right place.

In this article, we’ll explain what happens to your old mattress after it’s hauled away and how you can tell if that “green” junk removal company is really going to get rid of it in a way that’s good for the planet.

While some junk removal companies (and some mattress removal companies) have a genuine commitment to being eco-friendly, many of these companies say they recycle when they really just haul your junk straight to the landfill. A lot of junk can be recycled or donated and most items, especially mattresses, fall into the recycling category.

Many junk removal companies have the ability to recycle a lot more material and scrap from junk items than the general public, because they have access to more recycling resources than the average person.

Junk removal companies are able to recycle your old mattress and much of your junk so that it doesn’t end up in a landfill. In fact, you may even be using a lot of other people’s junk right now in many products in home or office.

Old mattresses are often recycled by removing certain useful materials like the fiber filling or metal springs and combining that material with other recycled mattress components to manufacture a new one. Mattress toppers can also be recycled, but the process is a bit different than recycling a mattress with springs.

So, how exactly does this mattress recycling magic happen? Once your unwanted mattress is picked up by the junk removal company, it is dropped off at a recycling facility where it spends some time hanging out with its discarded mattress siblings.

Later, the mattresses are all inspected for bed bugs. Since they are considered hazardous, any bed bug mattresses and box springs are taken somewhere else to be destroyed in order to prevent spreading the infestations.

The remaining mattresses are sorted, and those that are wet from rain or snow are placed in a separate room to dry. Once the mattresses have been received and sorted, any fabric is taken off and the batting fiber inside is removed, which is used to manufacture new products.

All of the mattress materials are sorted into different components once it has all been removed. Innerspring mattresses and old box springs contain thick steel wire which is stripped away and baled using special machinery.

These steel bales are sent to a metal recycling plant where they are melted down and cast back into new steel. This recycled steel is used to produce new metal products.

Many of the mattresses we see today are made either partially or entirely of foam. When foam mattresses are recycled, most of the foam is shipped to factories to be cleaned and turned into new products such as foam padding for carpeting.

The junk industry includes junk removal companies of every shape, size, and business model you can imagine.

A junk removal company can be anything from a couple of guys with a pickup truck, a local family-owned hauling business, a licensed and insured corporation, to an enormous multinational franchise.

Many junk removal companies are really just a guy with a truck, so they usually take the junk they pick up to a landfill. That’s because for a junk removal service to be able to recycle your mattress and other junk, they need a strong infrastructure and a few resources that smaller operations lack. With over 20 million mattresses and box springs ending up in landfills every year in the U.S., this is a problem.

So how can you tell if a junk removal company is going to really recycle or donate your old mattress instead of dumping it in a landfill?

A good indication that a junk removal company does, in fact, recycle the stuff they haul away is the cost of pick up. If a junk remover is honestly recycling or donating your mattress, the pickup will cost less.

When a junk removal company doesn’t have to pay a ton of disposal fees and overhead to throw your junk in a landfill, they are able to undercut other haulers’ prices and charge their customers less.

Most junk removal companies that use environmentally sound disposal methods do business in similar ways. Items are broken down and scrap that is still in usable condition is removed and salvaged.

Usable items are donated to regional, national, and international charities while the reclaimed scrap material is sent to different recycling centers. However, charities including The Salvation Army and Goodwill don’t accept mattress donations, so attempting to recycle it usually the best bet. This saves you and the junk hauler money while keeping millions of tons of junk out of already crowded landfills.

As a result, one could argue that these green junk removal companies help reduce pollution by stopping harmful materials from poisoning the environment.

One of the best things about junk removal is the haulers who really do recycle the junk they pick up. When you use a junk removal company that recycles, you’re helping to conserve natural resources, save energy, and clean up the environment.

A lot of people ask us if we really recycle and donate the junk we pick up. The answer is yes…and no. LoadUp is not a recycling facility or a nonprofit organization. So, we don’t recycle the mattresses and other junk we pick up ourselves.

Because LoadUp is a network of independently contracted Loaders that spans across the United States, it would be pretty hard for us to recycle everything ourselves.

Instead, the Loaders take every junk item they possibly can directly to charities and recycling centers to donate them and have them properly recycled by the established recycling facility.

That way, you can rest easy knowing that your junk isn’t going to have a negative impact on the environment. Plus, this means that LoadUp is able to price their junk removal services about 20-30% cheaper than what most other junk removal companies would charge.

LoadUp actually even charges less than most of the other junk removal companies that recycle what they pick up because we base our prices on item count rather than volume. Our prices for junk removal start at about $75, with additional items costing about $10 – $15 each.

Another reason we are able to charge less is because we are not a junk removal franchise like “those other guys,” which reduces our overhead costs and allows us to pass the savings on to you.

While there are some mattresses and other junk items we pick up that just can’t be recycled or donated due to regulations and other outside factors, we do everything we possibly can to make sure your old junk doesn’t end up in a landfill.

At LoadUp, we believe in green living, and we are happy to help you make a positive impact on the environment while reclaiming your space.

If you’d like to know more about our team and how our junk removal and disposal services can help you live a junk-free life, give us a call or chat with us through our website today!