News & Culture

A Guide to Mattress Removal and Recycling

505-Junk employee carrying a mattress

It’s no secret that we all need a new mattress at some point or multiple times in our lifetime. Mattresses usually last about 10 years before they start to wear out and are ready for recycling. At 505-Junk, we understand how difficult and time-consuming getting rid of an old mattress can be. That is where we come in with our mattress removal services!  

2 teammates lifting a mattress into a 505-Junk truck to be recycled.

The Importance of Recycling Your Mattress

There are many ways to get rid of your old mattress or boxspring, some more sustainable than others. With 505-Junk’s mattress removal services, you can guarantee that we will recycle your old mattress properly, keeping it out of our local landfills. 

Every year, people dispose of about 20 million mattresses around the world. Unfortunately, mattresses and boxsprings take roughly 80 to 100 years to decompose fully. As a mattress decomposes, it releases harmful gasses into the air and harsh chemicals seep into the soil contaminating our waterways. 

Additionally, mattresses take up a lot of space when not broken down, therefore filling our landfills more quickly. The importance of recycling your used mattress with a mattress removal service is to keep our Vancouver air and water clean from pollutants. Moreover, we want to reduce the amount of recyclable material that ends up in our landfills.

What Happens to Your Mattress

When 505-Junk removes your old mattress, we take it to our friends at Canadian Mattress Recycling for proper mattress disposal. Their team then takes apart the mattress or boxspring and separates each material type for recycling. We can recycle 90-95% of each mattress to make new goods. For example: 

  • Recyclable fabrics produce yarn or filling for a new mattress.
  • Recyclable metal produces new metal products such as building materials.
  • Recyclable wood creates new wood products, mulch for landscaping, or pulp for paper production.
  • Recyclable foam creates new products such as pillows, packing materials, or other foam products.

Why is Mattress Removal so Costly?

The question is, why does it cost so much to get rid of an old mattress? Hopefully, the above information helps put into perspective the recycling process and why mattress removal is so expensive. For example, when a truck shows up at your doorstep, that junk removal company incurs extra costs. These extra costs include fuel, labor, storage, and disposal fees. Each of these costs are driving factors for pricing the cost of a mattress removal.

Book your mattress removal today!