In San Diego, the Mattress Recycling Program is hitting significant numbers, with 16,921 mattresses collected in 2024 alone. The City of San Diego boasts about the program's effectiveness in reducing landfill waste. If laid end-to-end, the recycled mattresses would create a 21-mile line from Old Town to Tijuana.
Residents can easily drop off their mattresses at the collection site located outside the Miramar Landfill. The city then forwards these to a processing facility in Ontario to be broken down into steel, foam, fiber, and wood. These materials eventually transform into new products like carpet padding and construction rebar. However, the mattresses to be recycled must not be too far gone; they must be free from severe damage or contamination.
This recycling effort has clear benefits. Bedding that would otherwise occupy landfill space is turned into valuable materials, aligning with San Diego's Zero Waste Plan and Climate Action Plan goals. Interestingly, the program's success is also evident in the reduced occurrences of illegal mattress dumping. In 2024, mattress dumping dropped by 25% compared to 2023.
The program is supported by the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC), which has been operating for nearly a decade and recycles approximately 1.4 million mattresses annually in California. Statewide, the MRC has helped to recycle 13 million mattresses thus far. When looking at the collective efforts across multiple states, this initiative has saved millions of cubic yards of landfill space. Not only is the environment benefitting from this undertaking, but financially, the City of San Diego received a $46,000 reimbursement from the MRC in 2024.
