The successful 2012 pilot led the CVRD to ban mattresses from garbage disposal in 2013. Mattresses in the general garbage are a problem because they don’t weigh much but take up a lot of space in transport trailers and at the landfill in Washington State where all of the region’s garbage is landfilled. “If we stacked up all the mattresses that we received this year on top of each other, the stack would be as high as Mt. Prevost,” says Jason Adair, Superintendent, Solid Waste Operations, who is glad to see that people are excited to use this relatively new recycling service.

While recycling is positive, as it supports local businesses and employment, the CVRD also encourages people to consider the waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse, and recycle whenever possible. “Before recycling your mattress, consider a new mattress pad to increase the lifespan of your mattress, or contact a local secondhand store to ask if they can make use of your old mattress,” says Jason.

Mattresses that are ready for recycling are accepted at CVRD Recycling Centres for a minimal fee. Highly contaminated or wet/saturated mattresses cannot be safely recycled and are subject to an additional fee.