Mattresses are one of the biggest reasons why landfills are overflowing in Canada. The situation is so bad that some landfills are not accepting any more mattresses. Mattress removal is becoming a nightmare for residents who want to buy new ones and discard the old ones!
How bad is the situation?
Canadians dump around six million mattresses into landfills every year. The average life of one mattress is six to seven years, while an old one in a landfill takes up to ten years to decompose.
Incineration as an option is not very popular in Canada, as most systems rely on landfilling. Besides, incineration is not a permanent solution as it leads to air pollution, releasing toxins into the atmosphere. What can you do then?
Mattress donation or recycling
You can donate your old mattress to someone in need. Some companies accept old mattresses and give them a new life by allocating them to the poor.
Is there any better way to bring joy to yourself than helping another person get something they cannot get otherwise?
However, you can only donate good quality mattresses. But a worn-out one has no life left, so do not give it away for donation. Be considerate enough to understand that if the mattress is really bad, a person getting it will not be able to sleep in it.
But, you can give away the mattress for recycling. You do not have to worry about the condition of the mattress if you are giving it for recycling.
Regardless of the quality of the mattress, the recycling centres have processes to ensure they can revive materials like plastic, metal, wood, etc., out of it. If you are a recycling export, you can extract some of the contents of the mattress at home and create some cool do-it-yourself products with it.
Mattress donation: How to do it?
So, you have a good quality mattress that you don’t use, and you finally decided to donate it. Well, you made the right decision.
But now, the tricky part is to find a good donation program that will accept the product.
You can browse online to look for mattress donation programs near you. Companies like Recyc-matelas take mattresses and give them to charities. The benefit of approaching these companies is that they can assess the mattress and decide whether to donate it or recycle it.
To conclude, the best way to discard that old mattress taking up your storage space is to donate it. And, if it is too old and worn out for donation, consider recycling it. You can try recycling the mattress by yourself or send it to recycling centres. As you can see, there are many options. But it is the attitude that matters!
