How Ecologically Impactful Can Mattresses Be?

Sleeping on a perfect mattress can easily rejuvenate you for the next day, but unfortunately, the maximum life span of any mattress is around 10-12 years. This makes them very much susceptible to break down, and sleeping on a broken unsupportive mattress night after night can cause severe back pain and other sleep-related health issues. 

While the majority of people will throw out their old mattresses away in the garbage, this can eventually be a very big problem for the environment. 

How old mattresses affect the environment? 

Firstly, in some places, throwing out a mattress in the dumpster is illegal. If there are no other options available for you, throwing out your mattress in the dumpster will eventually lead it to a garbage disposal unit, from where it can either get recycled (which is very rare) or will get into landfills. Thus it is very much essential that you dispose of your old broken-down mattress especially which will not harm the environment. 

The negative impacts of mattresses on the environment.

Approximately 18 million mattresses are reported to be thrown out each year and the majority goes to landfills, creating various problems and issues for the environment and the living beings.

• Thrown out mattresses negatively impacting human: When thrown out in the garbage disposal, most of the old mattresses ends up in landfills. This is a serious issue for all the landfill workers as mattresses are difficult to compress, leading the workers to have specialized equipment just to break them down. 

• Health hazards: Thrown out mattresses can be a health hazard for the landfill workers trying to dispose of the mattresses. The springs in the mattress can pop out at any point in time, causing damage to the equipment and any nearby human being.

• Toxin leaking in nature: Many of the mattresses are made out of petroleum-based products which when mixed with soil can leak toxic chemicals in the land, causing major harmful effects to the plants and animals nearby. This can be fatal for animals and plants and is also a big reason for soil and water pollution. 

• Takes a long time to decompose: Since mattresses generally take up 40 cubic feet of space, they can easily fill up lands and can take a long time to decompose as most of the materials used to bind the mattress are not organic. 

To know more about how to recycle your old mattress without causing any harm to nature, you can contact Recyc-Matelas.