Getting rid of an old mattress? Long Beach will take it off your hands 24/7
The city has collected and recycled more than 900 mattresses and box springs in about a year and a half.
Hoping to significantly cut down on mattresses and box springs dumped in alleys and other inappropriate places, Long Beach will permanently continue a recycling program that offers free drop-off anytime.
The pilot program started in April 2023 as a one-day-a-month event at a city yard near Drake Park. This August, it expanded to 24/7 collection of mattresses and box springs that then get sent to a Los Angeles facility to be taken apart and recycled.
Long Beach offers the service in partnership with the Mattress Recycling Council, a nonprofit industry group that runs California’s mattress recycling program, which is funded by consumer fees.
At least 75% of what makes up a mattress can be recycled, said Tyler Douthitt, who oversees the council’s Southern California programs: foam usually goes to make carpet padding; cotton material may become textiles or insulation; wood gets mulched or composted; and steel is repurposed for construction.
Long Beach’s Public Works department continues to offer scheduled pick-up of large items for trash service customers, and the city collects dumped mattresses and box springs that are reported on its app and website.
According to city information, about 18,000 mattresses and box springs per year are illegally dumped in Long Beach. Through the pilot recycling program, 536 were accepted at monthly events and nearly 400 came in during the three months since round-the-clock drop-off became available.
Providing an always-open site “achieves the same goal as scheduled pick-ups while being more cost efficient,” city administrative analyst Lan Pham-Jenkins wrote in an email.
Unlike plastic and some other recyclables, there is demand for mattress components, and recycling is more eco-friendly than incinerating, said Amanda Wall, the mattress council’s marketing director.
Last year the state program reclaimed nearly 1.5 million mattresses and diverted more than 60 million pounds of material from landfills, according to the council’s annual report. That highlights another big reason to ensure mattresses get recycled, Douthitt said: “There’s just a limited amount of landfill space in California.”
Mattresses can be dropped off anytime at 970 W. Chester Pl., Long Beach. Schedule a large item pickup by clicking here. Dumped items can be reported at this link or on the Go Long Beach app.
Editor’s note: this story has been updated to correct which city department oversees the mattress recycling program.
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