Yolo County Central Landfill celebrates mattress recycling milestone

The Yolo County Central Landfill in California has reached a milestone in its eight-year agreement with the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC), Alexandria, Virginia, by recycling 103,274 mattresses and box springs at the end of 2024.

Through the free Bye Bye Mattress program, which is available to all residents, mattresses are collected at the Yolo County Central Landfill, transferred to a local processing plant in Woodland, California, and prepared for recycling.

“We are supporting a circular economy by accepting and recycling these mattresses, giving these components a second life,” says Mary Vixie Sandy, chair of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. “We are providing free options for proper disposal to reduce illegal dumping in our county and are contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable future.”

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According to MRC, more than 75 percent of materials used in a mattress or box spring are recyclable, including wood frames, steel coil springs and fibers such as cotton, rayon and polyester.

By diverting 100,000 mattresses from the landfill since 2016, Yolo County says it has been able to save “a tremendous amount of space” at the site.

 “If we lined up 100,000 mattresses, split evenly between twin and queen-sizes, they would cover 60 acres of farmland,” a press release from the county says. “That’s enough to fill 46 football fields. Since the mattress recycling program began in 2016, if all the mattresses collected at the Yolo County Landfill were laid out end-to-end, they would stretch 126 miles from Woodland to South Lake Tahoe. If stacked on top of each other, they would reach a height of 6.3 miles, taller than Mount Everest at 5.5 miles.”

MRC is approaching its ten-year anniversary and has recycled more than 15,000,000 mattresses across four states, saving 14.9 million cubic yards of landfill space and diverting 500 million pounds of material, Yolo County says.