About 2,100 mattresses collected for recycling

THE City of Greater Geelong’s month-long mattress recycling offer has been a huge success, with 2,100 mattresses collected for recycling during November.

The recycling initiative gave residents the opportunity to drop off their old mattresses at the City’s resource recovery centres for just $10 or have them picked up from home for $15.

The overall figure included more than 560 mattresses from the Bellarine.

Recycling mattresses is highly intensive, requiring them to be taken apart by hand, however,  the process is very effective with about 90 percent of mattress contents able to be recycled.

How mattress materials are recycled:
• The foam and wadding from inside the mattress is reused as carpet underlay
• Timber is processed into a reusable woodchip and used to manufacture particle board, animal bedding and mulch.
• Steel springs are sent to scrap metal merchants and melted down for new steel

The mattress recycling initiative is part of the City’s recycling program and is run in partnership with The Mattress Recycler.

For all the latest recycling offers, subscribe to the Rethink Your Rubbish newsletter at the website at geelongaustralia.com.au/recycling/sign-up.aspx.