You’ve done it. You’ve bitten the bullet and decided to buy yourself a brand-new mattress. You’ve even decided to buy an ethical and sustainable mattress, as you’ve learned the harm conventional mattresses cause through emitting VOCs and toxic flame retardant chemicals, alongside PVC or vinyl covers that can damage developing reproductive systems and toxic polyurethane foam.
But what the hell do you do with your old mattress?
The market is overflowing with lower-quality products and 100-day sleep guarantees, leading to people replacing their mattresses much more frequently than they used to. This is creating a mountain of waste, and an environmental disaster. Over 5 million mattresses end up in landfill every year in the UK, while the US throws away 18.2 million mattresses a year.
Luckily Naturalmat, the first B Corp certified bed and mattress company in the UK, has a plan.
The Mattress for Life Initiative
Part one comes from a commitment to circular design and a closed-loop service from the beginning. Naturalmat creates each mattress to order in their Devon workshop, eliminating waste at the source, with a lifespan of around a decade. But their simple design approach also means every one of their mattresses can be broken down into its individual component materials, each of which can be either composted, reused or recycled rather than being thrown away.
And when you do need to get a new mattress, there are other options available too:
Refurbish
Naturalmat will collect your mattress from your home and bring it back to their Devon workshop. There, a skilled team will take your mattress apart, replace any compressed or damaged fibres and put a brand new cover on it. It’ll be good as new for around half the price of a new mattress.
Recycle
If you would prefer not to refurbish your mattress, Naturalmat can recycle it for you through partner organisation TFR. With over 10 years of experience in mattress recycling, they ensure that nothing ends up in landfill, and you’ll receive a 10% discount towards your next purchase.
Donate
If your mattress is in an acceptable condition Naturalmat will take it back and send it to their partners in Liverpool who have invented the world’s first mattress washing machine, Mattilda. It will be thoroughly cleaned and then donated through their network of charity partners.
Naturalmat currently only accept mattresses from their bedroom collection, but are working on a recycling solution for nursery mattresses. In the meantime, they’ve also put together an end-of-life guide to help you repurpose the fillings inside old nursery mattreses.
But what if your old mattress isn’t from Naturalmat? Well, they have something for you too.
Mattress Recycling
When ordering a Naturalmat, you can add on mattress recycling at checkout. When delivering your new mattress, Naturalmat will take your old one away, alongside the reusable duffel bag (rather than plastic) which your bed is delivered in. Through their partners, it will then also either be recycled, or if it’s in good condition it will be cleaned and donated to charity.
They accept any brand of matress; even taking away my deeply pathetic and very old mattress when I finally upgraded to Naturalmat myself last year! No sad trips to the skip, no attempting to squeeze a mattress into your car or trying to find someone to collect it. Just let Naturalmat take over, and keep those components out of landfill.
Extra ways to save waste
Naturalmat only use hard-wearing natural fibre fabrics, but still end up with offcuts from upholstering beds, bases and headboards. Instead of energy-internsive recycling, they teamed up with The Haines Collection to find a new home for these fabrics. The Haines Collection has a carefully curated selection of premium offcut fabrics from the textile industry which they offer to consumers at a heavily reduced price, saving them from landfill.
They also have a collaboration with the Cotton Lives On Recycling Programme, leading to the development of a new and unique mattress that is filled (and covered) exclusively with recycled cotton made from old jeans, t-shirts and other cotton items. These mattresses are then donated to charities working to alleviate bed poverty, including Single Homeless Project, Refuweegee and Shelter, who offer them to people in need. You can learn how these recycled cotton mattresses are handcrafted below.
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Other charities that Naturalmat donate mattresses to include:
- Exeter Community Initiatives, donating new mattresses to vulnerable families in Devon-based communities.
- Petit Miracles, material offcuts are donated to this charity on a mission to help vulnerable adults access better opportunities through training & development workshops.
- The Lullaby Trust, supporting families through raising awareness of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), providing safer sleep advice, and offering emotional support to bereaved families. Since their formation in 1971 they have played a key role in the reduction of SIDS by over 80%, and have helped save the lives of over 20,000 babies. Through their collaboration Naturalmat donate Coco Mat mattresses to London-based baby bank Little Village; supporting families with babies and young children living in poverty across the capital – providing clothes, books, toys and nursery furniture to over 7000 children a year.
Waste from the mattress industry is currently a huge problem, but Naturalmat prove that it doesn’t have to be. When mattresses are designed properly from the outset we can lead healthier lives with a happier planet. And a commitment to circularity means you can even keep old, potentially toxic mattresses out of landfill too.
If you ever needed more reasons to make the mattress switch to Naturalmat, this has got to be top of the list. I absolutely love my Naturalmat mattress, I’ve had it for six months and have noticed the very clear difference in my quality of sleep. Add their commitment to recycling and circularity to the mix, which is both great for the planet and makes our lives a little easier, and there’s no one else I’d consider for my mattress needs in future!
