Workers dismantling a mattress.
Thomas Lohnes | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Consumers in a handful of states are paying to make the mattress industry more environmentally friendly – and perhaps more states will follow suit?
Four states – California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island – now charge a flat fee on every mattress or box spring that residents buy online or in a brick-and-mortar store.
The retail fee, which ranges from $16 to about $23, helps fund state recycling programs that keep used mattresses out of landfills — part of a to grow policy initiative to boost the circular economy for common household items, from plastic packaging to paper products and electronics.
More from Personal Finance:
How to buy renewable energy from your electricity company
How climate change can affect your wallet
Despite the climate risk, people are moving and building in Miami
Americans throw away about 15 to 20 million mattresses per year — an average of 50,000 per day, according to the Mattress Recycling Council, a nonprofit founded by the bedding industry to run state recycling programs.
Yet, according to MRC, more than 75% of a mattress is recyclable: the wood, steel, foam and fibers can be stripped, sold and reused.

Oregon introduced a recycling fee on January 1. State residents who purchase a new mattress or box spring will pay an additional $22.50 per unit, which is reflected as a “stewardship rating” on consumers’ receipts.
California and Connecticut increased their retail fees from $10.50 and $11.75 to $16 per unit in early 2025. Rhode Island last year increased the per-unit fee to $20.50.
The industry is also working with lawmakers in Massachusetts, Maryland, New York and Virginia to establish similar programs, according to MRC spokesperson Amanda Wall.
Recycling options are few, but they are expanding
Douglas Sacha | Moment | Getty Images
There are currently few options for Americans who want to recycle a used mattress or box spring.
A folder compiled by the Mattress Recycling Council lists only 58 companies nationwide that recycle such products. Those in states that have not passed recycling laws generally charge consumers for delivery and home pickup. (For example, I recently paid $95 for such a service in New York City.)
Oregon officials say their program will make it easy for consumers to recycle unwanted mattresses and reduce illegal dumping.
The goal is to “create new convenient locations in each county for residents to drop off their mattresses” and also create jobs in the recycling industry, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality. website.
State recycling efforts are examples of “extended producer responsibility” laws that are gaining traction in the U.S.
“With EPR, producers of products or packaging become responsible for managing them when they become waste,” according to to Reid Lifset, a resident fellow in industrial ecology at Yale University and editor of the Journal of Industrial Ecology. EPR programs provide a new source of funding to make the recycling system sustainable, Lifset said.
In the case of state mattress programs, retailers pass consumer costs on to the Mattress Recycling Council to fund each state’s respective program, Wall said.
In Oregon, for example, more than half (about $12) of the retail price of $22.50 will finance operating costs of the program in 2025, while the remainder funds things like start-up costs, administration, public education and advertising.
According to MRC, there are more than 300 mattress collection points in states with recycling programs. The locations accept discarded mattresses for free. (However, home pickup fees may apply.)