Mattress Recycling & Take Away

Fewer than 1 in 4 mattresses are recycled at the end of their life in the UK

Over 7 million mattresses are thrown away in the UK every year, most of which go to landfill

“Our throwaway culture - and the rise of memory foam mattresses which take 1,000's of years to biodegrade - is leading to a catastrophic landfill situation. Our new Second Sleep scheme aims to break this cycle.

Whilst many companies will collect and dispose of your old mattress, you never actually know where it is going. Sadly, in the majority of cases, they are just disposed of in landfill and forgotten about, and the consumer is unaware. Some brands have responsible recycling schemes which are more transparent but these programmes only go as far as recycling their own mattresses.”

- Adam, Co-Founder of Button & Sprung

Second Sleep

Our Second Sleep project is the first in the U.K. to recycle your old pocket sprung mattress for free, regardless of where it was bought.

To qualify, your mattress must:
1. Be pocket sprung, identified as such in writing on the mattress label or if it has a series of tufts on its surface

2. Contain some natural fillings, which can then be recycled, cleaned using UV-C light and re-used

3. Not contain memory foam as this contains a chemical called Melamine that can be released into the environment when the foam is broken down, creating a high level of toxicity. This is one of the reasons why we don’t have memory foam or in fact any foam in our mattresses.

Our Misson

Regenerated elements from the recycling process will be incorporated into new mattresses with the aim of creating a fully circular economy within the next five years.
At least 95% of each mattress will be repurposed: The natural fillings go though a sanitisation process to ensure they are completely hygienic and perfectly safe for re-use, afterwhich they are heavily combed by a fibrerising machine and formed into new materials. The springs are melted down to be made into new metal components.
With this scheme we hope to raise the bar in mattress recycling and we are proud to be challenging the industry to think more about mattress end of life and the wider environment.