The thing about a mattress is that there鈥檚 no obvious way to recycle it.
鈥淲e tried shredding the mattresses and that didn鈥檛 work,鈥� said Terry McDonald, the director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County in Eugene. A couple of decades ago, McDonald helped develop the country鈥檚 first large-scale recycling program for mattresses.
Being the first meant they made a lot of mistakes.
鈥淲e tried cutting off the materials using an air knife, and then we tried a water knife, and then we tried a grinder to take them off,鈥� said McDonald. 鈥淭hat started a lot of fires.鈥�
It turns out, recycling a mattress takes elbow grease and time. In a nondescript warehouse in a Eugene industrial district, St. Vincent de Paul workers take apart mattresses piece by piece.
It takes some effort, but McDonald says some workers can take apart more than 50 mattresses a day. With just a handful of workstations, this facility can process more than 3,000 mattresses a month. And he said once they鈥檙e dismantled, up to 90 percent of each mattress can be recycled.
鈥淪ome of them are more difficult than others,鈥� said McDonald. 鈥淭here are some mattresses that have something called a pocket coil. It鈥檚 a nylon baggie around each coil that鈥檚 very difficult to recycle. But most everything else can be recycled on these things.鈥�
Despite the mountains of mattresses that line the walls here, McDonald says the vast majority of mattresses in Oregon end up in landfills. State lawmakers this year that鈥檚 meant to change that.
Starting in 2024, a fee will be added to the purchase of a new mattress. The amount is still to be determined, but it ranges from $10 to $16 dollars in the other three states with a similar fee. The money will be used to establish a statewide mattress collection and recycling program.
鈥淚n the law there鈥檚 a minimum convenience standard that the mattress stewardship program has to ensure that collection is convenient and that there鈥檚 locations across the state available in both the urban and rural areas of the state,鈥� said Suna Bayrakal of the Product Stewardship Institute, which testified in favor of the proposal.
The chief backer of the mattress recycling bill in Salem was Sen. James Manning, D-Eugene, who pushed for it over several legislative sessions.
鈥淎nything that is worth having is worth pursuing,鈥� said Manning. 鈥淭his is a model that is long overdue, and I think that it鈥檚 going to reap more benefits, for not just Oregon, but for the planet itself.鈥�
The new law requires the mattress industry to work out the details of how the collection system will work. But dropping off a mattress or box spring for recycling will always be free under the program.
Terry McDonald of St. Vincent de Paul says that will hopefully cut down on the number of times people illegally dump old mattresses along the side of the road.
鈥淯nfortunately, I can鈥檛 force people to do the right thing,鈥� he said. 鈥淗aving said that, since there鈥檚 a way for them to dispose of it, under this law, for free, and a place that鈥檚 close by them, there鈥檚 no point in them hauling it off into the middle of the woods.鈥�
The idea of charging consumers a recycling fee on the purchase of a product isn鈥檛 new. In 2010, Oregon established a first-in-the-nation 鈥渟tewardship program鈥� for paint. Since then, nine other states and the District of Columbia have set up similar programs.
Oregon will be the fourth state with a mattress recycling fee. The others are California, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
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