Newburyport is first community to launch mattress recycling program

Unsightly mattresses left at the curb are becoming less and less common in the city of Newburyport, where a mattress-recycling program is reducing the eyesore and waste collection costs while supporting an organization for at-risk teens.

The mattress-recycling program, the first of its kind in the state, began in May 2014, according to Recycling Manager Molly Ettenborough. The idea came about because of the difficulties the city had dealing with the notoriously bulky items that take up a lot of space in containers and landfills.

According to recent a Boston Globe article, an estimated 600,000 mattresses are disposed of every year in Massachusetts, which has resulted in landfills rapidly running out of space. About 80 percent of the materials that make a mattress are recyclable.

Newburyport teamed up with United Teen Equality Center, one of the few organizations that would provide curbside pick-up and recycle mattresses at an affordable rate. Operating out of Lowell, UTEC provides at-risk teens with job skills, which, Ettenborough said, was another reason the city partnered with UTEC.

Residents are given several options when it comes to getting rid of their mattress, in order to accommodate resident’s busy lives and various living and moving situations, Ettenborough said.

One option is residents can contact UTEC directly and arrange for them to pick up mattresses and box-springs at a fee of $10 per item. UTEC’s truck comes to the city once per month, Ettenborough said.

Residents can also visit the city’s recycling center, where they can place their items in a covered container, for the same price. The third option is that residents can purchase bulk stickers at $15 per mattress, and leave their items at the curb for regular weekly rubbish pick up.

Newburyport expects to save about $4,000 this year, with the city averaging 35 recycled mattresses per month, nearly twice the number that it sends to landfills, Ettenborough said.

“The key to this program is offering residents flexible options at an affordable rate,” she said.

The state has begun to urge municipalities to promote recycling of mattresses and box-springs by offering $500,000 in grants to help cities and towns start mattress-recycling programs, said Brooke Nash, branch chief for the Municipal Waste Reduction Program at the Department of Environmental Protection. More than 40 municipalities applied, and grantees will be announced this month, Nash said. The next grant application period will be next spring.