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At least 20 million mattress and box springs are thrown out every year in the United States or about 50,000 per day. Meanwhile, about 85% of the contents of a mattress and its box springs can be recycled. In this podcast, I’ll share info about how some states are testing innovating recycling programs.

In 2004, I took apart a mattress and box spring to see what was involved, and that blog has been the most popular blog I ever wrote on Trashmagination. So clearly, people want better solutions than landfills full of mattresses and box springs.

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast

• Bye Bye Mattress – recycling programs currently in California, Connecticut and Rhode Island
• Mattress Recycling Council
• Conscious Style Home by Danny Seo
• Trashmagination’s Pinterest board of mattress and box spring creative reuse ideas

Craft Projects from Bed Springs

• Wind chime, a vase and a photo display
• Christmas tree craft
• Wine rack
• Light fixtures where you put glass jars with a candle in the coil
• Tree topper
• Raised bed garden
• Laundry organizing rack

Show Details

• • Script for this podcast episode about creative reuse of mattresses and box springs (not a transcript but gives the main ideas)
  • The Trashmagination podcast theme music is Kitchen from the Marian Circle Drum Brigade.