A woman checks her phone on a suburban driveway beside an old mattress sealed in a clear plastic bag and leaning against the garage door.

How to recycle or get rid of an old mattress in Australia

Author Top3 Mattress Editorial Team

16 October 2026

The short answer: You have five realistic options: have the old mattress taken away when the new one is delivered, book a mattress recycler to collect it, drop it at a recycler or tip yourself, put it out for your council’s bulky waste collection, or pass it on if it is clean and barely used. Recycling usually costs somewhere between $40 and $80 a mattress, and a base almost always counts as a second item. Council collections are often free or cheap, but not every council sends mattresses to a recycler, so ask. Whatever you choose, do not leave it on the nature strip without a booking. That is illegal dumping.

The prices and service areas below were checked on each company’s own website in October 2026. We have not booked these services ourselves, and they change often, so confirm the price at checkout or with the store. Links to every source are at the end.

Why it is worth recycling a mattress

Australians throw out about 1.8 million mattresses a year, according to the Australian Bedding Stewardship Council (ABSC), the industry body behind the national bedding recycling scheme. When mattresses were added to the federal environment minister’s Product Stewardship Priority List in November 2022, ABSC figures put about 41% of discarded mattresses in landfill, but up to 64% of their weight, because recycling still leaves a lot of material behind.

A typical mattress holds about 28 kg of material that can be recovered. When it is taken apart by hand:

Steel springs go to scrap metal and come back as products such as roof sheeting.
Foam is turned into carpet underlay.
Timber from the frame is chipped into mulch.
Fabric is the hardest part to reuse. Some becomes acoustic panelling; some recyclers send it to waste-to-energy.

Hand dismantling recovers up to about 75% of a mattress, which the recycler Soft Landing describes as the current industry maximum. Not every facility does that. Brisbane and Moreton Bay councils say they shred the mattresses that come into their tips and recover the steel. And in 2026 the ABSC reported scrap buyers turning away pocket-spring steel because of the fabric wrapped around each coil, so some of it has been stockpiled or landfilled. “Recycled” does not always mean every part was recovered, which is why it is worth asking where a mattress goes.

The industry scheme itself is voluntary. Member brands and retailers pay into it, and the ACCC has authorised it until October 2027. Members include Sealy, TEMPUR, A.H. Beard, Sleepmaker’s parent company The Comfort Group, IKEA, Snooze, Forty Winks, Harvey Norman, Amart and David Jones. None of the online mattress brands in the table below was on the member list when we checked.

Option 1: Have it taken away when the new mattress arrives

This is the least effort, if it is offered. Online brands differ a lot, and the second column of this table is about a mattress you return during that brand’s sleep trial, not your old one.

Brand	Takes your old mattress away?	What happens to mattresses returned in the trial
Koala	Yes: $160 when the new mattress is delivered, metro areas only, and Koala says it is recycled	Cleaned and assessed, then resold at its Koala Second Home outlet, donated or recycled
Ecosa	Not on delivery. A separate recycling collection costs $125 (see the next section)	Donated to charity, mainly the Salvation Army, and never resold
Sleeping Duck	An add-on at checkout for most delivery options (on standard delivery, Melbourne only), priced at checkout; one old mattress per new one, no bases	Donated through charity partners where possible, otherwise recycled; never resold
Ergoflex	A paid recycling collection in selected areas, priced at checkout; a separate recycler collects, possibly on a different day	Donated, rehomed or recycled; never resold as new
Emma	No removal service mentioned on its Australian site	Collected by partner charities
Origin	No. Its FAQ says it does not collect or dispose of old mattresses	Donated to the Salvation Army
Eva	No. It points customers to Soft Landing	Collected by the Salvation Army; if the charity rejects it, Eva recycles it and deducts a disposal fee
Onebed	No removal service in its delivery terms	Collected and donated to a charity
Newentor	No. Mattresses arrive by parcel carrier	Donated through Salvos Stores

Sealy, TEMPUR, Sleepmaker and A.H. Beard sell through retailers, so removal is up to the store. Sealy and A.H. Beard point readers to Soft Landing on their own sites, but quote older prices than Soft Landing’s current list.

Retailers that sell many brands are just as mixed:

Retailer	Removal with a new mattress	Price	Where it goes
IKEA	Yes for in-store and phone orders; online orders book a partner directly. Not available in Queensland	$55 a mattress in store; from $69 through the partner	Recycled; IKEA says it uses an ABSC-approved recycler (Soft Landing, or Bounce Back in SA)
Snooze	A paid service at participating stores, under its terms and conditions	$99 an item; a mattress and base are two items	Recycled where facilities allow; partner not named
Sleepy’s	Yes, one in and one out: one mattress, no bases	Included in the delivery fee	Not stated
Amart	Yes, for mattresses and ensemble bases bought in store; the old one must be sealed in the bag from the store’s removal kit	An extra fee, not published	Not stated
David Jones	Included in the delivery charge on listed mattresses	Part of the delivery fee	Not stated
Myer	On some purchases	Shown at checkout by postcode	Not stated
Forty Winks, Bedshed, Beds R Us, Harvey Norman	Up to each store	Ask the store	Forty Winks and Bedshed point customers to Soft Landing; some Harvey Norman stores use Soft Landing
Fantastic Furniture	No, except in a warranty exchange	–	–
Freedom	No service of its own; it refers customers to Soft Landing	Soft Landing’s prices	Soft Landing

Before you pay for removal, ask four things:

Is the price per mattress or per item? A base is usually a second item.
Does it need to be bagged, on the ground floor or out the front? Snooze and Amart both require the mattress to be fully bagged.
Will they refuse it if it is stained, wet, mouldy or has bed bugs? Many will.
Is it recycled, or just taken away? Several retailers do not say.

Ecosa’s mattress recycling service

Ecosa runs its own recycling collection, booked separately from delivery:

Price: $125 for removal and recycling, according to its delivery page. Collection from inside a house or apartment costs a little more; the difference is shown at checkout.
Not on delivery day: its delivery crews, including its paid Premium Delivery service, do not take the old mattress away. You book the recycling collection for another time.
Where: its recycling page lists Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Its help centre also mentions Adelaide and Perth, so check your postcode at checkout.
What it takes: mattresses of all sizes and conditions, including damaged ones. You leave it outside, unless you paid for inside collection.
What happens to it: it goes to a warehouse to be assessed. Mattresses in good condition are donated to charity. Older ones are taken apart: the foam becomes carpet underlay, the springs go into metal roofing and the timber is chipped. Ecosa does not name its recycling partner.
Holiday break: no collections from 16 December to 6 January.

This is separate from Ecosa’s sleep trial. A mattress returned during the trial is donated to charity rather than recycled through this service.

Option 2: Book a mattress recycler

Dedicated recyclers take mattresses apart rather than crushing them, and most collect from the kerb. The ABSC’s Find a recycler tool lists approved recyclers near any address, and Planet Ark’s Recycling Near You has a search as well.

Recycler	Where	Collection	Drop-off
Soft Landing	Sydney, Hunter, Queanbeyan, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth	From $78 for the first piece and $65 for each extra; Canberra $74.44 and $58.49	$54 a piece at Smithfield, Redhead and Wangara; $48.92 at Hume (ACT)
Bounce Back Mattress Recycling	Adelaide (Ottoway)	Only for three or more mattresses	$45 per mattress, base or ensemble
KTS Recycling	Melbourne’s east (Knox Transfer Station)	–	$38.50 per mattress or base
Sandman Mattress Recyclers	Cairns	$100 pickup fee plus $50 an item	$50 an item

Soft Landing is a not-for-profit social enterprise. Mission Australia started it in 2009, and it is now part of Community Resources, an Aboriginal-led charity. It collected 386,553 mattresses in 2024–25. Collections are from the kerb: the mattress has to be out by 6am, and drivers do not come inside. The price is the same for any size, and a base is a separate piece. It will not take mattresses with bed bugs or other vermin, blood or excrement, or futons, slat bases, drawer bases and gas-lift bases. Wet mattresses are accepted.

Bounce Back is run by Bedford, an organisation that employs people with disability. Drop-off is weekdays, 7.30am to 4pm. It says at least 95% of each mattress is diverted from landfill, a figure that counts the fabric and latex it sends to waste-to-energy.

Other approved recyclers include GDP Industries in Geelong, The Mattress Recycling Company in Victoria and Queensland, EnviroBeds in Sydney, Bedundo, which works with regional councils in Western Australia, and Southern Waste Services in Hobart.

Coverage has gaps. The ABSC lists no approved recycler in the Northern Territory and one in Tasmania, and regional Queensland is thin; a Mackay recycler closed in 2026. Outside the big cities, your council or local tip may be the only option.

Option 3: Take it to a tip or transfer station

If you can carry it, a tip or transfer station is often cheaper than a collection. Some council examples:

Brisbane: $36.60 a mattress at council resource recovery centres, or one of your free annual waste vouchers, which covers up to three mattresses.
Moreton Bay: up to four mattresses and four bases a year free at council facilities.
Canberra: $51.25 at Mugga Lane and Mitchell. The ACT does not allow mattresses in landfill, so they must be recycled.
Knox, Melbourne: $38.50 at the Knox Transfer Station.

Brisbane and Moreton Bay shred mattresses and recover the steel, so less of each mattress is recovered than when it is taken apart by hand.

Option 4: Use your council’s bulky waste collection

Council collections are the cheapest option for many households, but the rules vary from one council to the next:

Council	What you get	The catch
City of Sydney (NSW)	A free bulky pickup you can book every week	Book by 2pm the day before, and book mattresses as their own group
Brisbane (QLD)	A free kerbside large-item collection once a year	The week is set by suburb, with a 2 cubic metre limit
ACT	One free bulky collection a year	Mattresses and bases still cost $46.35 each
City of Adelaide (SA)	Two free hard waste collections a year	A 2 cubic metre limit; extra collections cost $81
Adelaide Hills (SA)	One mattress collection a year	$30 an item, so a mattress and base cost $60
Wanneroo (WA)	A separate mattress booking once a year, up to three items	A base is taken only with a mattress
Kwinana (WA)	A mattress collection	Latex and innerspring only, so foam mattresses are excluded; extras cost $79.68 each

That last catch matters if you are replacing a foam mattress that came in a box. Check what your council accepts before you book.

Whether council-collected mattresses are recycled also varies. The City of Sydney says its contractor recycles up to 75% of each one. The ABSC says most council hard rubbish still ends up in landfill. Ask your council where its mattresses go.

Option 5: Pass it on

Most charity shops will not take a used mattress:

Red Cross shops and the Brotherhood of St Laurence list mattresses as not accepted.
Vinnies in NSW and the ACT refuses mattresses in any condition, and Vinnies SA accepts new mattresses only.
Salvos Stores varies by store, so call first.

If the mattress is clean and barely used, you can sell it or give it away on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree, or offer it through GIVIT, a charity platform that matches donations to current requests from charities. Some refuges accept mattresses too, so call ahead. Be honest about its condition: no stains, no smell and no bed bugs. How to clean a mattress covers what can and cannot be fixed.

Do not leave it on the nature strip

A mattress put out without a booking, outside your collection window, or next to a charity bin counts as illegal dumping. Penalties vary by state:

NSW: on-the-spot fines of $1,000 for an individual dumping more than 50 litres or 50 kg, or $2,500 in a sensitive place. Any mattress is well over 50 litres.
Queensland: $2,763 for an individual dumping 200 litres to under 2,500 litres (2026–27 rate).
Victoria: maximum penalties of up to $800,000 and five years in jail for dumping on public land.
ACT: leaving a mattress in a public place or outside a charity is illegal dumping, and fines apply.

Before you book: a quick checklist

Bed bugs. Most recyclers and retailers refuse a mattress with bed bugs. Deal with them first, or ask your council how it wants the mattress handled.
Bases. Count them separately with almost every service.
Bags. Some services want the mattress fully sealed in a bag.
Timing. Some collections come on a different day from your delivery (Ecosa’s and Ergoflex’s do), so plan where the old mattress will wait.
Where it goes. Ask whether it is dismantled, shredded or landfilled.
Make the next one last. How long a mattress lasts explains the signs a mattress is really worn out, and how to slow that down.

Frequently asked questions

Is mattress recycling free in Australia?
Sometimes. The City of Sydney’s weekly bulky pickup is free, Moreton Bay residents can drop off up to four mattresses a year for free, and some councils take mattresses in a free annual collection. Otherwise expect to pay roughly $40 to $80 a mattress to a recycler, and a base counts as a second item.

Will the Salvos or Vinnies take my old mattress?
Usually not. Vinnies in NSW and the ACT refuses used mattresses, Vinnies SA takes new ones only, and Salvos Stores varies by store, so call first. Red Cross shops and the Brotherhood of St Laurence do not accept them.

Does Ecosa take away your old mattress?
Not on delivery. Ecosa runs a separate paid recycling collection, $125 when checked in October 2026, which its recycling page lists for Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. You book it for a different day.

What happens to a recycled mattress?
At a recycler that dismantles by hand, the steel springs go to scrap metal, the foam becomes carpet underlay and the timber becomes mulch. Up to about 75% of the mattress can be recovered that way. Facilities that shred mattresses usually recover only the steel.

Can I recycle a mattress with bed bugs?
Most collection services will not take one. Soft Landing excludes mattresses with vermin, and Snooze’s drivers can refuse them. Treat the bed bugs first, or ask your council or local tip how they want it handled.

What happens to a mattress I return during a sleep trial?
That is up to the brand, and most donate returned mattresses to charity. How mattress sleep trials work covers the conditions, such as the minimum number of nights and how many returns are allowed.