Why You Shouldnt Just Throw Out Your Mattress If You Find Bed Bugs
The problem with tossing your mattress once youve found bug beds is that the insects reside in more than just your bed. Since they hide in carpets, and even behind picture frames and in nightstands, you arent eradicating the problem. In fact, you could be making it worse. As you drag your mattress through your house, you risk depositing the bugs and their eggs in areas of your home that they may not have reached yet, creating an even greater infestation. Throwing out your mattress, or any of your furniture, should not be the primary and only method of control. However, after an infestation has been eliminated, many homeowners opt to purchase a new mattress for peace of mind.
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How Do You Destroy A Mattress
Even before buying your mattress, consider the possibility of having to change them in the future. And when youve thought about having to change at some point, youll start to think of how you can get rid of them.
But your alternatives for getting rid of a bed shouldnt include flipping them by the roadside, in the bottom of a lake, or even burning them. Before you go ahead to destroy your mattress, it is crucial to consider more acceptable options. Consider either of these:
- Donating them: Charities, shelters, and churches can take your unwanted mattress off your hands. Donating them will make a mattress available for those in need, and help you safely dispose of your old stuff.
- Selling off your old mattress: You probably arent changing them because theyre no longer usable. Selling them on online marketplaces, or even at a local store would be a better alternative.
- Retailers: Most retailers offer to take the old mattress off your hands for a small fee or for nothing, provided you purchase the new one from them.
- Take them to your local council: Drive up to your local council or local amenity center and drop them off there for others who may need them.
- Use of a specialized waste collection: Its the most convenient, as well as the fastest way of getting rid of your mattress.
- Use recyclers: These are facilities that can break mattresses into recyclable components.
Gathering The Proper Tools
First off, youre going to need the right set of equipment to handle this task. Normally, you should be able to find most of these supplies at your local hardware store, as theyre typically common.
Youll need a saw, a bolt cutter or wire clippers, boxes to store any loose parts you get from the process, eyewear to protect your eyes, some durable gloves, preferably cut-resistant ones, a good pair of pliers, a utility knife and a box cutter. Make sure that you get all of these, as you dont want to make multiple trips back to the store.
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There Are A Lot Of Drawbacks To Throwing Away Your Old Mattress
Unfortunately, the most obvious solution isnt always the best one.
With 8,000 mattresses ending up in American dumps every single day, a number of landfills now charge extra fees for dropping off mattresses.
Theres good reason for this, too.
Mattresses are bulky.
They dont compact well, and as they decompose, they can actually form toxic air pockets that dumps really dont like dealing with.
So if dropping your mattress off at the landfill was your first choice, you might want to think again.
Option : Repurpose It
If you love to DIY, break down the mattress and box springs yourself. Mattresses contain a variety of useful materials including steel, polyurethane foam, memory foam, latex foam, natural fibers, wooden parts, nails, screws, and much more. You can use the materials for a variety of purposes including:
- Recycling the parts: Remove the steel parts and springs from your mattress and sell them to local scrap yards and scrap metal recyclers in your area. If your mattress includes cotton, wool, silk, polyester, or rayon, those materials can be recycled as well.
- Home projects: The foams and cotton in your old mattress can be used for several things around your home. They can be shredded and used as carpet padding, insulation, filters, seat cushions, pet bedding, pillows, and more.
- Gardening: Break down the wooden parts of your mattress and use them for gardening. When shredded, the wood works great for lawn mulch. You can also use the wooden slats to create a compost bin.
- Arts and crafts: The fabric that covers your mattress can make a great DIY rug and memory foam padding can be cut into small sizes and used as cleaning sponges. There are also screws and nails in your mattress that can be used for arts and crafts.
- : The coils and springs of your mattress can be melted down and made into various objects such as plant and candle holders, ornaments, bird feeders, and much more.
When in doubt, check out for even more ways you can repurpose your old mattress.
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Can An Old Mattress Cause Allergies
Yes, old mattresses often cause allergies. If you have allergy symptoms only at night time, your mattress could be infested with dust mites! They are one of the most common household allergens and like to hide in the cotton folds of your mattress. If you think this is the case, its best to get rid of the mattress immediately and get a new one that is dust mite resistant.
- Inner-Spring Mattresses
Can Old Mattresses Be Recycled
Yes, mattresses can be recycled and the practice is fairly common. Through mattress recycling, approximately 80-90% of the mattress can be reused. Thats quite a lot of material that can be reused and turned into new products!
What parts of a mattress can be recycled?
Steel springs, wood frames, stuffing, and fabric are all contained in a mattress and can be recycled and reused in different ways. However, mattresses cant simply be left out for pickup with your regular recycling. Youll often need to find a facility that specializes in mattress recycling, and youll need to transport it there on your own.
Why is recycling a mattress is good for the environment?
When you decide to recycle your old mattress, you help reduce the amount of waste that ends up in your local landfill. Many parts of the mattress need to be recycled, as they take decades to decompose if they end up in a landfill.
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Action #: Get Rid Of The Bed Bugs All Over Your Home
Having a bed bug-free mattress is useless if other parts of your home are infested with bed bugs. Your mattress will just be re-infested.
Its best practice to get rid of bed bugs in your entire home altogether. Aside from vacuuming, steam cleaning, and encasing, you can try using pesticides.
Please make sure you are using pesticides that are specifically designed for such pests. Also make sure you are using them as directed or labelled. You dont want too much pesticide exposure, especially on places where you frequent, like your bed or furniture.
Its also not a bad idea to employ the services of a pest exterminator, just to be safe and sure.
Council Collections Book A Bulky Item Collection From Your Council
If you are a householder, instead of driving your mattress to the tip, one alternative is to book a council bulky waste collection from your home. All councils provide this service to their residents but prices and service levels vary considerably. For example, Southampton Council charges £10 for a single mattress, £20 for a double and £30 for anything bigger than a double whereas Greenwich Council charges £10.30 for any size. In general, while this service is rarely free, it is subsidised so will normally be cheaper than a private waste removal service. However, a private service will usually be able to collect your mattress a lot quicker than your council and also take a wider range of waste types at the same time.
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Break It Down And Reuse It
Next, lets look at some ways you can break down an old or used mattress and reuse certain components for different purposes.
- The average mattress contains 25 pounds of steel, most of which is found in the springs. Steel can be melted down to create a wide range of parts and products. Simply remove all springs and other steel parts from your mattress, then bundle them together and sell them for scrap. You can locate scrapyards and metal recyclers in your area with a quick Internet search. Rates will vary by location, but expect to earn roughly $10 for 100 pounds of scrap metal.
- The polyurethane foam in mattresses can be shredded and repurposed around the house for carpeting, car seat cushions, pillows, pet bedding and other types of padding. Memory foam and latex foam can be reused in a similar fashion.
- Most mattresses include a mix of natural fibers like cotton, wool and silk, and non-natural fibers like polyester and rayon. Most natural and non-natural fibers found in a mattress can be recycled. Like foam, mattress fibers can also be reused to make padding or insulation.
- The wooden parts of mattresses can serve several functions once the mattress has been taken apart. In addition to firewood, this wood can be shredded and used as a gardening or lawn mulch.
- Nails, screws and other small metal parts in reasonable condition can be removed from the mattress and reused for various household projects.
Clever solutions
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Have You Thought About Reselling Your Mattress
The easiest way to transfer responsibility for your current mattress is to start looking for a buyer when it still has some life left in it. The rise of social media and C2C business forums has enabled people to sell virtually anything online. While you are sitting with a catalog of brand new mattress just waiting to say goodbye to your older one, your next-door neighbor might be looking for a second-hand mattress.
Craigslist can help you find potential buyers for your bedding, almost-new linens, old furniture and almost-new set of tools within days. This platform allows all users and potential sellers place free ads for their products. Craigslist and OfferUp are websites ideal for meeting the new owner of your old mattress. The buyers can contact you directly through the site.
Getting your mattress professionally cleaned will be an investment decision before putting it up for sale. Your cleaning service can cost you lesser than $100, but you can fetch between $200 and $400. The selling price of your mattress will depend upon the material, condition, and integrity of the mattress.
The brand will also make a massive impact on the price. It might even get rid of the sweat stains, old smells and the used feeling that old mattresses usually have. Do not forget to include the price of the mattress in the product description area and the number of years you have used them.
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Will A Warranty Cover Any Of These Issues
In some situations, an issue with a mattress may be covered by the warranty. A warranty means that a company must agree to repair or replace its products in the case of defects or structural flaws.
Warranties vary between companies and even between different products made by the same brand. When you are considering a purchase, make sure to look at an items warranty to find out if any issues you have are covered in the mattress warranty.
How To Dispose Of A Mattress By Yourself
So, youve decided that its time to replace your old and well-loved mattress with a brand new one. Cool. You probably have the new addition to your bedroom already delivered to your property and you just cant wait to place it inside the frame and to test it out. But arent you forgetting something? Yup the old mattress.
At this point, you must be scratching your head, asking yourself how to get rid of the mattress as quickly as possible, but you just cant think of a convenient way to remove the piece from your property.
Well, guess what Rainbow Rubbish Removals is here to tell you exactly how to dispose of a mattress, without wasting a single nerve!
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Misconception #: Bed Bugs Only Live In Mattresses
Bed bugs live in beds, so the best way to get rid of them is to get rid of the beds, right? No, not really. This is a common misconception that has risen because of the name of the pests bed bugs.
Bed bugs do live in beds, but those are not just the places where they can thrive. They can live in closets, floorboards, furniture, walls, and many other places. Its ridiculous to even think that throwing away your mattress will get rid of your bed bug problem.
Find A Good Charity For Donating Mattresses
One good way to find charities in need of mattresses is to go through sites like Donation Town.
This is pretty similar to Earth 911 and Bye Bye Mattress, in that it finds organizations near you willing to take decent-quality beds and mattresses off your hands.
There are a lot of reasons why people might need a new mattress, but be unable to afford one.
Homeless people.
Families whove lost everything.
People in transition.
Refugees.
Having a quality mattress under your back is often one of the first steps to getting back on your feet.
Your battered mattress could help change a life.
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How To Prevent Infestations
If youve ever had a bed bug problem, or are looking to prevent a possible infestation in the future, there are steps that you can take. First, if you know that a friend or family member currently has an infestation, stay away from the home until its been treated. Bed bugs can cling to your clothes and shoes, and you run the risk of tracking them into your own house.
Check furniture from garage sales and free furniture on the side of the road for signs of bed bugs before you purchase it or bring it home. If you see signs of a current or former infestation, stay away.
Use a mattress and pillow encasement. Mattress and pillow encasements are made from a material thats designed to prevent bed bugs from making their way into your bedding. They can also serve as anti-allergens, protect against dust mites, and are often waterproof. They are low cost and can be purchased at most home goods stores or online.
What Parts Of A Mattress Can Be Recycled
There are many parts of a mattress that can be recycled. Steel springs, wood frames, stuffing, and fabric are all contained in a mattress and can be recycled and reused in different ways.
However, mattresses are too big to be left out for pickup with your regular recycling. Youll need to find a facility that specializes in mattress recycling and transport it there on your own.
If you want to make sure all parts of your old mattress are recycled properly without the need to lift a finger, then our friendly and professional crew at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? is the solution for you!
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Getting Your Mattress Ready To Donate
Some good nation-wide charities for collecting used mattresses include Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity.
These organizations are usually willing to accept just about any kind of mattress so long as theres nothing wrong with it, but be sure to double-check your local outlets policies before driving off with your mattress.
Charities will not typically accept mattresses that are broken, stained or unsanitary.
Also be sure to let you charity know if your mattress is coming from a home with pets or cigarette smoke.
Many people who come to these organizations are in poor health, and the last thing they need is for their new mattress to make things worse.
This is especially important for people with asthma or allergies.
You definitely shouldnt let this keep you from looking into donating, but just be sure to let the charity know.
What About A Sagging Mattress
If you have a sagging mattress, sometimes the problem can be the mattress foundation. By placing a board over your existing mattress foundation, this can make your mattress perform better and reduce the sagging issue.
You can pick these up at Lowes or Home Depot and have them cut the wood/board to size for you. I would recommend cutting the wood at least an inch shorter both width and length-wise so that you don’t have any wood protrusions. If this doesn’t work, purchasing a new mattress foundation could extend the life of your mattress and improve its comfort quality. If it’s a foam mattress , you’ll need a solid, uniform bottom foundation.
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Throw Your Old Mattress Away
If youre not able to get your mattress back to its producer, the most obvious solution is probably to just throw the mattress away the same as youd throw away anything else.
You might be able to simply leave it on the curb, or you might have to take it down to your local landfill.
Either way, this is almost certainly the first fix thatll come to your mind when you start thinking about getting rid of your old mattress.
Hiring A Professional Disposal Company
If you cant bring yourself to load, transport, and unload your old mattress in a recycling center, cant find a friend in need of one ASAP or you just dont feel like dealing with the whole task of disposing the piece by yourself, give Rainbow Rubbish Removals a call and well come to literally take the dusty, old mattress off your hands. Our company offers professional mattress disposal services that will save you all of the back pain and headaches of trying to get rid of the piece by yourself. All you have to do is give us a call or request a quote for your mattress online and before you know it, a Rainbow Rubbish Removals team of furniture removal specialists will be at your doorstep to complete the service. So, dont waste another minute and contact us now!
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