We mark the final day of National Bed Month – an important campaign led by the National Bed Federation (NBF) to encourage better mattress care, timely replacement and more responsible disposal.
At RetourMat, we’re proud to support this initiative and help raise awareness of the environmental impact of mattress waste – and, more importantly, the role that recycling, rejuvenation and more circular solutions can play in addressing it.

Why National Bed Month Matters

Organised by the NBF, National Bed Month highlights the important link between good sleep and a good bed. It also provides an opportunity to consider what happens to mattresses when they are replaced.

Millions of mattresses are discarded in the UK each year, making responsible end-of-life management increasingly important. Rather than allowing valuable materials to go to waste, mattresses should be kept in use for as long as possible and, when they genuinely reach the end of their useful life, recycled so their component materials can be recovered.

Tackling Mattress Waste Head-On

At RetourMat, we’re working to create a more circular future for mattresses.

Our approach goes beyond simply recycling mattresses at the end of their life. Where suitable, rejuvenation can extend the useful life of a mattress and keep the product in circulation for longer. When reuse is no longer possible, our specialist recycling operations separate mattresses into individual material streams, including foam, textiles and steel, allowing valuable resources to be recovered and returned to productive use.

In the UK, 100% of the mattresses we process are diverted from landfill, with 92% of recovered materials going back into UK manufacturing.

How Businesses Can Get Involved

Businesses across the mattress lifecycle have an important role to play in making the industry more circular. Here are some of the ways organisations can make a difference:

• Offer responsible mattress take-back solutions
  Retailers and manufacturers can incorporate mattress collection into their customer offering, making it easier for old mattresses to enter an appropriate reuse or recycling route. 
• Work with specialist partners
  Working with an experienced mattress recycling and rejuvenation provider helps ensure mattresses are assessed and directed towards the most appropriate solution rather than unnecessarily becoming waste. 
• Consider reuse before recycling
  Not every mattress needs to be immediately recycled. Where appropriate, rejuvenation can extend a mattress’s useful life, retaining more of the value and resources already invested in the product. 
• Measure and communicate your impact
  Understanding what happens to returned mattresses and their materials can help organisations demonstrate progress against their sustainability and circular economy objectives. 

Looking Beyond March

National Bed Month may take place in March, but creating a more sustainable mattress industry requires action throughout the year.
As one European company, RetourMat brings together expertise in mattress recycling, rejuvenation and circular materials to help businesses rethink what happens to mattresses throughout their lifecycle.
By keeping mattresses in use for longer and recovering valuable materials when they reach the end of their useful life, we can move away from a linear approach to mattress disposal and towards a genuinely more circular future.

What makes RetourMat’s recycling and rejuvenation services unique in the industry?

Our approach to the entire mattress lifecycle is what sets us apart. We don’t simply look at how a mattress can be recycled at the end of its life – we first consider how its useful life can be extended wherever possible.

Through rejuvenation, suitable mattresses can be professionally processed and given another life. When a mattress can no longer be reused, our recycling operations recover materials such as foam, textiles and steel so they can be returned to productive use.

Bringing recycling, rejuvenation and circular material solutions together allows us to help our customers reduce waste, keep valuable resources in circulation and achieve their sustainability goals. We’re also continually innovating, investing in new technology and developing better ways to recover and retain value from mattresses and their materials.

Want to find a more circular solution for your mattresses? Get in touch with the RetourMat team to discuss recycling, rejuvenation and circular material solutions for your business.