UK bed retailer and manufacturer Dreams has recycled more than 1.3 million mattresses through its take-back scheme since 2015, recovering more than 42,000 tonnes of material that might otherwise have gone to waste.
The company said 1,306,414 mattresses have been collected and processed through its partnership with recycling specialist Circom since the scheme launched in September 2015.
The mattresses would stretch approximately 1,533 miles if laid end-to-end, equivalent to almost twice the length of mainland Britain.
The milestone comes during National Recycling Week, as attention turns to the challenges involved in recovering materials from products at the end of their useful lives.
Mattress recycling challenge
While mattress recycling has increased in recent years, a significant proportion of old mattresses are still not recycled.
According to Dreams’ 2026 Sleep Survey, only 38% of UK adults take their old mattress to a tip when disposing of it.
Separate figures from the National Bed Federation found that just 33% of mattresses disposed of in 2023 were “really recycled”, meaning their materials were recovered and used to make new materials or products.
Dreams’ take-back service allows customers buying a new mattress to have their old bed and mattress collected when the replacement is delivered.
The collected mattresses are then sent to Circom’s specialist recycling facility, where they are dismantled and separated into their component materials.
Steel, foam and polyester are among the materials recovered during the process and diverted for further use.
Dan Parson, Chief Commercial Officer at Dreams, said the scheme was intended to make mattress recycling easier for customers.
“At Dreams, we want to take the hassle out of recycling by making it easy for customers to have their old mattress collected when the new one arrives,” he said.
Richard Allsopp, Director of Circom, said the 1.3 million milestone demonstrated the potential for recycling to be incorporated into the customer journey.
“Every mattress contains materials with value beyond their first use, and we’re continually exploring new opportunities to recover and repurpose those resources,” he said.
The latest figures highlight the role retailers can play in managing products at the end of their useful lives, particularly for bulky items such as mattresses that can be difficult for consumers to dispose of through conventional recycling routes.
Dreams said its recycling programme forms part of its wider approach to managing old beds and mattresses when customers upgrade to new products.
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