Eugene mattress recycling program keeps 20,000 beds out of landfills

St. Vincent de Paul’s Eugene mattress recycling operation kept about 20,000 beds out of landfills in 2025. With roughly 250 mattresses moving through the program each day, about 15,000 mattress-worth of material is recovered for new uses instead of taking up landfill space or showing up as illegal dumping across Eugene and Lane County.

Eugene’s mattress recycling stream is part of Oregon’s mattress recycling system, created by Senate Bill 1576 in 2022 and paid for with a $22.50 assessment on mattress sales online and in stores. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said the law was designed to increase recycling, put convenient drop-off locations in every county, reduce illegal dumping and create recycling-sector jobs.

Once a mattress reaches the system, much of it does not end up as trash. About 75% of a mattress can be recycled into products such as carpet padding, construction rebar and insulation.

Statewide, the Mattress Recycling Council counted more than 130,000 old mattresses and box springs out of landfills, streets, parks and riverbeds in 2025, the first full year of the program. The state had 27 permanent collection sites and more than 40 scheduled collection events, and it facilitated reuse of more than 2,000 mattresses. Before the program started, more than 800 beds a day were being buried in landfills statewide.

St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County can recycle 300,000 mattresses and box spring foundations each year across its Oregon and California operations, and its Eugene facility at Prairie Road accepts up to ten mattresses or box springs per household for free drop-off. Bethany Cartledge, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, said the biggest change for consumers was being able to bring a bed or box spring in at no charge under the new law, while Mattress Recycling Council COO Mike O’Donnell said the program gives people a free disposal option and helps prevent illegal dumping.