How Does a Mattress Recycling Service Work?
Put simply, a mattress recycling service collects your old mattress from your home and takes it to a specialist facility, where it's stripped down into its separate materials so they can be used again. You book a collection, keep the mattress clean and dry, and the team does the rest. It's the most responsible way to say goodbye to a mattress, and it saves you the job of getting it to the tip. Here's what happens at each stage, and how our own service at Simba works.
Why Mattresses Need Specialist Recycling
A mattress is made of several materials layered and fixed together. There are steel springs, foams, fibres such as wool or polyester, and a fabric cover. Each of those can have a second life, as long as someone takes the mattress apart properly first.
A dedicated service exists to do exactly that. According to the National Bed Federation, only 24% of discarded mattresses were recycled in the UK in 2025. A dedicated service makes sure your mattress goes to a facility that specialises in exactly this work.
What Happens To A Mattress At The Recycling Facility
Once your mattress arrives, skilled operatives carefully strip it down into its component parts. The components are sorted by material, sanitised, and put through a quality control check. Then they're sent on to their next life in other industries.
Real recycling means salvaging over 80% of the materials in a mattress. We've worked with our recycling partners for many years. They're based in the UK, they currently process over 8% of all UK mattresses sent for recycling, and their teams work through around 12,000 mattresses every week.
How The Simba Mattress Recycling Service Works
Our service costs £50, and it's open to everyone. We'll collect any brand and any size of mattress, and you don't need to buy anything from us to use it.
There are two ways to book, depending on whether you're also ordering a new mattress.
If you only need a mattress taken away:
- Go to the Mattress Recycling Service page on our website and select "Buy it now". It's a stand-alone service, so it's checked out on its own.
- Within three days, you'll receive a booking link by text and email. Use it to choose a collection date that suits you.
- We'll send you a protective transit bag for your mattress ahead of the collection.
- On the day, we'll let you know your time slot, and the team will collect the mattress from the room it's in.
If you're replacing it with a new mattress from us:
If you're replacing your mattress with a Simba Hybrid®, it's easiest to add the removal to your order. Choose "Standard Delivery with Mattress Removal" at checkout, and we can collect your old mattress on the same day your new one is delivered for a £50 fee.
Note: If mattress removal doesn't appear as an option at checkout, it means we aren't currently operating the service in your area. You can contact us at help@simbasleep.com to find out if we plan on expanding to your area soon.
Getting Ready For Collection Day
A little preparation helps everything go smoothly, and it makes sure your mattress can be recycled efficiently.
- Keep an eye on your phone. We'll send your time slot on the day, and we'll update you if anything changes.
- Keep the mattress indoors and bag it. A mattress needs to be clean and dry to be recycled, so please keep it inside and put it in the protective bag we send you.
- Keep access routes clear. The team can collect from any room, upstairs or down. Clear the hallway and stairs so they can carry the mattress out safely. You're welcome to put dust sheets down if you'd like to protect your floors.
Other Ways To Pass On A Mattress
You could try donating your old mattress to charity, if you can find one that will accept it. You could take it to the tip on the roof of your car, or pay the council to remove it. The trouble is that none of those routes guarantees real recycling, and a large share of discarded mattresses still end up in landfill. They're also hard work, because you're the one doing the lifting, the driving and the phoning around.
A specialist recycling service is the only option that collects from inside your home and gives you certainty about where the materials end up.
How We Think About The Whole Life Of A Mattress
At Simba, recycling is one part of a bigger picture for us. We're a certified B Corp, and we try to keep mattresses out of landfill at every stage.
Mattresses that come back to us during the 200-night trial are refurbished wherever possible and sold through our Simba-certified Refurbished range. In 2024, we refurbished 11,436 mattresses for resale. Any that have too much wear to be refurbished are recycled.
Our mattresses are designed with their end of life in mind as well. All Simba mattresses are suitable for recycling by specialist providers, and our Natural Hybrid® mattresses are glue free and foam free, which makes them even easier to take apart. So when the mattress you buy from us today eventually reaches the end of its life, the same service will be there to collect it.
FAQs
Yes. When you order a new bed from us, you can add old bed removal at checkout for a small fee, and we'll collect any brand or size. Our VIP Delivery team can take the old bed away on the same visit as they install the new one.
Someone needs to be in to let the team in, because they collect the mattress from inside your home. We'll send a time slot on the day to make that easy to plan.
Age isn't a problem. The mattress needs to be clean and dry so that the materials can be recycled. Keep it indoors and use the protective bag we send you, and it'll be ready for collection.
When you book alongside a new mattress order, one £50 fee covers the same number of old mattresses as new ones you're having delivered. For the stand-alone service, the fee is shown on the service page when you book.
If mattress removal doesn't appear as a delivery option at checkout, we're not currently operating in your area. You can also email hello@simbasleep.com if you'd like to check before you order.
Our Mattress Setup and Packaging Removal service is available for £10 with standard mattress delivery. The delivery crew will unpack your new mattress, put it on your bed and take the packaging away for recycling.
