IKEA has announced the launch of a new mattress removal and recycling scheme in collaboration with The Furniture Recycling (TFR) Group, giving UK customers a convenient way to recycle old mattresses that would otherwise go to waste. The scheme will strengthen the range of sustainable services on offer to IKEA customers, by transforming mattresses into valuable raw materials that are fed back into the economy.

The new mattress removal and recycling scheme will give UK customers a convenient and sustainable way to recycle their old mattresses. The service will ensure that mattresses across the UK are transformed into valuable raw materials that are fed back into the economy and reused.

IKEA customers can book a collection for their mattresses, either online or in-store for £40 per item. Following collection, mattresses are transported to a dedicated recycling facility operated by IKEA partner, The Furniture Recycling (TFR) Group – the UK’s leading mattress recycling and circular economy specialist.

TFR Group diverts 100% of the mattresses it collects or receives from landfill, by deconstructing them manually using specialist cutting tools – enabling the materials to be separated into their component parts, which are then sanitised for onward processing. Since 2012, TFR Group has recycled more than 3.5 million mattresses, with 30,000 tonnes of material flowing back into the economy.

In 2022, RetourMatras, a Netherlands-based mattress recycling company that is co-owned by Ingka Investments – the investment arm of Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer – acquired TFR Group. This investment has enabled the business to triple its dismantling capacity, which now stands at 1.5 million mattresses per year.

Beyond recycling, IKEA also plans to use TFR Group’s mattress rejuvenation service in the near-future, which involves a bespoke sanitation process for returned mattresses. This ensures returned mattresses do not go to waste, and instead are cleaned to NHS standards and verified to be of as-new quality via robust quality assurance checks – ready for resale at discounted prices or redistribution to support local communities.

The launch of the new mattress removal and recycling scheme strengthens the retailer’s existing sustainable services offering. This includes in-store areas, now known as ‘Re-shop and Re-use’, where IKEA can recycle and give products a second life, offering free spare parts and an attractive range of affordable goods including discontinued items, ex-display articles and pre-loved furniture – traded back to IKEA through the BuyBack & Resell service. BuyBack & Resell encourages customers to sell back eligible pre-loved goods in exchange for store credit, so these pieces can then be purchased by a new customer and reused.

In addition to this, IKEA has recently piloted a new ‘car boot’ sale concept at its Milton Keynes and Cardiff stores, to support customers in repurposing their pre-loved belongings and giving them a new lease of life.

“We’re very excited to have our new mattress removal and recycling service up and running in collaboration with The Furniture Recycling Group, which is transforming old mattresses that would otherwise go to waste, back into valuable raw materials that can be used again and again. Partnerships like this are crucial to overcoming long-term environmental challenges like mattress waste and advancing our People and Planet Positive journey, while supporting as many customers as possible in living a more sustainable life at home.” – Greg LucasSustainability Manager at IKEA UK

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Supporting the move towards a circular mattress value chain

A cumbersome and bulky waste stream, mattresses are manufactured using up to around 19 different materials, making them notoriously difficult to recycle. In the UK, around 6.4 million mattresses were disposed of in 2020, according to the National Bed Federation*, with the majority ending up in landfill. This represents thousands of tonnes of waste – which is taking up limited space in refuse centres nationwide and damaging the environment. Recycling a mattress also saves 76 kgs of CO2 emissions (as compared to incineration). This means that if the 6.4 million mattresses disposed of in the UK were recycled, over 485 million kgs of CO2 emissions could be saved.

Alongside expanding recycling capacity in the UK, RetourMatras and TFR Group are working together to make mattress recycling more efficient by optimising transport, dismantling and material recoverability – ultimately working towards a fully circular mattress value chain.