‘600,000 mattresses go to landfill every year – that’s enough to fill Croke Park eight times over’

In Dublin alone, around 170,000 mattresses still go to landfill or incineration every year, rather than being sustainably recycled, creating an estimated loss of up to €30m to Dublin’s local economy

This is equivalent to over 4,000 tonnes of waste which could be turned into over 3,500 tonnes of valuable materials, if recycled back into the circular economy, and also helps create green jobs.

Keith McDonagh is the manager of Bounce Back Recycling, a recycling company whose aim is to divert as many mattresses away from landfill as possible.

This Traveller-led social enterprise reflects the historic Traveller tradition of recycling, dating back to the traditional tinsmiths who fixed household items for the settled community.

Following a successful trial in early 2024, the company has now expanded it’s mattress collection and recycling service to Dublin. Costs start from €30 for a single mattress.

“There shouldn’t be any mattresses going to landfill because on average it takes 100 years for a mattress to break down when it goes to landfill,” Mr McDonagh told the Irish Independent.

“You can imagine what that’s doing for the environment and on the flip side of that, a lot of material from these mattresses is valuable material that should be going back into the circular economy.

“We set up this to tackle the huge unemployment problem within the Traveller community. But also, we saw a gap in the market, there’s nobody offering this service.

“Old mattresses can be used as insulation products for your tank jackets. The spring can be melted into different metal products too.

“We have major EU targets to reach in the area of recycling. We want to do right by your mattress and feed back into the circular economy.

“The government is not doing enough about it. If any waste company is getting a mattress and putting it into incineration or burying it, there should be a hefty fine.

“Our services come right to your doorstep and collect your mattress at your door and bring it back to our depot.”

BBR was set up as a social enterprise by the Galway Traveller Movement in 2017. Since then, they have diverted over 100,000 mattresses from landfill and successfully expanded their service to 12 other counties, most recently Dublin.

BBR knew there was demand for a Dublin service based on the high volume of traffic to their website from Dublin. They wanted to ensure the environmental impact of mattress recycling is delivered to Dublin.

After the Dublin trial proved the high demand, BBR is now entering a partnership with Dublin social enterprise RecycleIT (who specialise in electronics recycling) to carry out additional mattress collections on their behalf.