When purchasing a new memory foam or organic mattress in the San Francisco Bay Area, you need to find some way to get rid of your old mattress. And while most companies, as it is with Nest Bedding, will provide that service for you. However, where do those old mattresses go? And what is the best thing to do with your old mattress?

When your old mattress gets picked up, it ends up eventually making its way to DR3, the nation's largest mattress recycling facility in the United States. We are fortunate in the San Francisco/Oakland/Berkeley Bay Area, as there are very few mattress recycling facilities in the United States, and in most of the country, old mattresses end up making their way to a landfill, where they take many, many years to decompose. But here in the Bay Area, DR3 can disassemble coil mattresses and memory foam mattresses and they have customers for up to 90% of the recycled materials derived from your old mattress.

Organic latex natural mattresses are biodegradable, which means they will break down quickly and not leach toxic chemicals into the soil. But synthetic memory foam and foam and coil mattresses covered with polyester fabric will add toxic materials to the ground and is very wasteful. 

Here in the Bay Area, Nest Bedding provides pick up of your old mattress, for a nominal fee, and will transport your old mattress to the DR3 facility in San Leandro. If you want a free option, call your local trash hauler and request pick up of a large item. They will take the mattress to the landfill where it will be diverted to DR3. Fortunately, almost all used mattresses here in the Bay Area, picked up in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland areas end up in the DR3 facility, to live again as insulation, etc.

If you want to take your mattress to recycling yourself, DR3 offers many drop off locations throughout the Bay Area:

                   
• Ben Lomond: Ben Lomond Transfer Station, 9835 Newell Creek Rd.,  831-454-2430
                
• Berkeley: Berkeley Transfer Station, 1201 - 2nd Street,  510-981-7270
             
• Burlingame: Greenworx, 888 Hinckley Road,  888-714-7444
                                  
• Livermore: Altamont Landfill, 10840 Altamont Pass Road,  800-449-6349
         
• Martinez: Contra Costa Transfer & Recovery Station, 951 Waterbird Way,  925-313-8900
     
• Milpitas: Newby Island Sanitary Landfill, 1601 Dixon Landing Road,  408-432-1234
                    
• Pacifica: Recology (formerly Coastside/Seacoast Disposal), 1046 Palmetto Ave.,  650-355-9000
   
• Palo Alto: Palo Alto Landfill, 2380 Embarcadero Rd.,  650-329-2655
                     
• Redding: City Of Redding Transfer Station & Recycling Facility, 2255 Abernathy,  530-224-6201
 
• San Carlos: San Carlos Transfer Station, 225 Shoreway Road,  650-592-0255
   
• San Francisco: Recology, 501 Tunnel Avenue,  415-330-1400
              
• San Leandro: Davis Street Transfer Station, 2615 Davis Street,  510-638-2303
                             
• San Martin: San Martin Transfer Station, 14070 Llagas Ave.,  408-683-4443
     
• Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz Resource Recovery Facility, 605 Dimeo Rd.,  831-420-6273
                    
• Sunnyvale: SMaRT Station, 301 Carl Road,  408-752-8530
                                        
• Watsonville: Buena Vista Landfill, 1231 Buena Vista Dr.,  831-454-2430