Cutting a mattress up

[GB]

I am pleased it's worked okay. Mattresses have a nasty tendency to fight back. :)

[Steve Walker]

Don't bother, Just fold/roll it, tie it like that and transport tied on the car roof - not even a roof rack required! Decades ago my mother took a double on top of a Fiat 126.

[Steve Walker]

Here, we do not need to register, but the numberplate is read on each visit. Cars and cars with single axle trailers can visit 52 times per year; Cars with double axle trailers 18 times per year; vans either 18 or 12 times per year depending upon size. Exceeding that will only lead to investigation as to whether you are a trader or not.

[charles]

The matress which I sleep on is at least 6" thick No way of folding/rolling it..

[ARW]

£2 of diesel and a match:-)

[Tim+]

You?d be surprised. The one I?ve just chucked was 7-8? thick and it folded.

Tim

[NY]

Our mattress (with springs, not just foam) is about 6" thick and was delivered rolled up. It was very cumbersome for the delivery men to carry it through the house, especially fitting it through doorways. They wrapped a couple of ratchet-straps around it before they cut the manufacturer's plastic bands, and then gradually loosened the straps to let it uncurl in a controlled way. They said that someone in the company made the mistake of cutting the bands without any restraint, and the uncontrollable mattress apparently knocked someone over ;-)

[Peter Able]

I did this with a pocket-sprung double mattress. I slit it around the sides and fed the worm of springs out of the window - then the padding. Took several non-recyclable bin loads to get rid of it. Really confused the wildlife !

PA

[charles]

if it was just foam, I'd believe it, My one has springs and a nearly solid filling. It arrived flat, a two-man lift.

[Tim+]

Fully sprung. No foam. Effing heavy.

Tim

[Andy Burns]

Mine didn't have solid filling, but it did have about 1/4" metal rods all around the edges ... roll those up!

[Fredxx]

I recently purchased a single mattress and it came compressed in a box that was ~450mm square x 900mm long and contained in a sealed plastic bag. On cutting the plastic bag it expanded to full size.

I was also of the mind that it could be just as easily compressed using a set of ratchet straps.

Pleased it worked out for you. I have access to a large van so taking to the tip is a much easier matter.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Would it be legal to tie a couple of strong ropes to/through it and simply drag it behind the car, with hazards on or a red flag trailing behind?

[alan_m]

I remember seeing one of those USA reality programs based on someone in business wheeler dealing surplus/bankrupt stock in bulk. He was offered something like one thousand mattresses and when only one lorry turned up with the delivery he immediately thought he made an unwise purchase. It turned out that the mattresses had been highly compressed for shipment and unpacking was a bit of a health and safety problem :)

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Other than watch out for the energy stored in springs you mean. I think be very very careful is the way to go. I'm not sure what the tip, sorry recycling centre, might make of bits of mattress with sharp bits of wire sticking out of them, but still, I guess if you warn them.

Brian

[alan_m]

If its anything like my local tip (recycling centre) it will go in general waste which is a VERY large skip 3 metres high with steps leading up to the top. Since Covid the staff are unlikely to help you lift it up the steps to throw it in the open top of the skip.

Periodically the staff at the tip will attach a ram to the end of the skip and compress the contents.

[Andy Burns]

The recycling centres round here used to be like that, they've been rebuilt so you drive up a ramp on the way in, then all the skips are below the surface level so you only have to chuck stuff over a low wall.

[Steve Walker]

If it is anything like here, they would not be bothered at all.

At the nearest tip it would either go in the metal waste or general waste, depending how much metal was in it. In either case, you throw it in the right "window" and the piles are moved every so often with a pretty large wheel loader (front end loader).

At the slightly more distant, but more easily accessible one, everything goes from the access level to big skips (the big, self-loading truck type, not the skip and chain type) - again, one for metals, one for general waste.

In either case, all sorts of things are mixed together and sharpness must be assumed. They will go off for automated sorting of metals and burning of general waste.

[Peter Johnson]

I have to say that here (Leicester) the council will collect matresses (provided they have not been left out in the rain and got sodden) as one of the five bulky item collections householders are permitted per year. (There are lots of rules attached to this scheme; for example they won't collect pallets but they will collect piles of wood.) (Approx 20 years ago they left a skip for a few days one a year for householders to dump their bulky waste but stopped doing it when they realised that most of the space was being taken by trade waste.)

[williamwright]

Why correct an obvious typo? What's the benefit?

Bill