Foam · Latex · Hybrid · Bed-in-a-Box · Temecula Valley
Can a Memory Foam Mattress Be Recycled? Yes, in California
Yes. California's Bye Bye Mattress program takes all-foam mattresses the same as innerspring ones, free at participating drop-off sites, and the foam gets shredded into carpet padding. What the program won't take is a loose foam topper, a crib mattress, or a mattress you've cut apart.
Family-owned in Temecula since 2021 · Licensed & insured · Same-day mattress pickup most days
Wild West Junk Removal · 41713 Niblick Rd, Temecula, CA 92591 · (951) 837-8072
Mon to Sat: 7AM-7PM · Sunday: Closed · Family-owned, licensed and insured · Serving Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee and southwest Riverside County
The short answer
Does California's Program Take All-Foam Mattresses?
Yes. Under the program's own rules, a mattress can be all foam layers or a mix of foam, springs, and other materials, and either kind qualifies for no-cost drop-off at Bye Bye Mattress sites. The age of the mattress doesn't matter.
A lot of people assume foam is trash because there's no metal in it. That's backwards in California. The state's mattress law covers any mattress sold here, foam, latex, hybrid, or innerspring, and every one of them carries the same recycling fee at the register: $18 per unit since April 1, 2026. That fee is what pays for the free drop-off network, so you've already paid for your foam mattress to be recycled.
What does matter is condition at the site. A drop-off site will turn away a mattress that's soaked through or has bed bugs. Foam holds water like a sponge, so a foam mattress that sat out in the rain is the one most likely to get refused. If yours has had bed bugs, the rules change completely; this guide walks through what California requires.
After it's dropped off
What Happens to the Foam?
In California's program, the foam gets cut out of the cover, shredded, and blended into carpet padding. That's the main use for every kind of mattress foam, according to the Mattress Recycling Council, and it's why the pad under somebody's new carpet may have been a mattress once.
Not all foam is equally easy to sell, though. Plain polyurethane foam is the most common kind in mattresses, and carpet pad makers want it clean. Memory foam is a softer, slower polyurethane that doesn't spring back the same way, and the Council notes that some pad makers treat it as a contaminant when it's blended in with other foam, while other carpet pad is made entirely from memory foam. Latex has its own problem: natural and synthetic latex look alike, and some scrap foam buyers won't take it.
None of that is your problem as the person dropping it off. The site takes the mattress and the recyclers sort out who buys what. CalRecycle has put a used mattress at 75 to 90 percent recyclable by weight.
All-foam and memory foam
Cover comes off, foam is shredded and bonded into carpet padding. No steel, so the foam and fabric are the whole recovery.
Hybrid
A foam top over a pocketed coil core. The foam goes to padding and the coils go to scrap steel, so a hybrid recycles like both kinds at once.
Latex
Shredded for padding like other foam. It's harder for recyclers to sell, but it still qualifies for free drop-off.
Read this before you drive over
What Won't the Recycling Program Take?
California's program won't take loose toppers and mattress pads, crib and bassinet mattresses, sofa beds, air mattresses with no upholstery, and any mattress that's been stripped or cut into pieces. Bye Bye Mattress lists them as not qualifying for no-cost drop-off, though a site can choose to take some of them on its own terms.
- ✓Foam toppers and pads. A two-inch memory foam topper is foam, but it isn't a mattress under the program. Ask the site, or let it ride out with the rest of a load.
- ✓Partial mattresses. Don't cut a foam mattress in half to fit it in the car. A stripped or cut-up unit doesn't qualify.
- ✓Crib and bassinet mattresses. Excluded, even though they're often foam. Our crib and car seat guide covers what to do with them.
- ✓Futons. The mattress counts if it comes off the frame. The frame doesn't.
The other route
What Happens If a Foam Mattress Goes to the Landfill?
It mostly just takes up room. Polyurethane foam doesn't rot the way food or yard waste does, and a mattress is a lot of volume for its weight. The Mattress Recycling Council said its first 5 million recycled mattresses in California saved more than 6 million cubic yards of landfill space, which works out to more than a cubic yard per mattress.
Some mattresses still end up there, and that's legal. A foam mattress that's soaked, moldy, or otherwise refused by the recycler goes to a permitted landfill. That's where ours go too when they can't be recycled, as the mattress removal page explains. Dry ones go to the recycler.
What isn't legal is leaving it somewhere. A mattress dumped on a roadside or a vacant lot is illegal dumping, and it's the reason California built the recycling program in the first place.
Rolled, shipped, expanded
Bed-in-a-Box Mattresses: Two Things People Get Wrong
A boxed mattress recycles like any other foam mattress once it's expanded. The two mistakes are trying to get it back into a box and forgetting the seller's pickup window.
It won't go back in the box. Boxed mattresses are vacuum-compressed at the factory. Once one has opened up on your bed frame, you're not rolling it back down to that size at home, so plan on moving it full size. Foam mattresses are lighter than innerspring ones but floppy, which is its own problem on stairs; how to move a mattress by yourself covers the method.
The old one may be the seller's job. If you're replacing a mattress with a new boxed one shipped to a California address, the seller has to offer to arrange a free pickup of your old mattress within 30 days of delivery. Will the store take my old mattress? explains how that works and how to ask for it.
And if you're still inside a trial period and want to send the new one back, start with the seller. A trial return is theirs to arrange, not yours to haul.
From Temecula
How Do You Get a Foam Mattress to a Recycler?
Drive it to a Bye Bye Mattress drop-off site for free, use one of your two free CR&R bulky-item pickups if you live in the City of Temecula, let the store take it if a new one is being delivered, or have us carry it out for $210. Any of those keeps a dry mattress headed to recycling. Our prices are the same in Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Wildomar, Winchester, French Valley, Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, and Hemet, and we also run out to De Luz, Rainbow, and Fallbrook.
Drop it off
Find a participating site and call ahead about hours and limits. A queen won't lie flat in a car or most SUVs.
Curbside bulky pickup
City of Temecula residents get two free CR&R bulky-item pickups a year at (800) 755-8112. Keep a foam mattress covered while it waits at the curb so it stays dry.
Have it carried out
One mattress is $210 with us, $225 with the box spring or foundation, plus $150 if it's coming down a flight of stairs with no elevator. Full pricing.
Not sure the old one is done? How long a mattress actually lasts has lifespans by type, including memory foam and latex. For everything else that leaves a house on our trailer, our donation and recycling page lists where it goes.
Who's writing this
Straight From the Owner
Weston Molitor
Founder · Wild West Junk Removal · Temecula, CAI started Wild West Junk Removal in Temecula in 2021. We're family-owned, licensed and insured, and mattresses of every kind go out on our trailer across southwest Riverside County.
I get asked whether foam can be recycled more than almost anything else about mattresses, so here's the answer in one place. It can. The thing that decides whether it actually gets recycled is whether it stays dry until it's picked up.
"People figure foam is trash because there's no metal in it. It recycles fine. Just keep it out of the rain until it's gone."
What customers say
★★★★★
These guys really went above and beyond to help me out, Nick is a professional and was very informative and communicative about when they would arrive and filled me in on what kind of junk could and could not be thrown away. I would definitely be using them again.
Quick answers
Foam Mattress Recycling Questions
Not through the Bye Bye Mattress program. Toppers and mattress pads don't qualify for no-cost drop-off, though an individual site may take one on its own terms, so call first. A topper can also ride out with the rest of a junk removal load.
Mostly. A hybrid qualifies for free drop-off like any other mattress. The foam layers are shredded for carpet padding and the coil core goes to scrap steel, so it's recycled as two materials instead of one.
Yes. Latex mattresses qualify for free drop-off in California. Latex foam is shredded for carpet padding like other foam, even though some scrap buyers are pickier about it.
No. A mattress that's been stripped or cut into pieces doesn't qualify for no-cost drop-off. Keep it whole and borrow a truck, schedule a bulky-item pickup, or have it hauled.
No. A mattress doesn't belong in any of the carts, rolled up or not. City of Temecula residents can schedule a free CR&R bulky-item pickup instead, and anywhere in the state a Bye Bye Mattress site takes it free.
Not with us. Pricing is the same for every kind of mattress: $210 for one, any size or material, carried out from any room. The $15 per-mattress charge doesn't change between foam, hybrid, latex, and innerspring.
Yes. The $18 fee applies to every mattress, futon mattress, and foundation sold for use in California, regardless of size or type, so a foam mattress was charged the same fee as an innerspring at purchase.
Sources & related pages
- byebyemattress.comBye Bye Mattress — What’s Accepted/Unaccepted in CaliforniaAll-foam mattresses qualify; toppers, pads, crib mattresses, and partial units don't.
- mattressrecyclingcouncil.orgMattress Recycling Council — Why RecycleMemory foam, polyurethane, and latex are shredded into carpet padding; the challenges with each.
- mattressrecyclingcouncil.orgMRC — 2026 California Recycling Fee Adjustment$18 per unit, regardless of size or type, from April 1, 2026.
- calrecycle.ca.govCalRecycle — mattress recycling enforcement releaseUsed mattresses are 75 to 90 percent recyclable by weight.
- recyclingproductnews.comRecycling Product News — Bye Bye Mattress passes 5 million unitsMore than 6 million cubic yards of California landfill space saved.
- wastetodaymagazine.comWaste Today — Bye Bye Mattress in CaliforniaFoam to carpet padding, springs to steel, box spring wood to mulch or fuel.
- byebyemattress.comBye Bye Mattress — California drop-off locatorFind a participating site near you.
- wildwestjunkremoval.comMattress Removal in TemeculaPrices, free options, and where mattresses go after pickup.
- wildwestjunkremoval.comWill the Store Take My Old Mattress?California's retailer take-back rule, including online orders.
- wildwestjunkremoval.comWhere Your Junk Actually GoesThe recyclers and donation partners we drive to.
Written by Weston Molitor, owner of Wild West Junk Removal. Last reviewed October 12, 2026.
Program rules are summarized from the Mattress Recycling Council's California materials and can change; call a drop-off site before you haul. Wild West prices as of October 2026: $195 quarter load, $350 half, $495 three-quarter, $595 full 12-yard trailer; $15 per mattress or box spring; stairs $150 on loads up to a half, $300 over a half, no charge with an elevator.