What happens to a mattress when it gets kicked to the curb? Curious about such a journey, a Southern California public radio station implanted a tracking device in “Matt the Mattress” after being discarded. Like 60,000 of his brethren each year in Los Angeles County, he was left with the trash for roadside pickup by the sanitation bureau.
KPCC followed “Sad Matt” to uncover his final fate. Would he leave his former home only to live forever in a landfill or end up in the hands of a renovator? The radio station hoped not, especially in light of a new mattress-recycling law that will go into effect in 2016.
KPCC tracked Matt as he waited on the curb. At noon on the fifth day, Matt got a lift to one of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation’s yards.
He then was sent to Blue Marble Materials, a mattress-recycling facility in Commerce, California, where he was broken down into his component parts and used in different products. (For more about Blue Marble, read March 2013 BedTimes, “This is no place for a mattress.”)
Matt was lucky. In 2012 in Los Angeles County, only 600 of his brothers and sisters were torn down and recycled. That will change with California’s new mattress-recycling law.
To see other sad mattresses, check KPCC’s Sad California Mattresses Tumblr blog, where KPCC invites listeners to share photos of Matt’s compatriots on the streets of Los Angeles.
