- State rule: Public Act 13-42 (2013) made Connecticut the first state with a mattress stewardship law; mattress makers fund recycling through a fee charged at purchase
- Who runs it: the Mattress Recycling Council (Bye Bye Mattress), under the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)
- Cost to you: a $16 recycling fee on each mattress and box spring sold, rising to $19.50 on October 1, 2026; drop-off at participating sites is free
- Where to take it: more than 135 drop-off locations plus seasonal town events; Bye Bye Mattress locator ↗
- Official program page: CT DEEP: Mattress Recycling ↗
Mattress disposal in Connecticut runs through your town. The state’s Bye Bye Mattress program pays for recycling with a fee charged on every new mattress and box spring, and towns that join it take used ones free at their transfer stations or at seasonal collection days. Connecticut is the only program state that also takes crib mattresses. A wet or stained mattress usually does not qualify and can cost you a bulky-waste fee.
Photo: Three mattresses and two bed bases dumped on a residential street in London. Alan Stanton, 2008-05-06. CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source. Resized for web.
How the Connecticut program works
Public Act 13-42, passed in 2013, made Connecticut the first state with a comprehensive mattress stewardship law. It requires mattress makers to fund and run a statewide program for used mattresses. They run it through the Mattress Recycling Council, and DEEP oversees it. Collection started on May 1, 2015. Since then the program has collected more than 2 million mattresses and recycled about 32,750 tons of material.
The fee. The store charges the recycling fee when you buy a new mattress or box spring and passes it on to the program. It has been $16 per unit since January 1, 2025. For sales on or after October 1, 2026, it rises to $19.50 per unit; the council cites higher minimum wages and the cost of collecting, hauling and taking mattresses apart. The fee is not a deposit and is not refunded when you recycle the old one.
What the program takes. Mattresses and box springs, whenever they were bought, whether all foam or a mix of foam, springs and other materials. Crib mattresses count as mattresses in Connecticut, which no other program state allows.
What it does not take. Futons; air mattresses without upholstery; sofa beds and roll-away beds; car beds; bed frames; juvenile products such as strollers, playpens and crib bumpers; mattress pads and toppers; pillows, sleeping bags and loose bedding; chair, couch and patio cushions; stripped mattresses; and mattresses from out of state.
Condition. A mattress that is severely damaged, soiled, moldy, wet, frozen or infested with bedbugs may be refused for free recycling. Call the site first; fees may apply. The recycler inspects what towns send, and a bad load can be rejected.
Towns choose to take part. DEEP describes participation as voluntary. A town, transfer station or other collector that joins recycles its mattresses free through the program, so the free drop-off you get depends on your town.
Where to take it in Connecticut
The Mattress Recycling Council counts more than 135 drop-off locations in Connecticut. It says 157 communities have direct access to the program and 13 towns hold seasonal mattress collection events each year. Enter your town or ZIP code in the Bye Bye Mattress locator ↗ for the sites near you and who may use them. Many listed sites take only their own town’s residents, and some open for mattresses on certain days, such as Cheshire’s first Saturday of the month. If the locator shows nothing near you, DEEP points to your town’s recycling coordinator.
Drop-off sites already in the Trashbagging catalog:
- Middlebury Transfer Station, 1 Service Road, Middlebury. Tuesday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.; Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Clean, dry mattresses and box springs are free for permit holders.
See all Connecticut drop-off sites.
What the big cities add
- Middlebury: the transfer station takes clean, dry mattresses and box springs free, small ones included, into a storage container for the state program. A wet or stained one costs $50 and goes out as bulky waste, and a sleeper sofa is charged by weight plus $50 for its mattress.
For Bridgeport, Stamford, New Haven and other cities, start at the Connecticut hub, which links each city’s official collection page.
What this is not
The program does not pick up at your curb. Curbside bulky pickup, where a town offers it, is a town service with its own rules and fees. The mattress fee is also separate from Connecticut’s bottle deposit and from the PaintCare fee on paint. Selling or giving away a used mattress through a business is another matter: Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection licenses used bedding sales and requires sanitizing.