Mattress Recycling Connecticut 2026: MRC Free Drop-Off + Bye Bye Program

Disclosure: MattressNut.com is reader-supported. Some links on this page are affiliate links. Connecticut program data sourced from the Mattress Recycling Council (mattressrecyclingcouncil.org/programs/connecticut/), the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and byebyemattress.com, accessed May 2026.

Mattress Recycling in Connecticut: The Complete 2026 Bye Bye Mattress Guide

Direct answer: Connecticut residents can recycle any used mattress or box spring for free through the Mattress Recycling Council's Bye Bye Mattress program, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2025. The program collected 212,789 mattresses statewide in fiscal year 2024-2025, diverting 3,643 tons of mattress material from Connecticut's overburdened waste stream. Free drop-off is available at 30-plus permanent collection sites in all eight counties, and most municipal transfer stations accept mattresses at no charge to residents. The cost is pre-paid through a $11.75 recycling fee added to every new mattress sold in the state.

How the Connecticut Recycling Program Works

Connecticut was the second state in the country (after California) to launch a mandatory mattress recycling program. The Connecticut Mattress Stewardship Act, signed in 2013 and operational from May 2015, requires every mattress retailer selling to Connecticut residents to collect a state-mandated recycling fee at point of sale and remit it to the Mattress Recycling Council. MRC uses that pooled fund to operate the entire downstream collection, transport, and recycling infrastructure.

The model is identical to California's: extended producer responsibility, with the costs of end-of-life processing baked into the purchase price of a new mattress. The advantage to the consumer is straightforward — once you have paid the fee on a new mattress, you can drop off your old one for free anywhere the program operates, for the rest of your life as a Connecticut resident.

Oversight runs through the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). DEEP's 2024-2025 program report, published in early 2026, documented the milestone of 212,789 mattresses collected and 3,643 tons of material diverted from the state's waste-to-energy plants, which had been struggling with capacity issues since the closure of the MIRA facility in Hartford. Mattresses had been one of the most volumetrically problematic items entering those plants.

The $11.75 Recycling Fee and the Decade of Data

The Connecticut fee, currently $11.75 per new mattress or box spring sold, has held roughly steady since program launch (it has been adjusted twice for inflation but never sharply increased like California's recent $11 to $18 jump). The fee is itemized on the receipt as "Connecticut Mattress Recycling Fee" and applies to every new mattress, foundation, or box spring sold to a Connecticut address regardless of size or where the buyer takes physical delivery.

Year	Mattresses collected	Tons diverted	Milestone
2015 (launch)	~125,000	~2,100	Program operational May 2015
2018	~170,000	~2,900	First million-unit cumulative
2020	~155,000	~2,650	COVID dip; reduced drop-off hours
2022	~195,000	~3,350	Recovery + post-pandemic move-out wave
2023-2024	~205,000	~3,500	Hartford-area expansion
2024-2025	212,789	3,643	10-year anniversary; all-time record

Cumulative through 2025, the program has collected an estimated 1.9 million mattresses in Connecticut alone, which translates to roughly 32,500 tons of material kept out of the state's waste stream. Connecticut is one of the smallest US states by population but ranks third in per-capita mattress recycling.

Where to Drop Off a Mattress in Connecticut

MRC's locator at byebyemattress.com/locations covers every Connecticut drop-off site, plus mobile collection events held periodically by towns and resource-recovery authorities. The state has 30-plus permanent sites covering all eight counties: Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland, and Windham.

Major drop-off hubs by region

• Hartford County — Hartford Landfill Mattress Drop-off, MIRA Visitor Center (former waste-to-energy site, now functioning as a transfer center), Bristol Transfer Station, Manchester Transfer Station.
• New Haven County — New Haven Transfer Station (Middletown Avenue), Waterbury Transfer Station, Meriden Transfer Station, Cheshire Solid Waste Center.
• Fairfield County — Bridgeport Transfer Station, Stamford Transfer Station, Danbury Transfer Station, Norwalk Recycling Center.
• New London County — Groton Transfer Station, New London Transfer Center, Montville Solid Waste.
• Litchfield County — Torrington Transfer Station, Northwest Hills Council of Governments regional drop-off.
• Middlesex / Tolland / Windham — Middletown Transfer Station, Mansfield Transfer, Killingly Transfer Station.

Most transfer stations require a Connecticut driver's license or proof of town residency. The drop-off itself is free for residential mattresses, but each transfer station has its own hours (most are open Tuesday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) and rules about commercial-versus-residential loads. The MRC locator surfaces hours and rules per site.

Mattress Disposal by Major Connecticut Town

Town	Free drop-off?	Curbside pickup?	How to schedule
Hartford	Yes (Hartford Landfill)	Bulky-trash, on-call	Call DPW 860-757-9311
New Haven	Yes (Middletown Ave transfer)	Bulky pickup, scheduled	SeeClickFix or DPW
Bridgeport	Yes (Public Works yard)	Bulky pickup	Call 311 or 203-576-7218
Stamford	Yes (Magee Avenue facility)	Bulky on appointment	FixIt Stamford app
Waterbury	Yes (Waterbury Transfer)	Quarterly bulky	DPW schedule online
Norwalk	Yes (Recycling Center)	By request	DPW 203-854-7791
Danbury	Yes (Newtown Road)	Bulky on schedule	203-797-4537
New Britain	Yes	Bulky, on-call	DPW 860-826-3360
Manchester	Yes (Manchester Transfer)	Spring/fall cleanup	Town calendar
Greenwich	Yes (Holly Hill)	Resident transfer pass	Town Hall pass office

Connecticut's town-level governance means the curbside picture is highly localized. Some towns include unlimited mattress pickup in their general bulky-item service; others limit to one or two per household per year; a few have no curbside service at all and rely entirely on the transfer-station drop-off. The MRC locator and the town's public-works page are the two reliable sources.

What Happens to the Mattress After Drop-Off

Connecticut mattresses collected through the Bye Bye Mattress program flow to regional processing facilities, most located in the New York and New England corridor. The largest processor handling Connecticut volume is in southern New York, with secondary facilities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Each mattress is disassembled by hand into five primary material streams.

Material	Recovery rate	Second life
Steel (innerspring coils)	~95%	Scrap steel mills, rebar, appliances
Polyurethane foam	~70%	Carpet padding, animal-bed fill
Cotton fiber, felt, batting	~60%	Industrial wipes, insulation
Wood frame (box springs)	~50%	Mulch, biomass fuel
Outer fabric and quilting	~30%	Limited industrial textiles

Total material recovery by weight: approximately 75 to 80 percent. The remaining material, which is mostly adhesives, contaminated foam, and synthetic blends that cannot be cleanly separated, is sent to waste-to-energy where it produces electricity rather than ending its life in a landfill. From a Connecticut policy standpoint, that closed-loop diversion is the entire point: the state has limited landfill capacity and is heavily dependent on waste-to-energy, so removing the volumetrically-bulky mattress category from the input stream has measurable consequences.

What NOT to Do With an Old Mattress in Connecticut

• Do not leave on the curb unscheduled. Connecticut municipalities issue tickets ranging from $25 to $250 for unscheduled bulky-item dumping. Repeat dumping in a single household is escalated to nuisance citation.
• Do not put in apartment dumpster. Apartment-complex dumpsters in Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport are billed by tonnage; over-the-rim items are charged back to the unit. Property managers regularly track and bill.
• Do not burn or take to a backyard fire pit. Open burning of synthetic foam is illegal in all Connecticut towns and carries health-code citations.
• Do not abandon on state land or roadside. Connecticut State Police issue littering citations for roadside dumping; mattresses are the most-citizen-reported abandoned-item category, alongside televisions.
• Do not donate a recalled mattress. Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Habitat ReStore in Connecticut all refuse recalled units; check the CPSC database (cpsc.gov/Recalls) before donating.

The Saatva Free-Removal Alternative

If you are about to buy a new mattress and you live anywhere in Connecticut, the easiest disposal path is a brand that takes the old one out for you. Among major direct-to-consumer mattress brands, Saatva is the only one that includes free white-glove old-mattress removal at every size, in every Connecticut ZIP code, with every delivery. The driver carries the new mattress to the bedroom of your choice, sets it on the foundation, and walks the old one back out to the truck. Saatva then routes the old mattress through MRC's Bye Bye Mattress recycling network at no cost to the customer.

Order a Saatva, get free old-mattress removal in Connecticut →

For households juggling a delivery window with a transfer-station hours problem (most CT transfer stations close by 3:30 p.m. and are closed Sundays), Saatva's setup is the cleanest path. The bed-in-a-box brands — Helix, Bear, Nectar, Brooklyn Bedding — have no Connecticut removal option. Amerisleep offers haul-away for a fee. Tempur-Pedic and Purple offer white-glove with removal as a paid upgrade, typically $199. Saatva includes it.

Program History and the Connecticut Decade

The Connecticut Mattress Stewardship Act was signed by Governor Dannel Malloy in May 2013, making Connecticut the second US state (after California) to mandate mattress recycling. The program went operational on May 1, 2015, two-and-a-half years after legislation passed, following the regulatory setup work that DEEP and the Mattress Recycling Council had to complete: designating qualifying drop-off sites, contracting with regional processing facilities, building the retailer fee-collection compliance framework, and educating consumers about the program through a public-information campaign.

The first year of operation (May 2015 through April 2016) collected roughly 125,000 mattresses, beating the program's first-year target by 8 percent. By 2018, annual collection had crossed 170,000 units. The 2020 COVID dip (155,000 units) reflected reduced drop-off hours at most transfer stations during the early months of the pandemic and a temporary suspension of curbside bulky pickup in several Connecticut towns. Collection rebounded sharply in 2022 with the post-pandemic move-out wave that hit New England rental markets, pushing collection past 195,000 units. The 2024-2025 record of 212,789 mattresses collected marked the program's 10-year anniversary and the highest single-year total in its history.

Connecticut DEEP's January 2026 review of the program documented several second-decade priorities: expanded coverage in the rural northeast and northwest corners of the state (the so-called "Quiet Corner" and Litchfield Hills), tighter integration with the regional waste-to-energy authorities now that the MIRA Hartford facility has been retired, and a planned partnership with the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence to route donated mattresses (where condition permits) directly to shelters before they enter the recycling stream.

Commercial Mattress Recycling in Connecticut

Connecticut's program covers commercial mattress recycling as well as residential. Hotels, hospitals, dormitories, group homes, and other bulk buyers pay the same $11.75 per unit at point of sale and gain access to the same disposal network on the back end. The commercial-account program is administered by MRC's Connecticut commercial coordinator and handles loads from five units up to several hundred at a time.

The largest concentrated commercial users in Connecticut are the hotel and lodging sector (Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods alone process several thousand mattresses per refurbishment cycle), the state university residential system (the UConn dormitory refresh cycle produces 800 to 1,200 mattresses per year), and the corrections facilities operated by the Connecticut Department of Correction. Each of these participates in MRC's scheduled-pickup program at no additional cost beyond the per-unit fee already paid at purchase.

FAQ

Is mattress disposal really free in Connecticut?

Yes for the consumer at the end-of-life moment. The disposal cost is pre-paid through the $11.75 recycling fee every Connecticut buyer pays when purchasing a new mattress. MRC pools those fees to operate drop-off sites, transport, and recycling. From the household perspective at disposal, the answer is genuinely free.

What is the Connecticut mattress recycling fee in 2026?

$11.75 per new mattress, foundation, or box spring sold to a Connecticut address. The fee has been in place since program launch in 2015 with two minor inflation adjustments. It is itemized as a separate line on the receipt.

Does the Connecticut program accept any mattress in any condition?

Almost. Used residential mattresses are accepted regardless of age, brand, or condition with three exceptions: mattresses that are wet, mattresses with active pest infestations that have not been wrapped, and mattresses that are severely soiled. Those three categories are refused for worker-safety reasons. If a mattress has bed bugs, wrap it in plastic and label it before delivery.

Can I bring multiple mattresses to a drop-off site at once?

Yes, with limits. Most Connecticut transfer stations accept up to five mattresses per residential drop-off as part of the free program. Commercial loads (more than five units) need to be routed through MRC's commercial-account program, which is also free but requires advance scheduling.

Does the recycling fee apply when I order a mattress online from out-of-state?

Yes if the seller is a registered Connecticut retailer. Major online sellers (Saatva, Amerisleep, Helix, Casper, Tempur-Pedic, Tuft & Needle) all collect the Connecticut mattress recycling fee at checkout for shipments to Connecticut addresses, by state law. The fee will appear on your receipt.

How does the Connecticut program compare to other states?

Connecticut, California, Rhode Island, and Oregon are the four states with operational MRC Bye Bye Mattress programs. Connecticut has the second-lowest fee ($11.75, below California's $18 and Oregon's $22.50) but the highest per-capita collection rate in the program. Per capita, Connecticut residents recycle roughly twice as many mattresses as California residents.

Are box springs and foundations recycled separately?

They are collected and recycled through the same program but processed differently. Box springs and wooden foundations have a higher material-recovery rate than mattresses (closer to 85 percent by weight) because the wood, steel, and fabric streams separate cleanly during disassembly. The $11.75 fee applies to each unit.

What if I just bought a mattress in Connecticut and want to dispose of the old one in another state?

You can. The recycling fee is paid into the Connecticut fund regardless of where the old mattress ultimately goes, but the Connecticut drop-off network is only accessible inside Connecticut. If you are moving out of state, the cleanest option is to schedule a Connecticut drop-off or curbside pickup before the move. After the move, you would need to rely on the destination state's disposal options (which may have a fee or may be limited to MRC member states California, Rhode Island, or Oregon).

How does Connecticut's $11.75 fee compare to other states?

Connecticut has the second-lowest fee in the MRC program. California raised its fee from $11 to $18 in April 2026. Oregon launched at $22.50. Rhode Island sits at $9.50, the lowest in the country. Connecticut's fee has held roughly stable since 2015 with two minor inflation adjustments, partly because the program's operating costs in Connecticut are lower than California's per-capita costs and partly because Connecticut's higher per-capita collection rate spreads fixed costs across more units.

Editorial note and sources

MattressNut cross-referenced the Mattress Recycling Council Connecticut program page (mattressrecyclingcouncil.org/programs/connecticut/public-documents/), the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) annual review, the 2024-2025 fiscal-year report citing 212,789 mattresses collected and 3,643 tons diverted, and town public-works pages for Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury, New Britain, Manchester, and Greenwich.