What to do with old mattress?

[mrsmiggins]

You can't recycle them round here, any ideas on what I could use the stuff in it for if I stripped it down? There's not a chance I'm letting something that huge go to the landfill but it's too old to be any good for anyone

[Fifer182]

Maybe you could strip it down and keep all the useful bits? Buttons, trim etc. If it has springs, they can be put to all manner of uses from wobbly toy type things( think zebedee) to bottle holders etc The cotton wadding stuff can be used to keep compost warm or indeed, just composted

Woohoo! most of all... have fun creating!!

Also.. some animal rescue places etc. collect old matresses.

Fiferx

[contadino]

There is a type of mushroom that grows particularly well on old mattresses. I don't know the name, but I'm sure if you get in touch with a spore vendor they'll be able to help.

[ina]

Mushrooms - yeah. All kinds of fungus, in fact. We had an old one at home that gave me asthma attacks, near enough...

[Annpan]

You could offer it on Freecycle, someone else might know of a use.

[Odsox]

The springs and their connecting wires make excellent reinforcing for concrete, if you are planning to do anything in that line.

[mrsmiggins]

I finally got round to stripping the mattress, and got all sorts of goodies I can use! Fabric for rags, wadding for plumping up my sofa and some woolen type sheeting to line my curtains! No takers for the springs yet but at least they can be recycled if it came to it. It was quite fun too and I now know how to re-cover my next mattress!