Bed disposal may seem daunting if your council refuses to collect from inside your property, or if you have a very heavy or bulky old bed for disposal; But don’t stress, there should always be a responsible rubbish collection company that can help. People searching for furniture removal in London find there is a lot of choice.

Bed disposal is not something that comes up often, but most of us will at some stage have to order a bed disposal or mattress removal service, whether for ourselves, or for our relatives.

Often it is as part of a general rubbish collection, but we have a lot of clients who require bed disposal when letting flats and houses, as many new tenants request new beds. Some clients order bed disposal or mattress removal when ordering new beds for elderly relatives.

The availability of cheap new beds has increased levels of bed disposal and mattress removal

within UK cities, and so it is something that most people come into contact with at some stage.

Firstly, some brief info on new Legislation surrounding waste:

The Environment Agency in September 2011 introduced "the Waste Hierarchy Scheme". This means that the current holder of the junk/waste needs to have gone through a couple of steps in order to try to prevent throwing away old furniture or junk that may actually be useable. Any junk that is handed over to a clearance company must have been through the process – but in reality it is pretty straight forward, and quite practical. In simple terms, it states – before acting on bed disposal or any junk collection follow the steps below

re-use,

then recycling,

then other recovery (like energy recovery),

and last of all disposal (for example landfill).

Re-use: Can anyone re-use the bed, or is it beyond that? Do you have any relatives or friends that may want an old bed for their spare room, or their student kids (!?). If not do you know of any re-use schemes in your area that may use bed disposal to distribute old/used/second hand beds to charities? In theory any junk can and should be recycled, but in reality, beds are probably the most difficult of all "old furniture" to get re-used. That is not to say impossible, but it certainly is not as straight forward as an old sofa from a sofa disposal service. I’m not entirely sure why, as some people may spend similar time on their sofa’s as their beds! (only some people..)

Mattresses

Many companies charge extra for bed disposal but it is because of the mattresses. Many Waste Transfer Stations that deal with recycling (and not landfill) often complain about mattresses. There ARE places that can, but the large industrial machines that separate waste for recycling apparently don’t like mattresses (the way the fibre and material is bound to the thin metal frame and springs apparently causes issues with these big machines! Mattress removal often has a surplus charge to cover this cost.

Bed bases and Frames

Obviously, bed bases vary, but it is pretty straight forward recycling most bed bases especially if metal. These are common as part of furniture removal in London. Many people keep their mattresses and swap bases. Even Duvan bed bases should be easily recycled as part of bed disposal. Always ask if your chosen bed disposal service includes recycling the old bed.

Recycling: We are starting to see mattress recycling start (albeit on a relatively slow scale). The problem is that mattresses are so difficult to separate out their parts. We do have access to mattress recycling schemes, but they tend to be pricey, and considering most people are only looking for one or a few mattresses for disposal, it is often cost prohibitive.

IF you have no options for re-use or direct recycling, your next step would be to find a rubbish removal company. This should be relatively simple – most companies should have similar local rates for mattress removal or bed disposal.

Summary

Bed disposal may seem daunting if your council refuses to collect from inside your property, or if you have a very heavy or bulky old bed for disposal; But don’t stress, there should always be a responsible rubbish collection company that can help. People searching for furniture removal in London find there is a lot of choice.