Recycling of Discarded Mattresses Through Extended Producer Responsibility: Is It More Cost-Effective than Incineration?

About half of the discarded mattresses in the Netherlands are recycled, and the other half are incinerated. Based on a recently implemented sustainability measure of extended producer responsibility, the recycling rate should increase to 75% in 2028. Thereby, a recycling fee of EUR 12.5 per mattress should be introduced to finance the infrastructure to increase recycling. This study investigates the potential cost-effectiveness of mattress recycling through the reuse of materials, compared to the incineration of mattresses in Dutch energy-to-waste plants. The benefits of recycling include the avoidance of CO₂ that would otherwise be released by incineration and the displacement of virgin material that would otherwise be used by producers as raw material. However, there are also significant costs associated with the collection and recycling process of complex products such as mattresses. Taking all factors into account, the cost of saving one ton of CO₂ through mattress recycling is EUR 138. This is higher than alternatives such as wind energy, ETS prices, or carbon capture and storage. If the replacement energy is fully CO₂-neutral or the recycling fee is lower, the costs of one ton of CO₂ decrease but are still higher than most alternatives.