DR3, one of the very few mattress recycling unit in the United States, is a name derived from organizations slogan — “Divert Reduce Reuse Recycle.”.

The mattress recycling unit has facilities that would help keep landfills filled with old mattresses, as well as provide jobs for people, under the support of St. Vincent de Paul.

DR3 recycles some 10,000 mattresses monthly according to this report.

Its mattresses come from landfills throughout the Bay Area, local waste haulers and furniture retailers. They leave as components – bales of foam or cotton, and piles of scrap wood or metal springs.

While mattresses make up only a tiny fraction of California’s overall waste stream, they present unique problems. Because they contain a variety of materials, they’re not as easily recyclable as wooden furniture or metal appliances. At the same time, they take up a lot of landfill space.

“They don’t compress or decompose,” said Charley Harvey, assistant executive director for St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, Ore., which runs DR3. “And the springs – you run over them with big equipment, and they just spring up again. It can be dangerous for the equipment drivers.”

More on that story here.