UNITED KINGDOM - Ikea has announced the launch of a new mattress take-back and recycling scheme in the UK, providing customers with a convenient and sustainable way to recycle their old mattresses.

The service aims to ensure that mattresses from across the UK are transformed into valuable raw materials, contributing to the economy and encouraging reuse.

Ikea customers can book collection of their mattresses online or in-store for £40 per item. After collection, the mattresses are transported to a dedicated recycling facility operated by Ikea's partner, The Furniture Recycling (TFR) Group.

The TFR Group diverts 100% of the mattresses from landfill by manually disassembling them, separating the materials into their component parts and disinfecting them for further processing. Since 2012, the TFR Group has recycled more than 3.5 million mattresses, with 30,000 tonnes of material returning to the economy.

In 2022, RetourMatras, a Netherlands-based mattress recycling company co-owned by Ingka Investments, acquired TFR Group, tripling its dismantling capacity to 1.5 million mattresses per year.

Beyond recycling, Ikea plans to use TFR Group's mattress rejuvenation service to ensure that returned mattresses meet NHS (National Health Service) standards through a customised sanitisation process. This prepares them for resale at discounted prices or redistribution to support local communities.