Dive Summary:

• The bill was signed into law by Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee and requires mattress manufacturers to create a program to collect and process discarded mattresses from consumers.
• The law will also mandates that mattress manufacturers make a plan for mattress recycling by July 1 of 2015.
• Rhode Island followed in the footsteps of Connecticut, the first state to pass a mattress law that also puts the responsibility of recycling mattresses into the hands of the manufacturers themselves.

From the article:

“The Rhode Island law follows industry-supported legislation that recently passed in Connecticut and serves as a model for other states interested in tackling this important issue,” said ISPA Vice President of Government Relations and Policy Christopher Hudgins.

Similar mattress recycling legislation requiring the industry to recover springs, wood and fiber from old mattresses is currently working its way through the California Legislature.

...half of the used mattresses [in California] that those new mattresses replace end up in landfills or simply dumped on city streets. The city of Oakland, for example, spends $200,00 per year to collect mattresses that have been illegally dumped by the side of the road.