(Image Credit: Thompson-Nicola Regional District)

By Victor Kaisar

Mattress Disposal

TNRD increasing mattress disposal fees in 2026 following delays to provincial recycling program

Dec 28, 2025 | 12:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’ll cost you a little bit more to recycle mattresses and box-springs in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) starting on New Years Day.

The TNRD Board has approved a new $20 disposal fee for residential mattresses and $35 for commercial mattress. Both those fees are up by $20, as there is currently no charge to recycle residential mattresses while commercial mattresses are subject to a $15 fee.

Adriana Mailloux, the TNRD’s Manager of Solid Waste and Recycling, says the increased fees come as the regional district is still waiting for the province to amend its recycling regulations to create a new mattress recycling program.

“The province has delayed the amendments to its recycling regulations which means there will not be a program formed by the producers,” Mailloux said. “So for the indefinite future, the TNRD will need to continue managing mattress and box springs though our own programs, funded by disposal fees and taxation.”

In 2024, the TNRD recycled 6,700 mattresses at a cost of roughly $300,000, and Mailloux said the vast majority of those costs – 97 per cent – were borne by TNRD taxpayers. The new fee structure is expected to save the TNRD about $100,000 in general taxation in the 2026 budget and beyond.

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“It costs us around $43.50 per mattress to have it transported to a facility in Hope to be disassembled and recycled,” Mailloux added. “With the new fees in effect, that now creates about a 50-50 funding split – 50 per cent through the drop-off fee and 50 per cent through taxation – to manage the program.”

She said disposing of mattresses in the landfill is far more expensive adding it would have taken up an estimated $1.13 million in landfill airspace last year alone.

“They’re bulky and they’re hard to compact, and they take up a lot of space,” Mailloux said.

The province was working on new regulations that would have created a new program to shift end-of-life costs from taxpayers to mattress producers. Similar programs already exist for beverage containers as well as things like used oil, tires, appliances, electronics, and some hazardous waste.

Those changes – which were expected to go into effect in 2025 – were shelved due to “consumer affordability challenges,” Mailloux added, noting the TNRD will continue to advocate for the province-wide mattress recycling program to ease the burden on local taxpayers.

“We know its a model that works to manage a lot of recyclable materials in the province,” Mailloux said. “It’s a funding model where the folks who are producing and distributing these goods, or using them in some cases, are funding the eventual collection and management of that item.”

“There won’t be a stewardship organization formed until the province makes that amendment.”

In the meantime, mattresses can be recycled at all 11 TNRD Eco-Depots as well as at five transfer stations in Knutsford, Paul Lake, Savona, Vavenby, and Westwold.

More details about mattress recycling in the TNRD can be found here.