Mattresses, worth it or not?

Round where I live I see alot of people throwing out mattresses that just sit there and sit there, anyone ever pick one of these up just for the hell of it? Is it worth my time if I have nothing else going on? Also any tips for stripping the material on it?

Now that is a question I've never seen asked before on this forum!

Me neither, ive looked around on here before, but never set-up an account, thought id ask see what reply i could find.

I know matteress rebuilders strip them down to bare frames in a couple of minutes but I don't know what they do with all the material and filler.

Someone told me that they use a old matteress to burn of the plastic coated copper wire.
They set the mattress down & put a layer of copper wire on the mattress & set it all alight.

I don't recommend doing this.

Ive done a few along with recliners when im paid to get rid of em...too bulky to pick up for free..easy to strip but not worth the hassle for free..IMO

Yuuuup...

I have processed a mattress for scrap metal. It is nasty i will never do it again. There are hog rings that hold the mattress padding to the metal part. Its not worth it. I would only recommend hauling it to a yard without doing any prcessing if you have to get rid of one.

alright guys, thanks for the advice, i probably wont worry about messing with matresses then haha

My yard used to take them, I did our own mattress was perty easy to strip down. Yard no longer takes them, the place they send the stuff to shread does not want them. And I would not want to tare down someones bed that I found by the road bring home bed bugs and I am sure the wife would kill me! LOL

There are some posts in other threads pertaining to springs but it wasn't the main subject. To the best of my memory, about the best use for them was for stuffing inside a car etc. Some mentioned the yards no longer wanted them, sometimes they were used to "sweep" the area (as with some fencing wire), but basically it came down to what you've already gotten here, just not worth the hassle.

Well, it seems I am the only one that scraps mattresses. I bring them home by the truck load. I build up a nice bed of hot coals in the burn pit, throw one mattress at a time on and burn all of the material off of them, using a garden rake, I pull the wire frames out of the fire and throw in the next one until they are all cleaned and cooled, then i load them up and haul them down to the local yard. I have seen a few of you say that mattresses aren't worth the hassle. I see it as easily worth it. Mattresses are the easiest to process and VERY easy to unload at the yard. Using fire eliminates the worry of bugs and mold and bacteria.

Box Springs on the other hand really are not worth it. They have so little steel in them. Mattresses on the other hand have 50 to 100 lbs of steel in each one. So, 10 queen mattresses can sometimes = $100.

I will and do scrap any and every thing that I can get my hands on. Some of it is worth less than others. However, some $$$$ is worth more than no $$$ too.

Never done a mattress and never will, I don't mind dirt, grime, oil, just about anything but when it comes to other peoples bodily fluids I draw the line. And like many of you said, you just never know what's on them.

I have done some mattresses but will not do them now. Too hard to get stripped and then get rid of all the leftovers and the springs are not very heavy. I have not seen a mattress yet that wieghed 50 lbs let alone 100 lbs after being stripped.

The one I did was a queen and it was heavy. As for burning them thats up to you, but if you were burning why would you not put the box springs in as well?