116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
News Track: Willis Dady’s mattress recycling surpasses goals
Program has expanded with the help of $8K state grant

Apr. 6, 2025 6:00 am, Updated: Apr. 7, 2025 7:40 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Since publicly launching a mattress recycling program about eight months ago, Willis Dady Homeless Services has surpassed its goals for the program.
Background
Willis Dady, a nonprofit in Cedar Rapids, opened a mattress recycling program in July 2024 with two goals: to employ their clients and to curb waste.
Because mattresses are made of resilient materials like dense foam and metal springs, disposing of them can be a challenge.
“When garbage comes into the landfill, it gets pushed up (and a) bulldozer pushes it into the landfill itself, and then our compactors drive back and forth over top,” Joe Horaney, communications director for the Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency told The Gazette last August. “Compactors weigh anywhere from 91,000 pounds, up to 115,000 pounds. Even with those, they just rise back. They're resilient, so they're just really difficult to manage.”
When people have a mattress to get rid of, they can take it to Willis Dady to be deconstructed — instead of taking it to the landfill in Marion. It costs Linn County residents $10 to drop off their mattress with Willis Dady, while it would cost $20 to dispose of it at the landfill. For every mattress Willis Dady deconstructs through the program, the Solid Waste Agency pays the nonprofit $10.
Residents of other counties also can drop off mattresses at Willis Dady, but they must pay $35 each. Willis Dady is reimbursed $10 per mattress for only Linn County resident drop-offs.
Willis Dady runs the mattress deconstruction program out of a warehouse, located at 800 First Ave. NW, where the mattresses are cut open and separated by material type. People dropping off mattresses should take them to the warehouse.
The wage is about $12.25 per hour for the clients who work there.
What’s happened since
David Karpick, employment services director for Willis Dady, said the organization was able to keep more mattresses out of the Linn County landfill in the first three months of 2025 than it was in the five months the program was live in 2024.
In the first quarter of 2025, Karpick said 564 mattresses were deconstructed and recycled at Willis Dady, up from 412 in 2024, marking a 36 percent increase.
Karpick said the organization originally budgeted for about 120 mattresses per month. But now, it’s receiving 200 per month.
In terms of the materials, the Karpick said the program has shipped out just under 10 tons of scrap metal from the mattresses to one of its partners, Alter Metal Recycling in Cedar Rapids.
The foam and textiles from the mattresses are shipped out to mills in Indiana and Texas to be remade into carpet backing.
Since August, the program allows Iowans to bring in box spring mattresses to be recycled as well.
“That was a logical extension,” Karpick said. “There were many times residents would show up and they'd have mattresses and box springs that they were trying to recycle with us, and it was just a natural to say, ‘yes, let's start taking box springs.’ It adds volume to our operation, which it helps achieve our two objectives of employment and reducing waste.”
There is a $20 deconstruction fee, regardless of in which county the donor lives, for box spring mattresses fee.
To help with the program, Willis Dady also received a grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The nonprofit was awarded about $8,000 through the Iowa DNR’s Solid Waste Alternatives Program — or “SWAP” — which works to reduce the amount of solid waste generated and sent to landfills.
Karpick said the funding went toward buying a floor scale to weigh the deconstructed materials, a hand truck to help move mattresses easier throughout the warehouse and fans for the facility.
Going forward, Karpick said Willis Dady is working on expanding its marketing efforts. He said it is working on both commercial and residential suppliers to bring in more mattresses.
Karpick said Willis Dady will be working with schools and hotels to bring in mattresses. For residential suppliers, like from homes, he said the nonprofit created a landing page for the program on its website at willisdady.org/mattress-recycling.
Going forward, Karpick said he and the Willis Dady team are working on developing future goals for the program. By midsummer, the nonprofit will have a long-term business plan developed on how to expand the program.
Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com