UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — At the end of the academic year, thousands of Penn State students pack up their belongings and move out of campus housing, often leaving behind items that don’t make the trip home. Among the most commonly discarded items are foam mattress toppers — a bulky, hard-to-manage material that typically ends up in landfills.
A pilot recycling program at Penn State is working to change that, demonstrating how small, often overlooked waste streams can have a measurable environmental impact.
During the spring 2025 move-out period, Penn State partnered with Casella Waste Systems to collect and recycle used mattress toppers from East Halls. Through the program, 553 mattress toppers were collected and recycled, diverting more than 4,300 pounds of material from disposal and avoiding approximately 2,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
Across the first two years of the program, the University recycled more than 1,100 mattress toppers and diverted nearly 8,700 pounds of material from disposal. The effort also helped avoid approximately 3.8 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.
In 2026 alone, 569 mattress toppers were collected and recycled, equating to more than 4,423 pounds of material diverted from landfills.
While mattress toppers may seem like a minor component of campus waste, their material composition makes them especially important to target. The foam used in these products is fully recyclable and can be repurposed into carpet padding, extending its lifecycle and reducing demand for new raw materials.
“If not recycled, this material would have been delivered to a disposal facility,” said Haley Sankey, director of sustainability in Penn State’s Auxiliary and Business Services, highlighting the significance of intervention at the point of disposal.
The pilot also achieved nearly 100% compliance with recycling guidelines, reflecting strong student participation and careful sorting during the collection process.
Although the transportation and recycling cost of the mattress toppers is currently covered by Housing and Food Services, organizers emphasize that its value lies in its accessibility and environmental impact. Recycling mattress toppers is a relatively simple action that contributes directly to reducing Penn State’s greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on landfilling.
“Through the 2025 move-out period, our Penn State community donated more than 33,700 pounds of reusable goods to Goodwill, provided two tons of food to the local Food Bank, and recycled over 500 mattress toppers that would otherwise have gone to the landfill,” Sankey added. “This effort demonstrates how coordinated action can reduce waste while also directly supporting the community.”
Beyond the immediate environmental benefits, the program plays an important role in raising awareness about waste streams that are often overlooked during move-out.
Organizers hope to build on the pilot’s success in future years by increasing the number of toppers collected, expanding participation, and engaging more volunteers throughout the duration of the program.
As Penn State continues to advance its sustainability goals, initiatives like mattress topper recycling highlight a key takeaway: Impactful climate solutions are not always large-scale or complex. Sometimes, they begin with rethinking the everyday items students leave behind.
For more information about the mattress topper recycling program, contact Haley Sankey at hjs142@psu.edu.