We’ve had an email from Nicki:

How can I recycle a futon? I think I’ve got a friend who will take the frame but she doesn’t want the mattress. What can I do with that?

I suspect, like all mattresses, they won’t be too not too popular secondhand as they’re hard to clean, especially if they’ve been slept on a lot. Occasionally used ones may be more popular on Freecycle/Freegle.

When we were talking about mattress frames a few weeks ago, I mentioned an article on radical recycling of mattresses – some of those reuses would apply to futon mattress too.

The frames are easier to pass on (as Nicki has already found) – furniture charities may be willing to take them even if they don’t want the mattress for bed bug/dirtiness reasons. It also might make interesting garden furniture.

Any other suggestion for the frame or the mattress?

(Photo by SusanMcM)

I always thought wooden transport pallets were one of those things that were reused ad infinitum – or at least until they fall apart – because of those “pallets wanted” signs around industrial-type estates near motorway or, say, the docks in Liverpool (somewhere we frequent more than most people because ooh! cool industrial stuff!). But lately, I’ve started to see them dumped around various places, suggesting it’s not worth people’s bother to take them to one of those “wanted” place.

(Tsk, people, eh? The worst is the dozen or so I saw dumped down the road from us last night – one road down from a household waste site. I guess they either didn’t want to wait for it to open, didn’t want to have to pay to leave them there or didn’t want to find somewhere to take them for reuse even though they clearly had a truck to get them there in the first place. Grr.)

Anyway, reusing them. John’s dad reclaimed the wood from a couple of old pallets to make a fence for his brother’s garden. I’ve also heard about cleaner, nicer ones being spruced up a bit (sanded to remove the roughest bits and varnished) to make a futon base.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by Gastonmag)