Waste landfill statistics — Australia generated 75.8 million tonnes of waste in the most recent reporting year. Our team unpacks the landfill, recycling and mattress-disposal numbers every Aussie should know.
Hannah on our team has been tracking Australia’s waste numbers since we first wrote about mattress toppers in landfill, and the figures are sobering. According to the National Waste Report (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water), Australians produce roughly 75.8 million tonnes of waste a year — about 2.95 tonnes per person.
The headline numbers (Waste landfill statistics)
- 75.8 million tonnes — total waste generated annually.
- ~63% recycled or recovered for energy.
- ~27 million tonnes sent to landfill each year.
- 1.8 million tonnes of textiles thrown out — most of it sleepwear, sheets, blankets and clothing.
- 1.6+ million mattresses dumped to landfill annually, despite ~75% of mattress materials being recyclable.
What goes to landfill from your bedroom
James on our team pulled the breakdown of bedroom-related waste from the most recent National Waste Report. The bulky offenders are mattresses (an old queen weighs 25–40 kg), pillows (synthetic fillings dominate household waste), doonas, and bed frames — particularly cheap MDF frames that aren’t recyclable.
Sheets and pillowcases get classed as textile waste. Australian textile waste has roughly tripled since 2000, driven by fast fashion and synthetic-fibre bedding. Polyester sheets and microfibre pillow inserts can take 200+ years to break down in landfill.
Mattress recycling — what the numbers say
Roughly 80% of an old mattress can be recycled — steel springs, foam, timber and fabric all have markets. Yet only about 250,000 mattresses a year (out of 1.6 million-plus) are recycled in Australia. The barrier is mostly logistics: most councils don’t collect mattresses kerbside, and tipping fees discourage drop-off.
Operators like Soft Landing and ResourceCo recycle hundreds of thousands of mattresses a year between them, but the network is uneven. NSW, Victoria and the ACT are the best-served. Tasmania and NT have very few options.
Recycling rates by stream
| Stream | Recovery rate |
|---|---|
| Metals | ~90% |
| Paper & cardboard | ~60% |
| Glass | ~57% |
| Plastics | ~13% |
| Textiles (bedding included) | ~7% |
| Mattresses | ~15% |
What you can actually do
Priya on our team called local councils across every capital and the picture is clearer than it looks. Most Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide councils now offer paid mattress pickup ($30–$60), and at least one drop-off point. Recycling Near You is the cleanest single source — type your suburb, get the closest mattress, e-waste, textile and battery options.
For pillows and bedding, op shops will take clean items in usable condition. For end-of-life synthetic pillows, Upparel runs a mail-back textile-recycling service.
The trajectory
The 2030 National Waste Policy targets an 80% resource-recovery rate. Mattress recycling is one of the categories that needs to lift fastest to hit that — every $1 spent on mattress recycling avoids about $3 of landfill cost. We’ll keep tracking the numbers each year.
