The Rhode Island mattress recycling fee that retailers and other sellers must collect on all mattresses and foundations sold to Rhode Island residents will increase to $20.50 per unit effective January 1. The fee is a flat per unit rate that applies to all sizes of mattresses and foundations. The fee is subject to sales tax. Please update your point-of-sale system accordingly and inform your relevant sales and other staff about this change so that it can be properly implemented on Jan. 1. 

 All entities that sell mattresses to end users, including (but not limited to) brick-and-mortar retailers, online sellers and companies that sell mattresses to commercial end users like hotels, hospitality facilities, boarding schools, colleges and universities, nursing homes, medical facilities, etc. are required to collect and remit the per unit fee.  

 State law also requires that the recycling fee must appear as a separate line item on all receipts for a mattress or foundation, followed by the fee amount, whether sold in-stores or online. Each month, each retailer must remit the full fee amount of all recycling fees that it has collected to the Mattress Recycling Council through MRCreporting.org. For mattresses and foundations sold on or after Jan. 1, each retailer or seller is responsible for remitting to MRC recycling fees equal to $20.50 times the number of units that it sold.  

 MRC will send updated customer educational materials about the recycling fee to all registered retail locations in December. Additional resources can be found online at MattressRecyclingCouncil.org.