Unwanted mattresses that have piled up at clothing collection bins and end up being dumped behind commercial buildings and along wooded roads could become a rarity next year.

That’s what the mayor hopes will be the case once the Mattress Recycling Council launches a free recycling service next spring.

Mayor Scott Avedisian announced Tuesday that the city intends to join the program and that a no-cost drop-off site will be established at the city recycling facility on Sandy Lane. He emphasized the city won’t accept mattresses at the recycling center until the program starts. The city does not pick up mattresses as part of “heavy trash” collections that must be scheduled through the Department of Public Works.

Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp. accepts mattresses for a fee of $15 per mattress or box spring. Once the Mattress Recycling Council program is implemented, there will no longer be a fee for leaving mattresses at the landfill, said Sarah Kite Reeves, director of recycling services.

Because of the cost associated with recycling mattresses, discarded mattresses have become a scourge in some sections of the city, and bins used to collect clothing and shoes are often the targets.

Ann Meschino, owner of Sandy Lane Meat Market, knows that all too well. As many as a dozen mattresses have been piled up next to the pink Recycling Associates bin behind the store. She has repeatedly asked Recycling Associates to remove the mattresses and the bin, and three week ago, the company’s owner, Donald Mariani, promised he would take care of it. Some of the mattresses were removed, but almost as soon as they were gone more were dumped.

Machino said one of her customers spotted someone dumping a mattress at the bin and obtained the vehicle’s registration plate. Meschino followed up with a call to police, and the man responsible returned to pick up the mattress.

“He said he saw the recycling and figured it was all right,” Meschino said.

She said the dumping of mattresses, furniture and unwanted appliances is the worst on weekends when people are moving or cleaning out their homes.

That also is consistent with what Mariani sees. However, he believes a competing clothing bin operator could be partially responsible. By dumping mattresses, Mariani reasons, the competing company can then offer to clean up the mess while gaining a location for their bin.

“When suddenly nine mattresses are dropped off in the middle of the night, you know that it’s not some house,” he said.

Mariani said he would have the mattresses and the bin removed at the market by this weekend.

Kite-Reeves said the Mattress Recycling Council, a non-profit organization, is in the process of contracting with two companies that would be responsible for the collection of mattresses from designated sites like that being planned in Warwick as well as the recycling. The mattresses would not go to Resource Recovery, and once the program is in operation Kite-Reeves expects the volume of mattresses handled at the landfill would drop from about 32,000 a year to half that.

The program is mandated under the state extended producer responsibility law and will be funded with a surcharge placed on the sale of a mattress. Kite-Reeves didn’t know the cost of the surcharge, but thought it would be under $10.

“We are looking forward to taking part in this initiative when it begins next year,” Avedisian said in a statement. “A local drop-off location is far more convenient for Warwick residents, and having mattresses recycled is both good for the environment and means fewer items ending up at the landfill.”

If the city were to pick up mattresses as part of curbside collections, it would be faced with a $50 per mattress fee from Resource Recovery. The agency offers a $25-per-ton option to municipalities that operate their own collection centers, separating mattresses from the rest of the waste stream.

Rather than doing that, the city elected to eliminate any means of local drop-offs, thereby requiring responsible residents to take their mattresses to the landfill and pay the $15. Others have chosen to dump them where they can.