How Do You Dispose of an Old Mattress?
- What's included: two-person carry-out from any floor, stair and hallway navigation, plastic wrapping when needed, loading, and transport to a recycling or disposal facility — no need for the homeowner to lift anything.
- How fast: most single mattress or mattress-and-box-spring removals take 15 to 30 minutes on site, and same-day or next-day slots are commonly available when a truck is already routed nearby.
- What it costs: a single mattress typically runs about $70 to $150, and a mattress with box spring usually falls between $90 and $180 — a ballpark range, with the exact price confirmed in person before any work begins.
- What gets taken: innerspring, memory foam, hybrid, latex, and pillow-top mattresses, box springs, bunkie boards, bed frames, headboards, and adjustable bases; heavily soiled or infested mattresses are accepted when wrapped for transport.
- How to book: call or text with the mattress size, the floor it's on, and whether a box spring or frame is going too, then confirm a two-hour arrival window.
A mattress is one of the hardest household items to throw away because of what's inside it. An innerspring unit is roughly 25 pounds of recoverable steel, plus polyurethane foam, cotton batting, and a wood-and-staple frame in the box spring. Recycling facilities that accept mattresses cut them open and separate those streams — steel to scrap metal, foam to carpet padding, wood to mulch or fuel. Several states fund dedicated mattress recycling programs through a fee collected at the point of purchase, and in those areas drop-off is often free but requires a trip in a pickup truck or trailer, since a queen mattress will not fit in a sedan or most SUVs. Where no program exists, the local transfer station usually accepts mattresses at a per-item bulky fee, and the mattress may be landfilled rather than processed.
The do-it-yourself route makes sense in a narrow set of conditions: the mattress is on the ground floor, it is dry and clean, there's a truck or trailer available, and the facility's hours line up with a weekday. Municipal bulk pickup is the cheapest option where it's offered, but it comes with real constraints — appointments booked weeks out, a limit on items per year, a requirement that the mattress sit at the curb by a specific hour, and in many towns a rule that it be sealed in plastic before collection. A mattress left out early and rained on becomes twice as heavy and is frequently refused. Retailer haul-away is worth asking about when a new bed is being delivered, though it generally covers only a one-for-one swap and won't include the old frame or a second mattress from a guest room.
Paid mattress removal earns its cost in the situations DIY handles badly: a king set coming down a switchback staircase, a hide-a-bed in a finished basement, an upstairs bedroom in an older home with a tight landing, a third-floor walk-up apartment, or a bed bug situation where the mattress needs to be sealed in the room and carried out without brushing against door frames. It also earns it on cleanouts — an estate or a rental turnover often produces three or four mattresses at once, which is a full afternoon of trips for a homeowner and a single load for a crew. The trade-off is straightforward: bulk pickup costs less and takes patience, and haul-away costs more and takes one visit.
A few practical notes that affect the job. Pricing is driven mainly by item count and access, not by mattress brand or original cost, so a $3,000 hybrid and a $300 foam mattress remove for the same price. Box springs count as separate items at nearly every facility, which is why a set costs more than a single mattress. Foam and latex mattresses are lighter but bulkier and harder to bend through a doorway than an innerspring. Donation is rarely an option — most charities and thrift stores decline used mattresses for sanitation reasons, and many are barred from reselling them outright. Anyone hoping to donate should call ahead rather than load the truck first.
CallHow Do You Dispose of an Old Mattress? pricing in
| Single mattress removal (any size) | $70 – $150 |
| Mattress + box spring set | $90 – $180 |
| Mattress, box spring, and bed frame or headboard | $110 – $220 |
| Two to four mattress sets (rental turnover, estate cleanout) | $150 – $350 |
| Curbside pickup, mattress already set out and dry | $60 – $120 |
| Bed bug or heavily soiled mattress, wrapped in room before carry-out | $100 – $200 |
Exact price confirmed free on-site before any work.
How Do You Dispose of an Old Mattress? — questions, answered
Can I put an old mattress out with the regular trash in our service area?
No — standard curbside collection in our service area does not take mattresses, and a mattress left at the curb without a scheduled bulk pickup is usually tagged and left behind. Mattresses have to go through a bulky-item appointment, a transfer station drop-off with a per-item fee, or a haul-away service.
Is mattress recycling actually available in our service area?
Availability varies by county in our service area, so we route mattresses to a recycling processor when one is accepting material and to the transfer station when it isn't. Steel springs, foam, and the wood in a box spring are the components most commonly recovered.
How much does mattress removal cost in our service area?
A single mattress typically runs about $70 to $150 in our service area, and a mattress with box spring usually falls between $90 and $180. Those are honest ballparks based on item count and access — the exact price is confirmed in person on a free on-site look before any lifting starts.
Will you take a mattress that has bed bugs from a home in our service area?
Yes — mattresses with suspected bed bugs are accepted in our service area and are wrapped in plastic inside the room before being carried out, which keeps the infestation contained during transit. Let us know when booking so the crew arrives with wrapping on the truck.
Do I have to carry the mattress outside before your crew arrives in our service area?
No — crews working in our service area carry mattresses out from bedrooms, basements, and upper floors as part of the job. Setting it at the curb yourself beforehand does lower the price, so it's worth asking about the curbside rate if the mattress is already out and staying dry.