How to get rid of a mattress in Pell City, AL.

Companies that come to your home and carry the mattress out, so you need no vehicle. The prices below are starting prices unless stated — stairs, box springs and extra items add to them.

Most charities will not take a used mattress. These are the ones we checked, including the ones that say no.

• The Salvation Army (satruck.org): accepted-items list includes 'Mattresses' and beds; also says local ordinances and need vary by location and to call 1-800-SA-TRUCK to confirm what a local center accepts. Source
• Doesn’t take mattresses. Habitat for Humanity national ReStore guide: 'Mattresses and box springs are not accepted.' Source

Policies vary by branch. Call before you carry one over — we asked each of the big three directly: Goodwill, the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity.

What we established about this city in particular — including where it runs nothing of its own and residents have to look elsewhere.

• Pell City's contracted curbside service is a cart and a brush pile, and there is no bulky-item run in it at all — a mattress cannot go to the curb here. The city's own Solid Waste Disposal page says: "Effective September 1, 2022, Meridian Waste (Formerly ADSI) will provide residential solid waste and brush collection service to all city residents." What that contract covers is set out in full: "The monthly cost of service is $25.24 per month, which includes weekly garbage service and bi-weekly pickup of up to six (6) cubic yards of yard debris", with "Additional garbage carts may be ordered for a rate of $12.36 per additional cart, per month" and the fees "added to your monthly utility bill". Household garbage rules are cart-only: "Garbage must be placed inside city-issued garbage carts", "All garbage must be bagged; no loose trash is permitted in the receptacle", "Carts should be placed by the street by 6:00 a.m. on the pickup date", "Lids must be fully closed", and "Household hazardous waste, lumber, scrap metal, or car parts may not be placed curbside for collection". The yard-waste stream is explicitly closed to furniture: the Unacceptable Yard Waste list names "Fencing, railroad ties, landscape timber, plywood, furniture, decking, construction material, electronics, appliances, etc." and the page warns that "If any unacceptable waste is mixed in with otherwise acceptable yard waste, the entire pile will not be picked up until the unacceptable waste is removed." So the answer to "who collects here" is that Meridian Waste collects a cart and brush for the city, and neither stream will take a mattress; the city's own Street Department drop-off is the route instead (recorded separately). The page is also explicit about who is NOT served: "The City of Pell City is not responsible for solid waste collection outside the City Limits of Pell City. Requests for service in unincorporated St. Clair County should be directed to Arrow Disposal Services or the St. Clair County Commission." This is Pell City, ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ALABAMA — the page is on the city's own pellcity.gov domain and names St. Clair County and the city's 35125/35128 addresses. Source Not confirmed: Pell City publishes no curbside bulky-item, large-item or special-pickup program of any kind, and no on-call collection fee. A mattress is named nowhere in the curbside rules — neither as accepted nor as refused. The city does not say that Meridian Waste will take one on request, so we do not say it either. Not confirmed: The $25.24 monthly charge is for the cart and the biweekly yard-waste run. Whether it also pays for the Street Department drop-off, or whether that drop-off carries a separate charge, is not stated anywhere on the city's site.
• Pell City's dumping rules, in the code's own words. Chapter 11 (Health and Sanitation), Article II, Division 3 of the Code of Ordinances carries the littering provisions. Sec. 11-41, "Littering streets": "It shall be unlawful for any person to throw, dump or discharge any gravel, cement, paper, wood, garbage, cans, trash, debris, refuse or litter of any kind upon the public streets, sidewalks or other public or private premises or ways within the city." (Ord. No. 89-851, § 1, 3-27-89.) Sec. 11-48, "Littering ditches, easements, streams, rivers": "No person shall throw or place any refuse, paper, trash, glass, nails, tacks, wire, bottles, cans, grass clippings, brush, yard trash, concrete, earthen fill, garbage, containers or litter or other debris in any ditch, stream, river, or retention basis [basin] that regularly or periodically carries surface water runoff." Sec. 11-56 supplies the enforcement machinery: "(c) Penalties. The penalty for violation of any provision of this division shall be in accordance with the penalty provisions of sections 1-8 and 1-9 of this Code of Ordinances", and "(d) Enforcement officers. The following are hereby designated as litter control officers: (1) All police officers of the city. (2) Any employee of the city as the city council may direct." Separately, Sec. 11-64(b) (outdoor storage) states: "No debris or junk, including, but not limited to, trash, paper, wood, plant cuttings and other vegetation, shall be spilled onto the street, highway, or right-of-way, or any sidewalk." The set-out window a resident actually needs is on the city's service pages rather than in this chapter: carts by 6:00 a.m. on the pickup date, and carts placed out after 6:00 a.m. are a listed reason garbage is not collected. This is the code of PELL CITY, ALABAMA on Municode: the version banner reads MAR 27, 2026 (CURRENT), and Sec. 11-21 directs service by publication in the St. Clair News Aegis. Source Not confirmed: Sec. 11-56(c) sets the littering penalty by cross-reference to sections 1-8 and 1-9 of the Code, which are in Chapter 1 and were not read in this pass, so the actual fine range and any jail term for illegal dumping in Pell City are not established here. Not confirmed: Pell City's code chapter on health and sanitation contains no set-out window, no bulky-item permit, and no special-collection charge; the only set-out rule found for a resident is the 6:00 a.m. cart rule on the city's service pages. Chapter 18 (Utilities and Services) was not read and may carry the solid-waste collection ordinance itself.

• ADEM recycling program page covers SWRMMA (2008): 25% waste-reduction goal, $1/ton statewide disposal fee, local recycling grants and funds to clean up illegal dump sites. No mattress-specific content. No statewide mattress stewardship program or landfill ban found on ADEM pages as of 2026-09-22; mattress disposal is handled by local governments. Source