How to get rid of a mattress in Douglas, AZ.

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.

• Douglas will not take a mattress at the curb and says so in writing, naming the item and the place to take it instead. Its Sanitation FAQ "How do I dispose of a large item?" answers that large items — "air conditioners, stoves, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers, water heaters, lawn mowers, doors, sinks, toilets, mattresses, furniture and televisions" — should be taken to the "Cochise County Transfer Station located at 90 W 9th St, Douglas, AZ 85607". The city's own Special Items Pick Up Instructions repeat the rule as a responsibility: "Property owner is responsible for disposal of large bulk items such as mattresses, appliances, furniture, tree trunks, tires, etc.", and the Sanitation page states the same under the Douglas Municipal Code, whose solid waste standards are at Section 8.16. What the city will collect on request is smaller: the FAQ "How do I schedule a special trash pickup" states "A special pickup can be arranged at a flat rate fee of $15 by calling 520-417-7329 in advance; per pickup plus the cost of transfer station fees", and the Special Items instructions limit trimmings to "no more than 28 inches in length and tied into bundles not larger than 18 inches in diameter", prohibiting "auto bodies, septic tanks, hazardous waste, dead animal carcasses, radioactive material, explosives, and flammable material, no needles, or medications of any kind". The Sanitation Division is at 1815 E 9th St, Douglas, AZ 85607, open Monday-Friday 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For Douglas this is a short trip: the transfer station the city names is inside the city, about a mile from the sanitation yard. Source Not confirmed: The $15 special pickup and the instruction that the owner is responsible for mattresses are not reconciled on any city page, so whether the city would in practice haul a mattress for $15 plus transfer station fees, or refuse it outright, is unresolved — the published rule places the mattress on the owner. Not confirmed: How much advance notice a special pickup needs is not stated, only "in advance". Not confirmed: Douglas Municipal Code § 8.16 itself was not read; the owner-responsibility rule is recorded from the city's own restatement of it.
• Douglas's set-out rules leave no room for a mattress beside the cart. The Sanitation Division's Automated Garbage Pickup Instructions state: "Containers must be placed on 'street-side' at the bottom of the street next to the curb with a clearing of 4 feet around the container. Containers shall be placed in a manner that the lids open toward the street. If no curb is available, place container at the edge of the roadway." "DO NOT place container on the Avenue side unless it has been approved by Sanitation staff." The window is narrow: "Please place containers no earlier than 6pm on the day preceding the scheduled collection day and please remove containers from the curb no later than 8pm on the day of collection." Lids "must be completely closed at all times. Garbage will not be picked up if lid is not fully closed. Any trash OUTSIDE the containers will NOT be picked up." Cardboard must be broken down, tied and placed inside the container with the lid closing. The container carries a serial number assigned to the address and "must not be removed unless it is done so by the Sanitation Department"; the first container is free but a customer who damages one pays "a replacement container fee of currently $53.47 along with a $15.00 deliver fee", and a container reported missing that is later found on the property attracts a charge for the time it was missing. Source Not confirmed: The instructions set no illegal-dumping penalty; the enforcement provisions of Douglas Municipal Code § 8.16 were not read. Not confirmed: Nothing addresses apartment, mobile-home park or HOA restrictions on bulky set-out.
• Douglas's "Solid Waste Special Collection" is not a bulky-item service at all — it is a carry-out assistance program for elderly and disabled residents, and the city publishes the application in both English and Spanish. The Spanish form, headed "Formulario de Solicitud de Recoleccion Especial de Residuos Solidos" from the Departamento de Obras Publicas at 1815 Calle 9, Douglas, Arizona 85607, (520) 417-7329, offers that a resident who cannot get help wheeling the cart out may ask "que su conductor de recoleccion de basura recupere el bote de su camino de entrada, lo despliegue para el servicio, y luego lo vuelva a colocar en su ubicacion original". Eligibility requires either disability, evidenced by a "Carta de Verificacion de Beneficios por Discapacidad del Seguro Social", or age with a written reason, plus certification that no one in the household, at the applicant's workplace or providing home assistance can take the cart to the curb. The conditions are specific: the applicant "debe volver a presentar este formulario anualmente (cada Enero)" to keep the service; "Mi direccion debe mostrarse claramente y ser visible desde el bordillo"; "el bote no se puede colocar a mas de 25 pies de mi casa"; the cart may not be fastened down "a menos que el motivo de calificacion sea la ceguera"; and "debe haber un camino limpio y claro a mi lugar de recogida". Forms go to City of Douglas, 425 E. 10th Street, Douglas, AZ 85607, or mari.daniel@douglasaz.gov. This matters for anyone who reads the words "special collection" on the Sanitation page and assumes it covers furniture: it does not. Source Not confirmed: Whether the English version of the form differs in any condition from the Spanish one was not established; the English PDF was retrieved but its text could not be extracted.
• Not an option: The obvious charity in Douglas refuses mattresses outright, in writing. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Southern Arizona, which runs the thrift store at 543 G Avenue, Douglas, (520) 364-3637, states on its Donate Goods page: "USED MATTRESSES cannot be accepted but we gladly take most gently used items that we can re-sell or distribute." Its drivers are separately barred from hauling "items such as water heaters, evaporative coolers, flammables, chemicals, garage doors, tires, weapons, raw building materials, waterbeds, car parts or live animals". A Douglas resident hoping to donate a mattress has a settled answer and need not make the trip. Source Not confirmed: The thrift store page publishes no opening hours for the Douglas location. Not confirmed: No other Douglas charity, shelter or furniture bank publishing a mattress policy was identified.
• Douglas publishes nothing mattress-specific. Its Sanitation pages offer automated garbage collection, a $15 special pickup for smaller refuse, the elderly and disabled carry-out program, route maps and a holiday schedule, and a single instruction for mattresses — take them to the Cochise County Transfer Station at 90 W 9th St. No mattress recycler, retailer take-back or recycling program appears anywhere on the city site, and there is no statewide Arizona mattress stewardship program and no Mattress Recycling Council collection site in Arizona to fall back on. In practice a Douglas mattress is weighed in at the county transfer station at $68.00/ton against a $5.00 minimum and buried. Source Not confirmed: Whether anything on the Mexican side of the border in Agua Prieta offers reuse or recycling was not investigated and is outside this site's scope.

• New River county address is 41835 North New River Road, Phoenix 85087, while ADEQ lists 41835 N Lake Pleasant, Peoria 85382. Rainbow Valley county street number is 17795 versus ADEQ 17735. Cave Creek county city label differs from ADEQ Carefree. Source
• County receiving list includes 15 transfer stations plus Western Regional Landfill. It differs from ADEQ on Double Adobe direction (6996 N versus S Central Highway), Bowie ZIP (85643 versus 85605), Tombstone ZIP (85638 versus 85352), Sunsites city/ZIP and Bisbee road spelling (Tovreaville versus Torveaville). Source
• ADEQ Composting, Recycling & HHW FAQs (revised Oct. 28, 2025) read in full, including the collapsed accordion panels. No statewide mattress stewardship program, landfill ban or retailer take-back appears anywhere on the page. The resident recycling panel tells people to use the ADEQ eMap or to search "City of [where you live] recycling", and if the municipality offers nothing, to search "[County you live in] recycling" for a drop-off service. Mattress disposal in Arizona is handled by local governments. Source
• The statewide locator ADEQ links from its recycling pages is the "Arizona Recycling Locator" ArcGIS Experience app. Its own text says the app covers E-Waste, Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) and General Recycling in your community, and carries an ADEQ disclaimer that it cannot verify the listed items will be accepted at all locations and that residents should contact the facility. There is no mattress or bulky-item category among the three advertised layers. Source
• Mattress Recycling Council's Program States page names exactly four states where it operates recycling programs under enacted mattress recycling laws: California, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Oregon. Arizona is not among them, confirming there is no MRC-run mattress stewardship program or Bye Bye Mattress free drop-off network in Arizona. Source