How to get rid of a mattress in Washington, DC.

If you are replacing the mattress, the shop will often take the old one when they deliver. Usually one old mattress per new one, and only if it is dry and clean.

Casper

Free

Casper mattress order with In-Home Delivery & Setup ($249), continental US; one used mattress per mattress ordered. Sanitary condition judged on site; box springs must be removable intact. Source

Havertys

Free

New mattress delivered by Top Drawer Delivery. Not stated on page. Source

Purple

Free

Non-California: free with Rejuvenate mattresses; $200 add-on for select Essentials/Restore mattresses. Mattress only (no box springs); unsanitary mattresses may be refused. Source

Raymour & Flanigan

Free

New mattress purchase with delivery; free with mattress set of $500+. Safe, sanitary, free of rips and tears. Source

Rooms To Go

Free

New mattress with full service delivery. Not heavily soiled; not with Doorway Delivery. Source

Established for the county as a whole, so it applies across Washington and its neighbors.

• DPW's own transfer-station page, which the District's city-layer research could not reach: "DPW operates solid waste disposal at two transfer stations; Fort Totten Transfer Station and Benning Road Transfer Station. Benning Road Transfer Station is temporarily closed until further notice." Under the Benning Road heading it repeats "Benning Road Transfer Station is closed until further notice" and redirects residents: "Bulk items, Trash, Recycling, and Yard Waste will be collected at Fort Totten Transfer Station Tuesdays through Fridays from 10:00 am -2:00 pm and Saturdays from 7:00 am - 2:00 pm", adding that "only authorized personnel are allowed to access the construction site." So Fort Totten, 4900 John McCormack Rd NE, is the District's only resident drop-off, and its published hours begin with "Monday: Closed". Proof of District residency is required, in the same terms as the bulk page. Acceptable vehicles are "Passenger cars, pickup, SUV, or passenger vans with all seats in rear and rental vehicles under 15 feet." Refused: "Commercial vehicles, Residential vehicles with commercial tags, resident-owned or borrowed trailer/tag-alongs or rental trailer/tag-alongs, vehicles with sideboards, ladder racks, stake body's, cargo vans, trucks longer than 15 feet, and boxed trucks or decommissioned rental trucks ARE NOT PERMITTED." Behavior rules bar smoking, drinking, foul language, threatening or violent behavior, junking, urinating and gambling, and "Children under the age of 13 and all pets must remain in the vehicle at all times"; violators "will be banned from dumping at the District-owned and operated transfer stations". Businesses "MUST use a commercial hauler", and commercial haulers pay "fees, based on material type and tonnage". Source Not confirmed: The page states no resident drop-off fee for Fort Totten, so the cost of taking a mattress there is still not established from this page. Not confirmed: No reopening date is published for the Benning Road Transfer Station. Not confirmed: The page's "Acceptable Material List" and "Unacceptable Material List" headings expand to no content, so the station publishes no material list of its own; the mattress rule has to be read off DPW's bulk-collection page instead.
• DPW's transfer-station FAQ sets out who may use a District drop-off site and states plainly that it is free. Under "Who can utilize the Transfer Station and what proof is required?" it lists "District of Columbia Residents" with one of: "Valid DC driver's license or DC non-driver's license"; "Photo ID issued by another state plus a current utilities bill with a District address (within the last 30 days); or" "Copy of a District residential lease or deed", with the note "The names on the photo ID and the utility bill or lease/deed must be the same." Under "Is there a charge for my household trash that is brought to the Transfer Station?" it answers: "There is no charge for District residents that utilize the drop-off site to dispose of their unwanted personal property. Commercial and Institutional haulers must have an account. They will pay a fee based on material type and tonnage." What a resident may bring includes "Trash/solid waste/bulk items (furniture, etc.)". It adds "All waste materials must originate within the District of Columbia. Facility staff reserves the right to ask for proof of origin", and permits passenger cars, passenger vans, SUVs, and "Pick-up trucks and vans less than 14 feet in length". If a resident is turned away it warns "DO NOT illegally dump unwanted items within the District of Columbia. Illegal dumping violators can be subject to a fine and/or criminal proceedings." Source Not confirmed: This FAQ is titled for the Benning Road Transfer Station, which DPW's transfer-station page says is closed until further notice, so its no-charge statement cannot be read as a published price for Fort Totten without DPW saying so; no fee was cataloged for Fort Totten on the strength of it. Not confirmed: The FAQ gives a 14-foot vehicle limit while DPW's Fort Totten and bulk pages give 15 feet; which applies at Fort Totten is not reconciled on either page. Not confirmed: The FAQ does not name mattresses; it covers them only as "bulk items (furniture, etc.)".
• The District's illegal-dumping statute names a mattress expressly. D.C. Code § 8-901(6) defines the term this way: "'Solid waste' means combustible or incombustible refuse. Solid waste includes appliances, furniture, mattresses, shopping carts, tires, dirt, sand, sawdust, gravel, clay, loam, stone, rocks, rubble, building rubbish, shavings, trade or household waste, refuse, ashes, manure, vegetable matter, paper, dead animals, garbage or debris of any kind, any other organic or inorganic material or thing, or any other offensive matter." A mattress left in a street, alley, lot or other public or private area in the District is therefore squarely inside the definition the dumping offense is built on, rather than being an item a reader has to argue about. Mattresses were written into this list by the Illegal Dumping Enforcement Amendment Act of 2024 (D.C. Law 25-263). Source
• D.C. Code § 8-902 sets the offense and the penalty a District resident faces for dumping a mattress rather than booking a DPW collection or driving it to Fort Totten. Subsection (a) provides that "It shall be unlawful for any person to dispose or cause or permit the disposal of solid waste, hazardous waste, or medical waste in or upon any street, lot, park, public place, or any other public or private area". For ordinary solid waste, which by § 8-901(6) includes a mattress, the penalty on a first offense is a fine of up to $5,000 or imprisonment for up to 90 days, and for a subsequent offense a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment for up to 90 days. Disposal of solid waste for a commercial purpose is a felony carrying a fine of up to $40,000 or up to 5 years' imprisonment, which is the provision that reaches someone paid to take a mattress away who fly-tips it instead. Hazardous and medical waste carry the same $40,000 felony exposure, and hazardous waste additionally a civil penalty of up to $40,000 for each violation. The section draws no distinction by the volume or weight of what is dumped, so a single mattress is exposed to the same maximum as a truckload. Source
• DPW's bulk-trash page opens by pointing residents at a District-wide free disposal event program: "If you are looking for DC's Roll Off Days Events, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/RollOffDC". That is the only route DPW publishes to the Roll Off Days schedule, and it is a link-shortener rather than a dc.gov address. Followed on September 28, 2026 it resolved not to a District government page but to a third-party domain (lg.provenpixel.com) unconnected to DPW, so the terms of the events — dates, locations, who may use them, and whether a mattress is accepted — could not be read from any District source. The same page separately confirms the acceptable-items rule that governs a mattress set out at the curb: "Mattresses and box springs (MUST be wrapped in plastic), bed frames" are acceptable bulk items, while "Bagged Waste - No plastic trash bags", electronics and televisions, household trash, tree stumps, yard waste and renovation materials are not. Up to four tires "may be taken to the Fort Totten Transfer Station, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 10 am to 2 pm ONLY", and wooden pallets, unacceptable at the curb, "are accepted at Fort Totten". Source Not confirmed: DC's Roll Off Days events could not be established: the only link DPW publishes to them is a tinyurl that now resolves to a non-government third-party domain, so no dates, locations, eligibility rules or mattress policy for those events are recorded. Not confirmed: The bulk page still publishes no fee for a collection appointment, so whether DPW's curbside bulk collection is free is not established.