How to get rid of a mattress in Crystal Lake, IL.

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.

• Crystal Lake's litter chapter, not its garbage chapter, is what governs a resident putting a mattress out. Chapter 334 defines LITTER to include "furniture" by name, and RUBBISH to include "bedding". Sec. 334-4 sets the set-out window precisely: "All solid waste containers including metal cans, plastic bags or other approved receptacles that are placed at the curb for pickup by licensed collectors shall be set out no earlier than 7:00 p.m. on the day preceding the day on which pickup is scheduled and shall be removed as soon as possible but in no event later than 7:00 p.m. on the day of pickup." Sec. 334-2 bars depositing litter in any street, sidewalk or public place "except in public receptacles, in authorized private receptacles for collection or in an official City disposal facility". Sec. 334-7 bars casting or depositing litter "on any private property within the City whether owned by such person or not", and Sec. 334-8 requires an owner to "at all times maintain the premises free of litter". Separately, Chapter 280 Sec. 280-1 makes it unlawful for anyone but the City's exclusive contracted collector to do curbside refuse, recycling and yard waste collection from single-family, attached single-family and multi-family units on curbside service, and Sec. 280-7 requires licensees to tip only at an IEPA-approved landfill. Source Not confirmed: Chapter 280 regulates collectors only; the code contains no ordinance-level bulk-item allowance or mattress rule, which live in the contract and on the LRS page instead.
• Crystal Lake prints the actual numbers rather than hiding them in a general penalty clause. Chapter 248 (Fines) lists for section "334-11 Littering violations" a minimum fine of $50 and a maximum of $1,000, and Sec. 334-11 adds that "A separate offense shall be deemed committed for each violation or, in the case of continuous violations, for each day during or on which a violation continues or occurs." The same schedule prices "417-9 Recycling violations" at $100 minimum and $1,000 maximum and "364-9 Chronic nuisances violations" at $100/$1,000 for a first offense, rising to $500/$2,000 for subsequent ones. Dumping a mattress on a parkway, a vacant lot or someone else's property in Crystal Lake is a littering violation carrying at least $50 a day. Source
• There is a transfer station inside Crystal Lake's own city limits, and it publishes nothing a household can act on. WM's facility listing for the Virginia Road Transfer Station gives the address as "1400 S Virginia Road, Crystal Lake, IL 60014" and hours of Monday through Friday 5:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., closed on weekends. The accepted materials are construction and demolition debris and municipal solid waste, with hazardous waste excluded. No gate rate, no minimum charge and no mattress fee is published, and the listing does not say whether residential self-haul customers are accepted at all - it directs inquiries to the receiving facility. On the published record it therefore fails as a drop-off answer for a Crystal Lake resident, whose priced routes are the City's own free weekly bulk item and $25.00 additional bulk item. Source Not confirmed: Whether a Crystal Lake household may self-haul to the Virginia Road Transfer Station, and at what price, is not published anywhere by WM or the City. Not confirmed: McHenry County runs no county drop-off site of its own, so no priced public alternative in the county could be established.
• Not an option: The Habitat ReStore closest to Crystal Lake refuses mattresses in writing. Habitat for Humanity of Lake-McHenry's Donation Guidelines list under items not accepted: "Mattresses/Box springs/Sofa beds", together with baby items and cribs, books and toys, granite slabs, clothing, shoes and linens, curtains, blinds and window treatments, dishwashers, electronics, wooden ladders and weapons. Furniture the stores do take is "tables, dressers, desks, chairs, hutches, bookcases", with "upholstered items must be from smoke free, pet free homes". The two stores are the Woodstock ReStore, 133 South Eastwood Drive, Woodstock, IL 60098 (815-334-0500), about ten miles from Crystal Lake, and the McHenry ReStore, 903 Front St, McHenry, IL 60050 (815-331-8153), both open Tuesday through Saturday 9am-5pm. Do not load a mattress for either. Source

• Residential body says Saturday 8–2; same-page footer says 9–1. Both show weekdays 8–4. No Saturday schedule selected. Source
• Locator retains Landfill 33 Saturday 7 a.m.–11 p.m. exactly as printed; implausible closing time requires confirmation. Two Columbus District Office cards are distinct OH and IN addresses, not duplicates. Source
• Illinois EPA recycling page offers a 'Beyond The Bin' ArcGIS map of recycling locations, an Earth911 ZIP locator and the Recycle Coach app (statewide partnership since 2025). No mattress stewardship program mentioned. No statewide mattress stewardship program or landfill ban found on Illinois EPA pages as of 2026-09-22; mattress disposal is handled by local governments. Source
• There is no state mattress recycling program in Illinois, and the absence is worth stating plainly because the four states that have one give residents free drop-off. The Mattress Recycling Council, which runs the Bye Bye Mattress collection network, lists its programs on its own Programs page as operating in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. Illinois is not among them. Three things follow for an Illinois resident: no recycling fee is charged on an Illinois mattress sale, there is no MRC-funded free drop-off anywhere in the state, and nothing obliges a retailer, hauler or municipality to recycle a mattress rather than landfill it. Recycling in Illinois is therefore a private arrangement wherever it exists at all — the drop-offs and recyclers listed on this page are businesses and charities choosing to do it, not a program a resident is entitled to. Source