How to get rid of a mattress in DeKalb, IL.

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 DeKalb and its neighbors.

• Not an option: DeKalb County has its own solid waste department and its own Recycling A-Z, and the A-Z answers the mattress question in a single sentence that offers no facility at all. Under M it reads: "Mattresses: Contact your waste hauler for curbside collection or list on Craigslist or Freecycle if reusable." That is the whole entry — no drop-off, no recycler, no event, no fee. The neighboring "Household Items" entry is the only place the county sends a bulky item to a building: "Usable furniture can be donated to thrift shops or given away on community freecycle pages. They can also be placed on the curb with a 'free' sign. Unusable furniture can be taken to the DeKalb County landfill for disposal or call your waste disposal company for special pick up." The county runs the program out of the Health Department — "The Solid Waste and Recycling program protects the environment and conserves our resources by encouraging recycling and reducing improper disposal of hazardous waste, and enforces applicable local and state laws pertaining to solid waste", 815-748-2153, recycle@dekalbcounty.org — and it sponsors "collection events for difficult-to-dispose of wastes such as electronics, household batteries, compact fluorescent lamps and used motor oil". None of those streams is a mattress. For household hazardous waste the county states it has no permanent site: "DeKalb County does not have a permanent facility for collection of household hazardous waste. The county sponsors a household hazardous waste collection day annually." Source
• Not an option: DeKalb County does run free, unstaffed drop-off sites of its own — three of them, two open around the clock — and they are single-stream recycling bins, not a place to leave a bed. The county's Recycling Sites sheet lists: "DeKalb (PILOT PROGRAM), 2550 N. Annie Glidden Rd., Year-round, 24/7"; "Genoa, 220 E. Railroad Ave., Year-round, 24/7"; and "Somonauk, 2990 Council Rd., Saturdays 8am-12pm", with questions to the county's Solid Waste Associate at 815-748-2408 or recycle@dekalbcounty.org. What they take is fixed and narrow: "Always Recycle: Plastic bottles and containers, food and beverage cans, printer paper, notebook paper, envelopes, magazines, newspaper, food and beverage cartons, glass bottles and containers, and flattened cardboard and paperboard", against "Never Recycle: Plastic bags and films, Styrofoam and foam packaging, paper napkins, towels, plates, cups, and tissues, plastic lids, cups, straws, fast food containers, utensils and plates, plastic wrappers and snack bags, food and liquids." No bulky item, furniture or mattress is accepted at any of the three, no fee is charged and none is staffed to take one. These sites are the county's answer for curbside overflow in rural townships, and a resident of Genoa or Sycamore who drives a mattress to one will find a row of recycling containers and nothing else. Source
• DeKalb County's 2026 collection events are the one county program here with a residency test on the door, and they are stated plainly. The published schedule is headed: "2026 RECYCLING EVENTS — Recycling Collections are available to DeKalb County residents ONLY, proof of address is required." The main event runs three times: "Electronics, Textiles, Aerosol Products, Single Use Propane Tanks, and Latex Paint* Recycling Collection — March 28th, June 20th, October 17th — 9 AM - 12 PM — DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport, 2200 Pleasant St. DeKalb, IL 60115", with the note "*Latex paint items are collected for a fee" and the direction to "Enter from the East at County Farm Rd". A fourth date is separate and gated: "Household Hazardous Waste Drive — May 16th — **Registration required." Contact is 815-748-2408 or recycle@dekalbcounty.org. The accepted list is closed at electronics, textiles, aerosols, single-use propane and latex paint; no mattress, box spring, furniture or general bulky item is collected at any 2026 event, and the county runs no free dump day, voucher or amnesty for bulky waste. The residency rule matters in the other direction too: these events are open to every DeKalb County resident with proof of address, incorporated or not — the county draws no unincorporated-only line. Source
• The "DeKalb County landfill" the county sends unusable furniture to is not a county facility, and that is why no county price for it exists. The county's own 2024 Solid Waste Program Annual Report sets out the relationship: "Beginning in 1995, the Solid Waste Program was funded by a $1.10 per ton tipping fee on waste deposited in the landfill. In 2007, the tipping fee was increased to $1.27 per ton. The Host Fee Agreement for the landfill expansion went into effect in 2014. In August 2014, revenue for the Solid Waste Program transitioned from tipping fees to the Host Fee Agreement." The operator is named explicitly — "The following DeKalb County Landfill data was provided by Waste Management" and "Waste Management voluntarily provided this data from the DeKalb County Landfill" — and the scale is a regional one, not a local convenience center: 491,100 tons deposited in 2024 of which 458,365 tons, or 93.3%, came from outside DeKalb County, an average of 1,889 tons a day. So the county's host relationship gives it a revenue stream and a data feed, not a gate it controls or a rate card it sets. DeKalb County is therefore a county with a large active landfill inside it and no county-published way for a household to use it. Source Not confirmed: Waste Management publishes no facility page for the DeKalb County Landfill: its own DeKalb location page gives no landfill address, no hours, no self-haul rules and no rates, answering "Where can I drop off trash in DeKalb?" only with "WM has a number of locations for convenient trash drop off in DeKalb". Whether a household may self-haul, and what a mattress would cost at the gate, could not be established from any primary source.