How to get rid of a mattress in Harvey, 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.

• Harvey's garbage ordinance treats a discarded bed as household waste but limits what the city will take. Section 8-16-010 defines "household waste" as "any of all of the following items discarded by a family unit: garbage, refuse, ashes, tin cans, bottles, cartons, books, newspapers, boxes and other trash, including discarded household furniture, furnishings, fixtures and appliances of all kinds, manure, dead animals or parts thereof, trees, tree branches...". Section 8-16-220 caps the allowance: "Each single-family residential dwelling unit using city garbage service shall be permitted to place in the alley or other suitable location designated by the city the following volume of garbage: Two ninety-five-gallon cans or their equivalent volume", with the same allowance per occupied unit in a multifamily building. Section 8-16-230(A) authorizes "the commissioner of the department of public works... to collect fees for the removal of excess refuse or garbage from occupancies which are entitled to city collection service" at rates set in Chapter 3-01. Section 8-16-090 restricts the curb: "It is unlawful for any person to place such waste container on the parkway except on those days when the garbage is to be removed by the city." Section 8-16-020 forbids unlicensed collection: "No person unless licensed shall be permitted to get or collect or remove from any street, alley or other public place any garbage and household waste... or to interfere with or disturb any of the receptacles for garbage or other refuse." Section 8-16-200 sets the monthly charge for "refuse, yard waste, recyclable and bulk items material collection service" for single-family and two-family dwellings at the "current rate charged to city of Harvey by garbage subcontractor. If contractual rate increases with the city of Harvey, the resident will be required to pay same", and requires "More than two (2) units... a private scavenger". Section 8-16-170 bars city collection from buildings with more than three family units. Source Not confirmed: Section 8-16-200 states no dollar amount for the monthly refuse charge - it defers to whatever the city's subcontractor charges - so Harvey's residential refuse rate is not published anywhere the resident can read it. Not confirmed: Chapter 8-16 never mentions mattresses, sets no wrapping rule, and grants no bulky-item allowance; the free weekly large item is a contract term on the city website, not an ordinance right. Not confirmed: Section 8-16-180 prices only excess tree waste ($1.25 per cubic yard) and building debris ($1.75 per cubic yard) charged by a licensed private contractor, and those figures date from the prior code.
• Leaving a mattress on a vacant lot in Harvey is not a litter ticket; it is a five-figure nuisance offense. Section 9-44-010: "No person shall dump or deposit or cause to be dumped or deposited on any lot or parcel of real estate within the city, any garbage, ashes, refuse, trash, miscellaneous waste, manure or other substance that may contain disease germs or may be scattered by the wind, or may decompose, or become filthy, noxious or unhealthful, except at a sanitary landfill site, liquid waste handling facility or transfer station for which a permit has been properly issued... Such dumping without a permit is hereby declared to be a nuisance." Beyond the $5,000 to $10,000 fine set in Chapter 3-01, "Offenses may also be punishable as a misdemeanor by incarceration in the county jail for a term not to exceed six (6) months", and "any person who violates this section shall be liable to the city for three (3) times the amount of all costs and expenses incurred by the city in abating a nuisance." A contractor caught dumping can have its city contract terminated on written notice, and "Any business license issued by the city to any person who violates this section two (2) or more times within any ten (10) year period shall be subject to revocation". A vehicle used in the offense "shall be subject to seizure and impoundment". The city's own residential services page asks residents to report dumping to the Harvey Police at 708-331-2131. Source
• Not an option: Harvey's own reuse charity will take the bed frame and not the mattress, and says so in writing. Restoration Ministries - a Harvey ministry whose thrift stores fund and staff its Harvey House and Tabitha House programs - runs a store at "14950 Dixie Highway, Harvey, IL 60426", open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a second at 351 W 162nd Street, South Holland. Accepted donations are "Furniture, Appliances (ex: washers, dryers, stoves, etc.), Gently used clothing, shoes, and accessories, Household items (lamps, paintings, small appliances), Knick-knacks, Jewelry, Gently used linens, towels, blankets, DVDs, videos, CDs". The items not accepted are "Large, older TVs, mattresses, baby car seats, and cribs". Free pickups are arranged at 708-876-8413 or rmipickup@gmail.com, weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and donations may also be dropped at the South Holland store; the ministry's main line is 708.333.3370. Source
• Harvey publishes no drop-off of its own - no city yard, no transfer point, no clean-up day appears on the city's Public Works or residential services pages - and its self-haul answer is a paid city pick-up ticket rather than a gate a resident can drive to. The nearest site that publishes a mattress policy and takes household loads is Tri-State Disposal's transfer station at 13903 S Ashland Ave, Riverdale, about four miles east, whose accepted-materials list includes "Furniture, mattresses, and appliances (some restrictions apply)"; it is already recorded on this site for Riverdale. Cook County's CHaRM drop-off in South Holland, the nearest public facility, refuses mattresses. Source Not confirmed: Tri-State publishes only a "$10.00 Environmental Fee... added to each load" and quotes the rest by phone, so no per-mattress gate rate exists. Not confirmed: Harvey's municipal code (Section 9-44-010) contemplates residents using "a sanitary landfill site, liquid waste handling facility or transfer station for which a permit has been properly issued", but the city names none.
• There is nothing mattress-specific in Harvey. Illinois has no mattress stewardship program and no Bye Bye Mattress collection site, and the city's Waste/Debris Collection page - the page a resident is sent to for anything larger than a bin - offers exactly two routes: the hauler's bundled bulk collection and the $98.50 Public Works disposal ticket. No mattress recycler, retailer take-back or diversion program is published for Harvey by the city, and nothing suggests a collected mattress is anything but landfilled. Source Not confirmed: The city does not name its disposal destination, and the hauler it names on this page (Republic Disposal) publishes no Harvey-specific mattress policy.

• 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