How to get rid of a mattress in New Lenox, 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.

• The Village's own statement of the bulk rule is shorter than the hauler's and adds the sticker requirement for a second item. New Lenox tells new residents: "Garbage service is weekly and recycling is every other week. Pickup is on Thursday Schedule found here or Friday Schedule found here, depending on the area. Garbage carts are available in 35 gallons, 65 gallons, or 95 gallon sizes... Garbage that does not fit in your cart should be placed in your own 35 gallon garbage bags or can. Each bag must have a RED Village of New Lenox extra refuse sticker attached to it. If you are placing garbage in an extra can, the can must have 3 stickers attached to it. Bulk pickup service is limited to one free item per week, and additional items will require RED extra refuse stickers. Stickers can be purchased at the Village Hall, Berkots or Jewel in New Lenox. This service is provided through Homewood Disposal." Sticker outlets published elsewhere by the Village are Berkots at 2141 Calistoga Drive (815-463-5046), Jewel/Osco at 2021 E Laraway (815-463-4950) and 475 Nelson Road (815-462-0018), the Village of New Lenox at 1 Veterans Parkway (815-462-6400) and Whitmore Ace Hardware at 358 W Maple Street (815-485-3040). Village Hall is at 815-462-6400. The Village imposes no wrapping rule of its own on a mattress. Source Not confirmed: The Village does not publish the price of a RED extra refuse sticker, nor how many a second mattress would need. Not confirmed: The Village's own pages do not name a mattress as an eligible bulk item; that comes from the hauler.
• New Lenox is one of the few places where the one-free-large-item rule is in the ordinance rather than only in a contract. Chapter 70 of the Village Code defines refuse in Sec. 70-32 as "any solid waste, excluding engine blocks, transmissions, axles, tires, heavy metal parts, broken concrete, stone, clay, dirt, metal, swimming pools or refuse resulting from building construction or landscape waste, carpeting or material which will cause damage to equipment or injury to haulers, all of which excluded materials will be collected and removed by contractor; provided, however, that one large item of furniture or an appliance will be picked up if the item is set out on the scheduled pickup date." Sec. 70-35(a)(1) makes the container rules compulsory - single-family dwellings must use "an official village prepaid disposal refuse bag, sold exclusively by local retail stores" or "the rental of a village-approved 45-gallon toter from the contractor/hauler" - and Sec. 70-35(a)(4) adds that "Refuse and recyclables placed in other than approved containers will not be picked up." The set-out window is Sec. 70-38: "No refuse which is to be deposited for collection at any curb shall be so placed more than 24 hours prior to the collection day, and no container shall so remain at the curb or alley 24 hours after the collection." Sec. 70-34 requires refuse to be removed "once every seven days" and kept in covered containers meanwhile, and Sec. 70-37(a) requires weekly collection. Dumping is Sec. 70-42: "It shall be unlawful for any person to dispose of his refuse or landscape waste upon the property of another or on public rights-of-way or public property, without the consent of the owner, for the purpose of having such refuse or landscape waste picked up by a scavenger." Sec. 70-35(b) adds that "It shall be unlawful to place refuse generated by residential properties in commercial or industrial property refuse containers." Anything set out becomes Village property on collection under Sec. 70-43, and it is an offense under Sec. 70-46 to possess a counterfeit Village refuse bag. Sec. 70-40 lets the Village serve notice to remove garbage from private property, do the work after ten days, bill the owner, and file a lien if unpaid within fifteen days of the bill, foreclosing if unpaid after eighteen months. On charges the code fixes only recycling: Sec. 70-41(a) bills "the pickup and disposal of recyclable materials at a rate of $2.65 per month per single-family or multifamily dwelling unit", while bag and toter prices "shall be set by contract upon the acceptance of a qualified bid". The code imposes no wrapping or plastic-cover requirement on a mattress. Source Not confirmed: The code's one-large-item allowance is written into the definition of refuse rather than as an entitlement, and the chapter does not name mattresses or box springs. Not confirmed: The code sets no price for the official Village refuse bag or the extra refuse sticker, leaving those to the hauling contract.
• Breaching New Lenox's refuse rules is a fifty-dollar administrative ticket rather than a court matter. Sec. 70-33 of the Village Code provides that "any person who violates, disobeys, omits, neglects or refuses to comply with any provision of this article shall be sentenced as provided in section 1-15 of this Code for each offense." Sec. 1-15 is the Village's administrative ticket section: "Administrative tickets may be used for those ordinance violations listed in subsection (b) of this section and issued by police officers, code enforcement officers, village zoning officers, inspectors, or any authorized village employee", and "At the discretion of the officer or agent of the village authorized to issue such administrative tickets, an administrative ticket may be issued as a courtesy in lieu of arrest." Its fee schedule lists "Accumulation, storage, collection and disposal of refuse | Chapter 70, article II | 50.00" - a $50.00 ticket, set beside $50.00 for "Buildings and building regulations" and "Illegal construction debris", $50.00 for "Nuisance violations" and $100.00 for "Graffiti". So putting a mattress out more than 24 hours early, leaving it at the curb more than 24 hours after collection, or dumping it on someone else's property or in a commercial dumpster exposes a New Lenox resident to a $50.00 administrative ticket per offense. Source Not confirmed: The section does not say whether each day of a continuing violation is a separate offense. Not confirmed: It does not state what penalty applies if a ticket is contested and the matter goes further.
• Self-hauling a mattress is effectively not an option for a New Lenox resident: the hauler's own transfer stations say they are not set up for household loads and publish no rates. Homewood Disposal runs three transfer stations - "East Hazel Crest Transfer, 17450 S. Laflin Ave., East Hazel Crest, IL", Monday through Friday 5:30am-5pm and Saturday 5:30am-noon; "Park Forest Transfer, 25 South Street, Park Forest, IL", Monday through Friday 8am-4:30pm, closed on weekends; and "Valparaiso Transfer, 3101 Bertholet Blvd., Valparaiso, IN". Each Illinois site carries the line "The minimum charge is for 1 ton" and "Please call for rates." The company answers the eligibility question both ways: "Yes, homeowners and businesses can use the transfer station to drop off large loads of waste material. Material is usually brought to the transfer station in trailers and trucks. We often serve roofing companies, trucks from local villages, landscaping companies, and building contractors. You pay for the amount of material you drop off. Waste is charged by the ton. We are not setup to accept small loads of household waste." And on the minimum: "A 1-ton (2,000 lb) minimum charge applies at the East Hazel Crest and Park Forest, Illinois locations... Customers may drop off loads weighing less than the minimum, but the applicable minimum charge will still apply." Accepted material is "general waste, roofing shingles, loads of building materials, and yard waste", with tires, e-waste, liquids, engines, oils, hazardous waste and all batteries refused. Payment is "cash, check or credit card". A single mattress would therefore be charged as a full ton at an unpublished per-ton rate, at a site twenty-plus miles from New Lenox. The Village itself publishes no drop-off, yard or residents' drop-off day for bulky items; its own Public Works programs are leaf vacuuming and branch collection only. Source Not confirmed: No per-ton rate is published for any of the three transfer stations - the site says only "Please call for rates." Not confirmed: No Will County transfer station, landfill or convenience center with a published mattress or per-ton rate was found closer to New Lenox.
• The nearest Habitat ReStore to New Lenox takes no published position on mattresses at all, which means a donor has to turn up and find out. Will County Habitat for Humanity's Joliet ReStore is at "1395 N Larkin Ave, Joliet", 815-714-7100, with "Drop-Offs 9 - 3:00 p.m. Tuesday - Saturday". Its donations page publishes no accept or refuse list of any kind, saying only that "All donations are subject to staff review and approval before they can be accepted. For this reason, we are unable to approve donation requests over the phone." Personal donation pickups carry "a $25 pick-up fee to help off-set driver and our truck operational costs"; corporate donors of "excess inventory or returned items" get "complimentary pickup" through the procurement coordinator at 219-775-5175; and delivery out of the store is "$100 - Within a 10 mile radius." Nothing on the page names mattresses, box springs or bedding either as accepted or as refused, and the store's own rule that it cannot approve a donation by phone means the question cannot be settled in advance. Source Not confirmed: The ReStore publishes no mattress policy, so neither an acceptance nor a refusal is established. Not confirmed: No published item list exists for the Joliet ReStore at all.

• 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