How to get rid of a mattress in Palatine, 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 FAQ answer to "How do I dispose of large items?" repeats the one-a-week allowance - "One bulk item may be placed at the curb weekly for collection", with appliances, grills, bicycles, cabinets, furniture, lawn mowers and mattresses named as acceptable - but sets the special-pickup trigger differently from the Bulk Items page, saying that for anything exceeding 60 pounds or 4 feet in length a special pickup may be available at an additional charge. The Bulk Items page says the trigger is 50 pounds or 4 feet and that Groot will schedule such a pickup "at no additional charge". A resident with a queen mattress is over both weight figures, so the two Village pages disagree on whether that booking is free. Separately, the Village's Unacceptable Materials page lists what will not be taken at all: "Commercial Remodeling Refuse, Concrete, Earth, Electronic Waste, Medical Waste, Other Materials Not Permitted by Law, Propane Tanks, Rocks, Sod, Tires, Tree Limbs and Stumps/Logs That Exceed 4 Inches in Diameter" - mattresses are not on that list. Source Not confirmed: The Village publishes two different oversized-bulk thresholds (50 lbs. on the Bulk Items page, 60 lbs. in the FAQ) and two different answers on cost ("at no additional charge" versus "at an additional charge"), and no rate is published for an oversized special pickup, so what a resident pays to have a queen mattress or box spring booked is not established.
• Not an option: Palatine has no drop-off site that takes a mattress. The Village's SWANCC Community Programs page is the list of drop-off options available to Palatine residents through the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, and it covers only battery recycling, compact fluorescent light bulb recycling, document destruction events, electronics recycling, holiday lights, mercury thermometer disposal and prescription medication and sharps disposal, directing residents to swancc.org or 847-724-9205 for locations. Mattresses, furniture and bulky items are not mentioned. SWANCC's own drop-off recycling page likewise lists only plastic bags and overwraps, batteries, bulbs and string lights, electronics, paint and chemicals, styrofoam and textiles. Palatine operates no municipal yard, transfer station or residents' clean-up day for bulky waste, and under code section 8-11 residents are required to dispose of household waste through the municipal system rather than hauling it somewhere themselves. Source
• Not an option: Cook County's own hard-to-recycle drop-off will not take a mattress. The County's Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM), 15800 State St., South Holland, IL 60473, is free to Cook County residents and opens Tuesdays 8 a.m. to noon, Thursdays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and the second and fourth Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It takes household recycling, electronics, clothing and textiles and clean dry #6 polystyrene, and its published guidelines list "Furniture, electronics, paints, mattresses and cleaners/liquids" as "Not Accepted". It sits roughly 45 miles south of Palatine, so it is not an answer for this village on either count. Source
• Not an option: Nothing mattress-specific exists for Palatine. The Mattress Recycling Council, operator of the Bye Bye Mattress network, states it runs "recycling programs in states that have enacted mattress recycling laws" and names four - California, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Oregon. Illinois is not one of them, so there is no MRC collection site, no state recycling fee and no state-funded mattress program here. A search for a dedicated mattress recycler, a retailer take-back or a manufacturer program serving Palatine produced only junk-removal marketing pages and directory listings without a published mattress rate or facility terms, which do not meet the standard for listing. Palatine's collection through Groot treats a mattress as ordinary bulk refuse and neither the Village nor Groot claims it is recycled. Source Not confirmed: What happens to a mattress after Groot collects it in Palatine is not published.
• Not an option: The closest Habitat ReStore, about four miles from Palatine, refuses used mattresses outright. Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley runs ReStore Arlington Heights at 955 E. Rand Road, Arlington Heights, IL 60004 (Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00am - 5:30pm) and ReStore Elgin at 800 N. State Street, Elgin, IL 60123 (Tuesday through Sunday, 9:00am - 4:30pm). Its published materials acceptance sheet takes "All furniture. Upholstered must be in excellent condition-no stains, rips etc." but lists "Used mattresses" under "WHAT WE CANNOT ACCEPT". The sheet notes the list "is based on current inventory and sales" and gives 847-742-9905 for questions; free pickup runs on a one to two week wait and a priority pickup starts at $145, neither of which changes the exclusion. 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