How to get rid of a mattress in Park Ridge, 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.

• Park Ridge is unusual in that its ordinance, not just its hauler leaflet, names the mattress. Article 5, Chapter 12 of the City Code, section 5-12-8(A), says: "The City will provide a once per week normal household refuse collection and disposal service. The pickup will be at the curbside or alley as appropriate. Bulky household items such as sofas, furniture, carpeting, beds, box springs, mattresses, fixtures, televisions, and stereos will be picked up weekly." The same subsection excludes white goods and construction material - "stoves, ovens, microwave ovens, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, dehumidifiers, water softeners, water heaters, trash compactors, and dishwashers. This material shall be disposed of by the resident." Note that the ordinance sets no numeric limit on bulky items while the City's current page and the SBC contract allow two per week; the two-item allowance is a contract term, not a code limit. The timing rules that get enforced are in 5-12-9: "It shall be unlawful and it is hereby declared to be a nuisance for any person to deposit litter, or any can, container or other receptacle containing same upon the City streets or parkways prior to 3:00 p.m. the day before collection of garbage and refuse by refuse vehicles", and it is equally a nuisance "to allow or to permit any refuse container or other receptacle to remain upon the City streets or parkways after the collection of refuse by the refuse vehicle for a period of longer than 24 hours". Section 5-12-7(D) adds that "Refuse not collected shall be removed to private property not later than 12:00 midnight on the evening of the collection day unless collection is scheduled for the following day" - so an uncollected mattress cannot simply be left out. Dumping one anywhere else is littering under 5-12-2, which makes it unlawful "to throw, dump, deposit, drop, leave, or in any way place litter upon any public or private property", with "furniture" named in the definition of litter in 5-12-1. Under 5-12-17 the City may clear it and charge the violator: after five days' written notice "the City Manager is hereby authorized and empowered to pay for the disposal of such litter or to order its disposal by the City and the violator shall pay the costs and expenses incurred." Source Not confirmed: Chapter 12 states no fine amount for a littering or set-out violation; the general penalty section was not read.
• Park Ridge runs no drop-off of its own that takes a mattress - the City's refuse page offers only compost drop-off for food scraps and collection bins for bulbs and electronics - but the City is a SWANCC member community and the Agency's transfer station is about five miles away in Des Plaines, which is the realistic self-haul answer for a resident who cannot wait for collection day. The Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) runs the Glenview Transfer Station at 3 Providence Way, Des Plaines, IL 60016 - "on the east side of Des Plaines River Road, just north of Central Road, directly across Des Plaines River Road from the Maryville Academy". SWANCC states that "Residents may also bring refuse and debris to the transfer station. You will be required to unload your own vehicle." Its rate card, dated March 1, 2026, prices the awkward item separately from tonnage: "Mattresses and Futons $75.00 per item (box springs charged as regular waste, by weight)", against "Commercial and Residential Waste $100.00 per ton ($25.00 minimum for 500lb. or less)". Access is not limited to member communities for waste - only the Saturday electronics collection is "available ONLY to residents of SWANCC member communities". The practical constraints are the hours and the unloading: Monday through Friday 6-10 AM and 2-3:30 PM, Saturday 6 AM to 12 PM, closed Sunday, because the site "is extremely busy weekdays between 10 am and 2 pm and is CLOSED to residents and contractors during this time". A high-visibility reflective safety vest is required and sold at the scale, payment is by credit card only, and the site is closed on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Source Not confirmed: SWANCC does not say whether a mattress must be wrapped or covered to be accepted at the scale.
• Not an option: Illinois has no statewide mattress recycling program and nothing mattress-specific serves this village. The Mattress Recycling Council, which operates the Bye Bye Mattress network, lists its program states on its own programs page: California, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon and Rhode Island. Illinois is not among them, so there is no state-funded collection site, no recycling fee paid at purchase and no free drop-off to send anyone to. Twenty-four Illinois cities researched before this one turned up no Illinois mattress recycler with a street address and published household terms, and a fresh search for one serving the north-west Cook County suburbs again produced only national junk-removal brokers quoting per-item haul-away prices, which is a removal service rather than a recycling facility and is out of scope. The honest answer for a resident here is that the mattress goes out with the village collection and is landfilled. Source
• Not an option: The nearest Habitat resale store to Park Ridge will not take a used mattress, which is worth knowing before loading the car. Habitat for Humanity Chicago's ReStore donation page lists what it turns away: "The main items we DO NOT [accept]: Clothing | Mattresses | Televisions | Used Doors & Windows | Paint | Sleeper Sofas | China Cabinets." The store is ReStore Chicago North at 6040 N Pulaski Rd, Chicago, IL 60646, roughly four miles from central Park Ridge; the same refusal applies at the organization's second store at 6057 S Western Ave. The refusal covers the mattress itself, not the bed frame - furniture is accepted - so a bed can be donated with the mattress removed. 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