How to get rid of a mattress in Princeton, 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.

• Not an option: Princeton has a drop-off site and an annual clean-up, and neither is an answer for a mattress. The city's own page closes the clean-up route flatly: "When are Clean Up Days? The City of Princeton no longer has City Wide Clean Up Days." Its drop-off is for recyclables only and has moved: "The drive through recycling center on N Euclid Ave was closed in April 2018 and moved out to 1530 Peggy Lane. Do not dump garbage or electronics here." What that site takes is the curbside recycling list - cartons, metal cans, plastics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7, glass bottles and jars, newspapers, paperboard and cardboard, paper and mail - and what it refuses is "Window, plate or mirror glass, Ceramic & pottery, Light bulbs, Drinking glasses, Styrofoam, Electronic waste". Furniture and bedding are on neither list, and the site's own instruction not to dump garbage there settles it. Princeton's answer for a mattress is the sticker collection the Street & Sanitation Department runs itself. 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