How to get rid of a mattress in Vernon Hills, 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.

• Vernon Hills is the exception among these six: it publishes no free bulk item at all, and a mattress is a paid special pickup arranged directly with the hauler at a price the Village does not disclose. The Village's trash, recycling and organics page lists what it does provide and then says, of anything larger: "To schedule a special pick up, please contact WM directly at 800-964-8988 to arrange for payment and collection." Residents may also start a live chat or email through WM.com. What the Village does give away free are three drop-offs, none of which takes bedding: electronics at Public Works, 490 Greenleaf Drive, at no cost; a new organics drop-off at the same address, Monday through Friday 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM; and medical sharps hosted by Countryside Fire, moving to CFPD Station #1 at 801 S. Midlothian Road, Mundelein from November 1, 2025. There is no bulk item allowance, no annual clean-up week, no sticker route for a large item and no mattress rule published anywhere on the page. Source Not confirmed: WM publishes no price for a Vernon Hills special pickup - no per-item charge, no minimum, no rate card - and the Village states no notice period, no set-out time for a booked item and no wrapping or bed-bug rule. Not confirmed: Nothing published says whether a mattress that fits beside the cart would be taken with the ordinary weekly collection at no charge.
• The Village's own summary of the WM contract that began on December 1, 2025 confirms the gap: bulk collection is not in it. The document lists the services the five-year agreement provides in full - "Curbside Garbage Collection"; "Curbside Recycling Collection"; "Seasonal Curbside Yard Waste/Organics Collection Option: By sticker for $3.85 each; By subscription for $175 for the season (April through November)"; a new off-season curbside organics option at "$120 for season" from December through March subject to a minimum of 150 registered participants; a free organics drop-off at Public Works, 490 Greenleaf Drive; a free electronics drop-off at the same address; a free medical sharps drop-off at Countryside Fire, 600 Deerpath Drive; and a "Senior Discount: 10 percent discount for seniors (65+ years, head of household) on 1x week 35-gallon refuse/recycling collection." No bulk, oversized or large-item collection appears in the list. The agreement covers "single-family and multi-family residences (in general, those homes with garage and driveway)" and expressly excludes businesses and commercial residential properties. Monthly rates from December 1, 2025 are $24.00 for a 35-gallon or 64-gallon single-family cart collected once a week, $25.91 for a 95-gallon, and $50.90 to $52.94 for twice-weekly service; multi-family rates run $20.40 to $22.02 once a week and $43.27 to $45.00 twice. Residents on 35-gallon carts may upgrade to 65-gallon at the same price. The monthly fee "includes garbage and recycling collection" and nothing more. Source Not confirmed: Because the contract summary lists no bulk service, the price and terms of the WM special pickup a Vernon Hills resident is told to book are not published in any Village document.
• The Village's FAQ says the same thing in the plainest words it uses anywhere: "The Village has a contract with Waste Management (WM) for residential garbage and recycling collection", and "You must contact WM for special pickups if the items are large or do not get picked up on the regular route." Yard waste and food scrap collection "runs from April to late November and can be purchased from Waste Management on a seasonal subscription or by purchasing pay-as-you-go stickers", with stickers sold at Village Hall, the Sullivan Center, Walgreens, Mariano's and through WM directly. WM is at 800-964-8988. The FAQ names no per-item charge for a special pickup, and no item list. Source Not confirmed: The FAQ states the obligation to call WM for a large item but publishes no charge, no notice period and no mattress-specific condition.
• Vernon Hills' code does define a bulk item and it draws the line at 50 pounds, which is the closest thing the Village has to a published rule about a mattress. Sec. 9-1 provides: "Bulk items means items capable of being handled by one person which individually do not exceed 50 pounds in weight and which are able to be collected with a standard packer type collection vehicle", and defines "waste" as an all-inclusive term "including all refuse, garbage, rubbish, white goods, bulk items and other materials being discarded throughout the village". Sec. 9-2 applies the chapter to the storage, collection and disposal of bulk items expressly. Sec. 9-42(a) then sets the divide: all residential municipal waste from dwellings with a garage and driveway "shall be placed in containers as are supplied by the scavenger authorized by contract", the container "shall not be in excess of 96 gallons", and "Those items that weigh more than 50 pounds or which cannot be lifted by one person or require a special handling will require the owner to contact a licensed scavenger for pickup." Sec. 9-4(c) sets the set-out window: "Containers, debris, refuse, landscaping materials, or recyclables shall not be placed curbside, in public view for collection, before 5:00 p.m. on the day prior to the scheduled collection. Containers shall be removed and stored on private property in accordance with this section before 7:00 p.m. on the collection day" - a same-day put-away rule, stricter than the county norm. Sec. 9-4(d) requires containers to be stored out of public view, with an exception for detached single-family property allowing rear-yard storage or side-yard storage at least 15 feet behind the front building face. Sec. 9-4(b) makes it unlawful "to place or otherwise deposit any waste or waste container on any public street, alley, sidewalk or other public place" except as the chapter allows, and Sec. 9-7(a) forbids depositing waste "upon any private property, whether owned by such person or not ... except in proper containers as herein authorized for collection". Sec. 9-45(a) restricts collection to between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Sec. 9-3(e) declares any unauthorized accumulation of waste a public nuisance, abatable ten days after notice. Source Not confirmed: The code brings bulk items inside the collected waste stream and caps them at 50 pounds, but the Village's own service pages publish no free bulk allowance and direct residents to pay WM instead; nothing published reconciles the two. Not confirmed: Sec. 9-42(a) requires residential waste to be placed in the supplied container, which a mattress cannot be, and the chapter says nothing about how a bulk item under 50 pounds is actually presented.
• Vernon Hills does not publish a fine for a refuse offense. Chapter 9 sets no penalty of its own, and Sec. 1-11(a) of the code sends the reader to the fee schedule: a violation "where no specific penalty is provided therefor ... shall be punished by a fine of not less than the amounts specified in Chapter 25 - Comprehensive Fees and Penalties", with each day a separate offense under Sec. 1-11(b) and restitution available under Sec. 1-11(c). Chapter 25's entry for refuse, Sec. 25-9 "Garbage and Refuse - Chapter 9", contains a single line and it is not a fine: "Scavenger (solid and/or liquid) per company/per year $500.00". The chapter carries specific fines elsewhere - $250.00 for failing to obtain a business license, $250.00 for a donation-box violation - but none for Chapter 9. So the Village publishes a $500 annual hauler license fee and no stated penalty amount for a resident who dumps or mis-sets-out a mattress. Source Not confirmed: Chapter 25 lists no fine for Chapter 9 and Sec. 1-11 provides no fallback amount of its own, so the actual dollar exposure for a Vernon Hills refuse or dumping offense could not be established from the code.
• Vernon Hills has three free drop-offs and not one of them takes a mattress. The Village's page lists an electronics drop-off at Public Works, 490 Greenleaf Drive, at no cost; an organics drop-off at the same address, Monday through Friday 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM; and medical sharps at Countryside Fire. There is no municipal yard, transfer station, landfill, compost site or residents' tip day that would accept bedding, and no clean-up day. Because the Village also publishes no free curbside bulk item, a Vernon Hills household either pays WM for a special pickup at an undisclosed price or hauls the mattress out of the village itself; the nearest site that states it accepts mattresses is the Waste Connections Round Lake Transfer Station at 201 Porter Dr, Round Lake Park, about twelve miles north-west. Source
• There is nothing mattress-specific in Vernon Hills. The Village partners with SWALCO on clothing and textile recycling, shoe recycling, residential electronics, pharmaceutical collection and chemical waste, and runs its own free electronics and organics drop-offs at Public Works - a broad diversion program with a mattress-shaped hole in it. No mattress recycler, no Bye Bye Mattress collection site, no retailer or manufacturer take-back and no Village or agency mattress program is published. A Vernon Hills mattress goes into a paid WM special pickup for disposal. Source Not confirmed: Nothing published says where a WM special pickup takes a Vernon Hills mattress.
• Not an option: Vernon Hills has no reuse route for a mattress, which matters more here because the Village runs no free bulk collection. Habitat for Humanity of Lake-McHenry, the Habitat affiliate that now covers Lake County, publishes Donation Guidelines that list under items not accepted: "Mattresses/Box springs/Sofa beds", alongside baby items and cribs, books and toys, granite slabs, clothing, shoes and linens, curtains, blinds and window treatments, dishwashers, electronics, hot tubs, pianos, used rugs, wooden ladders and weapons. The furniture it does take is "tables, dressers, desks, chairs, hutches, bookcases", and "upholstered items must be from smoke free, pet free homes". Its two donation doors are the Woodstock ReStore, 133 South Eastwood Drive, Woodstock, IL 60098 (815-334-0500) and the McHenry ReStore, 903 Front St, McHenry, IL 60050 (815-331-8153), both Tuesday through Saturday 9am-5pm with "Drop off donations are only accepted Tuesday - Saturday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m." Both are out of the county and neither will take the mattress, so the trip is wasted. Source Not confirmed: Habitat for Humanity Lake County's older online pickup scheduler still lists box springs and mattresses in its furniture categories, which contradicts the Lake-McHenry guidelines; the affiliate publishes no statement reconciling the two.

• 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