How to get rid of a mattress in Wilmette, 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: Checked and rejected as a mattress recycler. GreenWay Recycling at 2100 S. Kilbourn Ave in Chicago, one block east of Cicero Avenue and one block north of Cermak Road, is named in third-party listings as a Chicago-area mattress drop-off, but its own site does not support that. GreenWay describes itself as providing "waste and recycling services for contractors, homeowners, and businesses" - dumpster rentals and drop-off recycling of construction debris, metals, landscaping waste, cardboard and paper. Mattresses appear nowhere in its accepted-materials list, and it publishes no price, no hours and no drop-off terms for one. On the standard applied here - a street address plus published terms - it does not qualify, and it is recorded only so that the listing sites' claim is not repeated. Nothing mattress-specific exists in any of these six municipalities: no dedicated mattress recycler, no Bye Bye Mattress or MRC collection site (Illinois is not an MRC state and runs no statewide mattress program), and no municipal or hauler program that recycles a mattress rather than burying it. Source Not confirmed: GreenWay Recycling publishes no household mattress policy or price; whether it would take one over the scale is unestablished and it is not listed.
• Wilmette's Refuse & Recycling page is short and points at the two things that matter: the Village code's container rules and the hauler's page. It repeats the code requirement for "watertight containers with close-fitting covers having a capacity of not less than ten (10) gallons and not more than 32 gallons", says containers should not go to the curb before 6:00 p.m. on the eve of collection and must be removed by 6:00 p.m. the following day, and links residents to LRS's Wilmette service page for what is accepted. The Village is at 1200 Wilmette Avenue; refuse questions go to 847-251-2700 and Engineering & Public Works is at 847-853-7500. LRS has collected garbage, recycling and organics for Wilmette on a four-day-a-week schedule since January 1, 2024. Source Not confirmed: Wilmette runs no drop-off of its own for a mattress; the nearest transfer station is the SWANCC Glenview Transfer Station in Des Plaines, already recorded for Cook County, at $75.00 per mattress.
• The Village of Wilmette's published fee schedule lists exactly two refuse charges: "Refuse Charges $28.00/month" and "Yard Waste Stickers $3.00 Per Sticker". There is no bulk-item fee, no special-collection fee and no mattress fee anywhere in the schedule - which is consistent with LRS taking bulk items each week as part of the service rather than charging per item. Questions on charges not shown go to Community Development at 847-853-7550. Source Not confirmed: The absence of a bulk-item line in the fee schedule is not the same as a published statement that bulk collection is free.

• 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