How to get rid of a mattress in Winnetka, 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: Winnetka runs its own municipal yard, and a mattress cannot be taken there. The Public Works Yards at 1390 Willow Road, Winnetka, IL 60093 (Monday through Friday 7:30 AM to 4 PM, 847-716-3568) operate three resident drop-off programs and nothing else: residential electronics, accepted "April through November on Thursdays between 1 and 3 PM", with the FAQ noting that "household appliances that contain motors (i.e. mixers, food processors, blenders, hair dryers, etc.) cannot be recycled through these programs"; holiday lights, where "Year round, all types of holiday string-type lights will be accepted at the drop-off location at Public Works, 1390 Willow Road during regular business hours" for C7, C9, LED, rope and mini-lights and extension cords, but "The Village cannot accept garland, live greens, wreathes, or other non-recyclables"; and compost, which "when available, can be picked up at no charge at the Winnetka Public Works Yards, 1390 Willow Road, Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 3 PM." No refuse, furniture or mattress self-haul is offered to residents at the yard, and the Village's own answer for bulky material is a booked, priced special collection at the curb rather than a drop-off. Unlike Lake Forest, which runs a residents' Compost & Recycling Center, Winnetka's yard is not a general household drop-off site. Source
• Not an option: The one substantial reuse outlet inside Winnetka refuses mattresses in its own words. The Winnetka Thrift Shop, 992 Green Bay Road, Winnetka, a non-profit whose proceeds support local mental health services, publishes a donation page listing what it takes - "Bedding and table linens; Holiday decor - decorative items; Framed Art; Coffee Table Books, hardcover fiction and nonfiction preferred; Toys in good condition" and "Furniture - larger items please email ... for approval" - and then a heading "What we do not accept" under which the first three entries are "Car seats/booster seats/high chairs/baby tubs; Crutches, walkers, and other medical equipment; Mattresses or box springs", followed by CRT and flat-screen televisions, printers, monitors and computer components, wires and cables, VHS tapes, VCRs and cassettes, non-working electronics and sporting equipment. It adds: "Unfortunately, the Thrift Shop cannot accept all items. Items that have a high incidence of recall cannot be accepted." A Winnetka resident hoping to donate a mattress locally has no outlet: the shop that takes furniture by prior approval excludes mattresses and box springs by name. Source
• Not an option: Nothing mattress-specific exists in Winnetka. The Village's Public Works FAQ enumerates every special-material stream it operates or refers residents to - residential electronics dropped at the Public Works Yards or at the SWANCC transfer station "most Saturdays from 9 to 11 AM"; household hazardous waste, for which "Fuels, oil-based paints, insecticides, etc. cannot be placed in your trash cans and will not be picked up" and residents are sent to Illinois EPA collection events; a quarterly Clean Harbors household hazardous waste pickup; holiday lights and cords; Christmas trees, after which "a $2.75 refuse sticker will be required to ensure pickup"; compost; and construction debris via LRS Northbrook or the SWANCC Glenview Transfer Station. No mattress recycling program, no Bye Bye Mattress or Mattress Recycling Council collection site and no manufacturer or retailer take-back appears anywhere in the Village's own material. Winnetka is a SWANCC member community, and SWANCC's agency route for household waste is disposal, not mattress recovery. For Winnetka a mattress is a bulky-waste problem, not a recycling one. 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