How to get rid of a mattress in Benton Harbor, MI.

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.

• Benton Harbor's dumping and litter penalties are among the heaviest published by a small Michigan city, and they are set out in figures rather than left to a court. Under Sec. 18-21(d), a vehicle owner convicted of dumping material on property without the owner's written permission "shall be punished by a fine of not less than three hundred dollars ($300.00) and not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) or by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ninety (90) days, or by both," with community service available and each act a separate offense. The general penalties in Sec. 18-29 and Sec. 18-63 run on a rising scale: a maximum of $500.00 and "a minimum of one hundred dollars ($100.00) for the first offense and a minimum of two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) for the second offense and a minimum of five hundred dollars ($500.00) for the third and additional offenses," plus up to ninety days. Sec. 18-26(c) prices loose debris on private property separately, requiring immediate removal and "a minimum fine of fifteen ($15.00) dollars for the first violation, twenty-five ($25.00) dollars for the second violation, and one hundred ($100.00) dollars for the third and any subsequent violations in the same calendar year," with no warnings given and three days to clear the property. Sec. 18-20(d) and Sec. 18-64 both let the City clear material itself after five days from a mailed notice and charge the violator "a civil penalty up to as much as three (3) times the cost of the removal services." Sec. 18-25 covers the case a mattress most often turns up in, an eviction: a landlord must notify the inspection division of intended tenant set-outs, has twenty-four hours to comply, and under Sec. 18-25(f) "The city will charge one hundred dollars ($100.00) per truck load." Source Not confirmed: The $100.00 per truck load in Sec. 18-25(f) is an eviction set-out charge billed to the landlord and is not a price any household can buy a mattress pickup at
• Benton Harbor pays residents to catch dumpers. A news release the City posted on June 18, 2025, headed "Report Illegal Dumping - Get Rewarded," tells residents they can "Help stop illegal dumping and earn a $100 reward by reporting offenders with photo evidence," and sets three steps to the reward: fill out the form with a photo, "Be willing to testify in court & show up for hearings as requested," and a "Criminal conviction reached or court judgment requiring cleanup." The release is explicit that the money is conditional -- "Rewards are issued only if you testify in court and a criminal conviction is reached or if offender cleans the property" -- so a photograph alone earns nothing. The City Commission approved a "Trash, Rubbish, and Littering Reward Program" by resolution in its May 2025 session, which is the authority behind it. A dumped mattress is exactly the kind of thing the program is aimed at, and for a resident the practical point is the reverse of the headline: in Benton Harbor someone may be photographing the alley. Source Not confirmed: The release does not say which ordinance section a reported dumper is charged under, how long a claim takes, or whether the reward is per offender or per report
• The resolution that put the sticker requirement into Benton Harbor's code shows plainly that it set no price. Headed "Resolution to amend the City of Benton Harbor's garbage, refuse and litter ordinance to provide for clarification on amending rates and charges, creation of different categories of trash collection, and to clarify that deposits for rentals of public parks may be used to pay for garbage collection," it recites that "the fees for trash and garbage collection for the residents of the City of Benton Harbor have not kept pace with the costs and expenses for such collection" and then rewrites Sec. 18-65 to read that rates "shall be prescribed from time to time by the City Commission by Resolution" and that stickers must be bought at City Hall "for the prices established from time to time by Resolution of the City Commission." No dollar figure appears anywhere in the two-page document. The City Commission's own resolution index lists a separate February 2025 "Resolution establishing garbage collection rates, billing processes, creation of tailored collection categories and the use of stickers for waste disposal," and the City publishes the title of that resolution but not its text, so the sticker prices it set are on record with the City and nowhere a resident can read them. Source Not confirmed: The February 2025 resolution that actually sets the sticker prices is listed by title in the City's resolution index but its text is not published, so the amount a resident pays for a large-item sticker cannot be established from any City source Not confirmed: Whether the sticker price varies by item, and whether a mattress falls in a different category from an extra bag of household trash, is not published

• WDS 450267, MIG000025706 regulatory page gives 6999 County Road 487, Atlanta MI 49709, versus operator 6751 Landfill Rd in inv5-005. Specific/legal names also have apparent spelling variants. Same named authority is an identity candidate; parcel/entrance/address equivalence unproven. Preserve both addresses. Source
• EGLE (July 27, 2026) says many Michigan communities host annual collection events for hard-to-dispose items including mattresses, lists summer–fall 2026 events, and points to EGLE's collection directory at Michigan.gov/egleHHW. No statewide mattress stewardship program or landfill ban found on EGLE pages as of 2026-09-22. Source