How to get rid of a mattress in East Grand Rapids, 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.

• East Grand Rapids is a separate city from Grand Rapids, and it collects no household trash at all. Its Public Works refuse FAQ answers the missed-pickup question by sending the resident to their own contractor - for household trash or recycling, call your hauler - and the city picks up only yard waste, fall leaves, brush and Christmas trees on its own routes. The same page closes the other obvious door in the city's own words: "there is no drop off site in East Grand Rapids." A resident who misses a seasonal city pickup is told to store the material or call a private hauler. The eight questions on the page cover ornamental grasses (tied, bundled and under 40 pounds), the yard waste schedule and holiday shifts, loose leaves from the second full week of October through the first full week of December, the return of yard waste collection in the first full week of April, Friday pickup for larger brush piles needing specialized equipment, and Christmas trees and natural greenery set out during the first two full weeks of January - with anything carrying metal, such as a tree stand or wired garland, left for the resident to dispose of. Mattresses, bedding and bulk items are not mentioned anywhere on the page. Source Not confirmed: The city publishes no list of the haulers it licenses, so a resident is told to call "your hauler" without being told who is available. Not confirmed: No bulk-item or mattress term, allowance or price is published by the city or named for any licensed hauler. Not confirmed: The free mattress recycling day run by the neighboring City of Grand Rapids was reported only on news sites, not on that city's own pages, when this was checked; whether an East Grand Rapids resident is eligible for it could not be established from a primary source.
• East Grand Rapids does not use the curb, and that is set by ordinance rather than by a hauler's preference - which matters to anyone who assumed a mattress could simply be put out front. Chapter 21, Sec. 2.3 requires the occupant of any premises accumulating solid waste to keep "one or more approved containers", in a number "sufficient to conveniently store the normal accumulation of solid waste and source separated materials on said premises for a period of not less than seven days", each "kept tightly covered with an impervious cover except when open for the deposit or removal of solid waste" and "kept in a clean and sanitary condition at all times". Placement is the distinctive part: "Both solid waste containers and containers for source separated materials shall be placed inside a building or at the rear or side of a building at a place which is reasonably inconspicuous, but shall be accessible to the waste hauler." The section also gives the Public Works Director standing authority to "make such reasonable rules and regulations relating to the type of containers and the methods of storage of containers as the Director may deem necessary for the public health, safety and welfare." Source Not confirmed: The section regulates containers and their placement but says nothing about an item too large for a container, so where a mattress may lawfully be set for collection in East Grand Rapids is not established. Not confirmed: No set-out window or removal deadline is given in this section.
• East Grand Rapids restricts a resident to three lawful routes for household waste, and hauling the item yourself is one of them. Chapter 21, Sec. 2.4(A) provides that "Solid waste shall be disposed of only to licensed waste haulers, composting contractors or the city collection service (if provided)" - the parenthesis is the code's own, and the city provides none for household trash - "except that any individual may dispose of solid waste from his or her own household: (1) By an approved garbage grinder or composting method upon the individual's own land so long as the disposal does not create a nuisance or hazard to health, in accordance with Act 451; or (2) By personally transporting the same to an approved sanitary landfill, but only in accordance with the rules and regulations pertaining thereto and the Act 451 Plan." The self-haul route carries a load rule: "No person transporting any solid waste in accordance with this section shall fail to securely cover and secure the load so that no part of said load shall be lost while being transported." Burning is closed off entirely by Sec. 2.4(B): "The personal use of incinerators is prohibited." The chapter's definitions catch bedding both ways - "RUBBISH" and "COMBUSTIBLE WASTE" each list "bedding" - and combustible waste from the city is directed to the Kent County mass burn incinerator under the county's Act 451 plan. Source Not confirmed: The code names no approved sanitary landfill a self-hauling East Grand Rapids resident may use, and publishes no gate price for one.
• East Grand Rapids licenses its haulers and then tells them what they must sell, which shapes what a resident can buy. Chapter 21, Sec. 2.5-1(B), Regulation No. 2: "Every waste hauler licensed in the city must provide every customer with the collection, transportation and disposition of both solid waste and source separated materials other than yard rubbish which are specified by the Director (recyclables), and shall charge customers a unified fee for this service." Subcontracting between licensed haulers is allowed "so long as the customer is only charged a unified fee", and "Composting contractors need only offer composting service." Regulation No. 3 fixes the hours a truck may run: "Every licensed waste hauler shall not collect solid waste and/or source separated materials within any residentially zoned areas of the city between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m." Regulation No. 1 requires each license applicant to file a certificate of motor vehicle insurance in the minimum amounts the City Commission requires for city contracts, with no deductible except up to $300 on property damage, naming the city as an additional insured and carrying at least a ten-day notice of cancellation. Licenses run from July 1 through June 30 under Sec. 2.5(B), a new one is needed each year, and the Director "shall revoke the license of any waste hauler who fails to abide by any such rule or regulation or any provision of this chapter". A violation of the chapter is a civil infraction under Sec. 2.11, with penalties set by Chapter 11, Title I of the city code. Source Not confirmed: The unified fee a licensed hauler must charge is the hauler's own and is not filed with or published by the city, so no price is established. Not confirmed: The regulations say nothing about bulk items, so whether the unified fee covers a mattress or carries an extra charge is not established.

• 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