How to get rid of a mattress in St. Joseph, MO.

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.

• St. Joseph runs no municipal collection of its own: Chapter 24 of the city code, titled Solid Waste, contains no section establishing a city collection route, a bulky-item allowance or a service charge. What it does instead is regulate private haulers. Section 24-11(a) provides that 'No person shall engage in the business of collecting, transporting, processing or disposing of solid waste within the corporate limits of the city without first obtaining an annual permit therefor from the city', the permit running one year at a fee of $100.00 for the first collection vehicle and $25.00 for each additional vehicle, and Section 24-3(2) makes it unlawful to collect without one. Section 24-10(c) sets the only collection window a household needs to know: 'Residential waste haulers shall only be allowed to collect solid waste between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday in residential areas.' The chapter defines bulky trash — waste 'too large or too heavy to be safely and conveniently loaded in solid waste collection vehicles' — but never says who collects it or at what price. On dumping it is precise: Section 24-4 makes it a misdemeanour to deposit solid waste on any public or private highway, street, road or right-of-way except waste placed in appropriate containers and set out for collection, on the property of another, or in any body of water; Section 24-5 makes littering unlawful and punishable, over and above Section 24-2, by 'a fine of not less than $250.00 and not more than $500.00, in addition to all related administrative costs and courts costs', with a separate offense for each day a violation continues. The city's own solid waste pages carry only the landfill, the recycling center, Clean Sweep and the household hazardous waste event, and its site search returns no page offering residential trash collection, so a St. Joseph household's mattress is a matter between it and whichever permitted hauler it subscribes to. Source Not confirmed: The code names no hauler and publishes no list of current permit holders, so a resident cannot tell from the city which companies are licensed to serve them. Not confirmed: No hauler's own published mattress or bulky-item price could be established for St. Joseph. Not confirmed: The codified landfill fee schedule at Section 24-15 ($10.00 per automobile trip) has been superseded by the city's current published Schedule A; the code was not updated.
• St. Joseph prices the consequences of leaving a mattress out. The city's notice for Violation 15-25, Nuisance Defined or Declared — Trash and Debris, puts the duty on 'each owner, occupant or person in possession, charge or control of the property, together with one-half of the platted city right-of-way abutting thereon' to keep the premises free of 'the accumulation of debris, refuse, rubbish, trash or nuisances', and the list of what counts names 'household furniture' among appliances, boxes, lumber, plumbing fixtures, toilets, tubs and 'any type of solid or yard waste (bagged or un-bagged) that is not otherwise explicitly permitted by this chapter'. Enforcement takes three forms: a summons under Section 15-3 requiring a court appearance with a possible fine and court costs on top of the cost of correcting the condition; abatement by a city work crew under Section 15-4, billed to the owner; and an administrative citation under Section 7-324, 'a progressive penalty starting at $100.00'. The abatement bill is published: 'a minimum charge of $21.50 for each fifteen minutes (labor cost) and a $75.00 administrative fee', so the notice's own worked example is that a fifteen-minute clean-up costs $96.50. The normal practice is ten days' notice to clear the property first, and the owner may appeal in writing within ten days to the Director of Planning and Community Development, 1100 Frederick Avenue, Room 405. Source Not confirmed: The notice does not state the maximum fine on a Section 15-3 summons, nor the ceiling of the progressive administrative citation that starts at $100.00.
• Twice a year St. Joseph lets residents tip at its landfill for nothing. Clean Sweep runs the first seven days of April and the first seven days of October, at the St. Joseph Landfill, 9431 SE 50th Road, during normal operating hours — weekdays 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The city describes it as a program 'to assist St. Joseph residents in maintaining their property, however, it is not a substitute for regular solid waste (trash) collection', and states that 'All yard waste, trash, and appliances will be accepted from St. Joseph residents' free of charge, with each resident allowed two full days a year which may be split between the two seasons or both used in one. Yard waste must be separated from trash and tires are limited to six passenger tires per day, off the rim. A mattress is named nowhere — neither in the accepted categories nor in any exclusion — so it falls to be treated as trash, which the landfill takes in the ordinary way for its published car-load rate outside these fourteen days. Source Not confirmed: A mattress is not named on the Clean Sweep page in either the accepted list or any exclusion, so free acceptance of one cannot be established from the page. Not confirmed: The linked guidelines and restrictions document is published as an image rather than text and could not be read, so any further restriction it carries is unknown. Not confirmed: The page states no proof-of-residency requirement, and does not say how residency is checked at the gate.
• Not an option: The St. Joseph Habitat for Humanity ReStore, 3131 Frederick Ave., will not take a mattress, and says so twice on its own donation page. Under the heading 'Items that ReStore CANNOT Accept' it prints in capitals: 'NOTE: DROP-SIDE CRIBS, MATTRESSES and DISHWASHERS cannot be DONATED or SOLD', and the list beneath repeats 'Mattresses / Box springs' alongside pillows, comforters and blankets, stuffed animals and clothing. This matters because the store does take furniture generously — couches, sofas, chairs, dressers, entertainment centers, tables, bed frames and 'Furniture, Household' are all on the accepted list, so a reader clearing a bedroom would reasonably assume the mattress went with the bed frame. It does not. The page redirects such items to AFL-CIO Community Services at (816) 364-1131 and Catholic Charities at (816) 232-2885, neither of which publishes a mattress policy of its own. Source Not confirmed: Neither AFL-CIO Community Services nor Catholic Charities of St. Joseph publishes a page stating whether it accepts mattresses, so the referral could not be verified.

• Sleepyhead FAQ states no local mattress recycling options. Bridging The Gap primary page advertises mattress recycling in Kansas City at 5117 E 31st Street. Source
• Missouri DNR: 20 solid waste management districts plan local recycling services, with a county-to-district lookup map. No statewide mattress stewardship program or landfill ban found on DNR pages as of 2026-09-22; mattress disposal is handled by local governments. Source