How to get rid of a mattress in Gloucester City, NJ.

A mattress is squarely within what Gloucester City collects — § 50-2 defines "RUBBISH" to include "paper, cardboard, rags, mattresses, discarded wearing apparel, carpets, rubber, grass cuttings, plant trimmings, leaves and scrap lumber" — and the City imposes its own wrapping rule by ordinance. Section 51-3F provides: "Large nonmetal items, such as furniture, rugs, mattresses, television sets, shall be wrapped and bagged in plastic to prevent the spread of infestation(s) such as fleas, bedbugs, roaches or any other vermin and placed curbside on the day designated for collection of such items." The rule applies to every mattress set out, not only to an infested one. Carpet must be bundled in four-foot lengths handled by one person and not exceeding 50 pounds. The set-out is capped twice over: § 51-3G provides that "Curbside disposal shall be limited to 10 containers, including bags and bundles, not to exceed 50 pounds each," with a fine of $50 per day for violating that subsection, and § 50-3 limits a regularly scheduled pickup to 10 receptacles or bundles per property, each weighing no more than 50 pounds and designed to be handled by one man. Items go out after 5:00 p.m. of the day immediately preceding collection under § 51-5, with empty containers off the curb no later than 7:00 p.m. on the day of collection; Chapter 50 states the earlier time as 7:00 p.m. the evening before and the City does not reconcile the two. Anything at the curb becomes City property under § 51-6, and unauthorized collection during the twenty-four hours beginning at 6:00 p.m. the day before a collection day is an offense. Penalties under § 51-7 run from a warning on a first offense, to a $25 citation if the violation is not abated by 9:00 a.m. the next morning or another is committed the same calendar year, to a summons on a third or later offense in the same year carrying a fine of not less than $100 and not greater than $2,000. Section 50-7 sets the Chapter 50 penalty at a fine not exceeding $2,000 or up to 90 days in the Camden County jail. Tires, motor oil, automotive batteries and electronics are the only items the City routes to its Department of Public Works instead of the curb, taken Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or the first Saturday of the month 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on proof of residency; bedding is not on that list. No charge for a mattress or any other large item is published, and the City never calls the collection free. The only fee in either chapter is the $12 recycling can fee set by § 50-4.1.

Not confirmed: No fee is published for a mattress or any large item and the City never calls the collection free, so what one costs is not established

Not confirmed: Section 51-4 provides that special times for large item pickup shall be established but the ordinance does not name them, so the designated day for a large item is not established in the code

Not confirmed: Ordinance O02-2026, adopted February 23, 2026 and recorded as amending Chapter 51, had not been merged into the codified text when this was checked, so whether it changed the wrapping rule, the ten-item cap or the penalties is not established

Not confirmed: Whether a mattress and a box spring count as one container or as two against the ten-item cap is not stated

Not confirmed: Chapter 50 and Chapter 51 give different earliest set-out times, 7:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. the day before, and the City does not say which governs a large item

Not confirmed: Whether the Department of Public Works yard will take a mattress at the gate is not stated, since bedding appears on neither its prohibited-recyclables list nor any accepted list

Not confirmed: Where a collected mattress goes is not stated, so the outcome is unknown

From the provider’s own page, checked Nov 6, 2026. Not confirmed by phone.

Chapter 51: Garbage, Littering and Handbills - Gloucester City, NJ

Chapter 50: Garbage Collection - Gloucester City, NJ