How to get rid of a mattress in Trenton, NJ.

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.

• Trenton's set-out window and collection penalties, Code Sections 248-8 and 248-9. Section 248-8D: "All approved containers must be placed for pickup, curb or alley, not earlier than 7:00 p.m. of the day preceding the day of collection except on October 30th and October 31st garbage shall be placed outside not earlier than 10:00 p.m., but not later than 7:00 a.m. collection day." Section 248-8G makes it unlawful to collect refuse of any nature anywhere in the city between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Section 248-8F requires a landlord to give every tenant the collection schedule and keep a signed record yearly. Section 248-9B (amended by Ord. No. 23-44, 2023): one warning for a first violation, a summons to Municipal Court for all subsequent violations, and a maximum penalty of $3,000 for violations of this article. Source Not confirmed: The Code does not say whether the 7:00 p.m. set-out window applies to an appointment bulk pickup as well as to routine containers.
• Trenton Code Chapter 150, Littering, rewritten in its entirety 5-9-2024 by Ord. No. 24-30, separates littering from dumping and prices them very differently. Section 150-13A: a fine of $100 for a first littering offense. Section 150-13B: "Any person who violates the provisions of this chapter with respect to dumping shall be subject to a fine of $2,500 for a first offense and, for subsequent offenses, to a fine not exceeding $10,000 pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:49-5." Section 150-2 defines DUMPING as unauthorized depositing of litter or waste in a public place or on private premises "where the nature and/or quantity of the litter and/or waste is such as to require the use of a mechanical means of transport" - which is how a fly-tipped mattress is charged rather than as littering. Section 150-5 also prohibits putting refuse out for collection at any time other than the hours set in Chapter 248. Section 150-14: enforced by the Trenton Police Department and other designated City officials. Source
• Not an option: Trenton publishes no city-run drop-off, transfer station or residents' yard that takes a mattress. The Division of Solid Waste Management page offers only the telephone special pickup and gives 707 Calhoun Street as the Division's own address, with no hours, no proof-of-residency rule and no statement that residents may bring waste there. The City's Public Works and Trash Collection pages likewise publish no self-haul location. A Trenton resident who wants to haul a mattress themselves is left with the Mercer County Improvement Authority transfer station, which this page already carries. Source Not confirmed: Whether 707 Calhoun Street accepts anything from walk-in residents (recycling containers are handed out there) could not be established from a City page.
• Not an option: There is no mattress-specific option in Trenton. The Mattress Recycling Council's own nationwide All Mattress Recyclers directory lists no facility with a New Jersey address: the only New Jersey entries are CPS Recycling, listed as "Serving multiple states" with a single Elk Grove Village, Illinois address, and Delaware Green Mattress Disassembling & Recycling of Wilmington, Delaware, whose address field reads "Serving Delaware, Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Northern Maryland". The MRC also states that "Free mattress recycling through the MRC is available only in states with mattress recycling laws" and lists those states as California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island - so there is no Bye Bye Mattress collection site anywhere in New Jersey. Source Not confirmed: A New Jersey Mattress Stewardship Act (Assembly Bill 1651) was reported out of committee in January 2026 but is not law; its status was not verified against a legislature page in this pass. Not confirmed: Whether any Trenton-area retailer runs a take-back was not researched: store haul-away is covered nationally.
• Not an option: The Habitat for Humanity ReStores of South Central New Jersey will not take a mattress. Their donation page puts "mattresses, boxsprings, cribs, halogen lamps, etc" among items it cannot accept because of state or federal law restrictions, and adds that "Our staff members have the final say on what we accept." Their residential pickup service does cover Mercer County (listed alongside Atlantic, Burlington and Camden Counties plus Plainsboro and Cranbury) for a flat $25 fee, self-scheduled and typically a week out, but the mattress exclusion applies to it. The two stores are at 530 Route 38 E, Maple Shade, NJ 08054 and 6825 Tilton Road, Suite B1, Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08234, open daily 10am-6pm. Source Not confirmed: The former Habitat for Humanity of Trenton ReStore at 106 Ewing Street, Trenton appears in directories but is not listed on habitatscnj.org; its current status could not be established from a primary source.
• Not an option: The Rescue Mission of Trenton runs a thrift store at 98 Carroll Street, Trenton, NJ 08605, open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9:00 am - 2:00 pm, and its furniture department resells donated furniture. For donations, however, the Mission's own page invites one category only: "We gratefully accept donations of clothing", directed to the Clothing Box in front of The Shelter at 98 Carroll Street or to other clothing box locations. No donation pickup is offered. Mattresses are not among the in-kind donations the Mission asks for on either its thrift store page or its donate page, so a Trenton resident should not turn up with one on the strength of directory listings that say otherwise. Source Not confirmed: The Mission does not publish an explicit refusal of mattresses; it simply does not list them as accepted. Whether furniture donations are taken by arrangement at 609.695.1436 ext. 158 is not published.

• NJDEP County/Municipal Recycling Coordinator Locator lists municipal (updated August 2026) and county (updated July 2026) coordinator contacts. No statewide mattress stewardship program or landfill ban found on NJDEP pages as of 2026-09-22; mattress collection is handled by counties/municipalities. Source