How to get rid of a mattress in Union Beach, 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.

• Union Beach runs its own Recycling Center and closes it to everyone else in the loudest terms of any borough in this group. Asked "Can non-residents use the Union Beach Recycling Center?", the borough answers: "NO! It is for Union Beach residents ONLY. When you visit, please stop at the office first and sign in. Please have identification ready if asked." The yard is at 1400 Florence Avenue with the Department of Public Works, reachable at 732-264-1133, and the hours are unusual enough to be worth getting right: "Monday - Friday: 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m." and "Saturdays - 8:00 a.m. to 12 noon on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays", "CLOSED SUNDAYS AND HOLIDAYS" - so only two Saturdays a month are open. The accepted list is itemized: "bundled newspapers, cardboard and mixed paper, bottles and cans (comingle), electronic devices, concrete (in very limited quantity), any type of metal, tires (with no rims), used motor oil (in sealed containers), appliances, automotive batteries, and name-brand ink cartridges." Electronics are taken generously - "televisions, computers, microwaves, air conditioners, cameras, telephones and copiers" - and the borough will even fetch metal, appliances and electronics from the curb for a resident who cannot carry them. Leaves may be brought to the yard outside the fall bagged-collection season. Paint cans are refused absolutely: "We NEVER accept paint cans", with dried latex going in regular garbage and the rest to the county hazardous waste facility by appointment. Household batteries are not accepted either and belong in the trash. The borough also directs residents to its own site at www.ubnj.net for further trash, bulk and recycling information. Source Not confirmed: The accepted list for the 1400 Florence Avenue yard is itemized down to ink cartridges and names neither a mattress nor furniture, but the borough does not print a refusal of bedding either, so whether a Union Beach resident may self-haul a mattress to the Recycling Center was not established and should be confirmed before the trip. Not confirmed: No per-item or per-load charge is published for the Union Beach Recycling Center, so no price is established for self-hauling anything there.
• Union Beach's ordinance carries no bulk rule at all, and the one disposal fee it does set belongs to a facility it never locates. Chapter 12, Streets and Sanitation, contains the borough's waste provisions at § 12-5, Disposal of Garbage, Trash and Debris [Ord. #196; Ord. #518; Ord. #2005-71; Ord. #2005-72; Ord. #2006-80], and the words bulk and mattress appear nowhere in the chapter - no allowance, no item limit, no set-out window for a bulky item and no wrapping rule. Section 12-5.1 is a prohibition rather than a service: "No person shall dump, throw or place any garbage, trash, debris, or other waste material on any property within the limits of the borough except as hereinafter provided", and no occupant "shall accumulate or permit the accumulation of garbage, trash, debris, or other waste material upon their property but shall promptly place the same for removal by the garbage collector". The chapter then describes a borough dump that it leaves to be created: § 12-5.2 says only that "the mayor and council shall designate the location or site of a sanitary landfill with the approval of the local board of health", § 12-5.3 requires that anyone wishing to dump there obtain "a license duly issued by the borough clerk and authorized by resolution of the mayor and council", and § 12-5.4 sets the charge - "This fee shall be $5 per load of five cubic yards or less, plus $1 for each additional cubic yard per load in excess of five cubic yards", with an alternative "special license, valid for one year from the date of issuance ... for a fee of $75" covering "the dumping or disposal of an unlimited amount of garbage, trash, debris, or other waste material". No site is named anywhere in the chapter, the borough's own trash page sends overflow to the county rather than to any borough dump, and the figures are per load rather than per item, so this is an authorized charge for a facility whose existence is not established and it is recorded as no price. The penalty, by contrast, is real and severe: § 12-5.5b provides that "Any person who is convicted of a violation of this section shall be subject to a fine not less than $500 nor more than $2,000 and/or a term of imprisonment not to exceed 90 days or a period of community service not exceeding 90 days, or both", and "Each day that a violation shall continue to exist shall constitute a separate offense." Enforcement lies with the Police Department, the board of health "or any other official or officer of the Borough of Union Beach". Dumpsters need a permit and a fee under § 12-7, and § 12-6 covers mandatory recycling, including a bar on collection by unauthorized persons. Source Not confirmed: Section 12-5.4 sets a license fee for dumping at a borough sanitary landfill but § 12-5.2 leaves the site to be designated and the chapter identifies none, so whether any such borough site exists or operates today was not established and the fee is not recorded as a price for anything. Not confirmed: Chapter 12 says nothing about bulky items or bedding, so it does not confirm or deny that a mattress is collected in Union Beach.

• 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