How to get rid of a mattress in Brooklyn, OH.

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.

• Brooklyn's weekly collection is fully automated and the city prices the carts rather than the collection. "If a resident needs another Automated Container, they may purchase one at City Hall located at 7619 Memphis Avenue. A 96 gallon container for rubbish is $80.00 and a 64 gallon container for recycling is $47.50. Once payment is received, the Service Department will drop it off at the resident's home." Two codified limits govern what the crew will lift, and the city cites the sections: "Per Codified Ordinance 951.02 (b), the Service Department will not pick up cans that weigh over 50 pounds. The can will be tagged and the resident can request a special pick up for Friday if they lesson the load" and "Per Codified Ordinance 951.02 (a), rubbish containers cannot be greater than 45 gallon capacity and provided with suitable handles on the outside." The set-out rule is "Residents are required to put their rubbish out on collection day. Do not place your rubbish out on the tree lawn prior to 5 pm the day before your collection day." The route to a Friday special pick-up is stated here too: "Please call Monday through Thursday for a special pick up on Fridays for the following items: paint cans, appliances, furniture and large volumes of rubbish." Some material is barred from the curb altogether and must be driven in: "The following materials must be dropped off at the service garage: oil, gasoline, anti-freeze, car batteries, car tires, rocks, broken concrete or materials left by private contractors." Rubbish pickup is delayed one day for New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, July 4th, Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veteran's Day, with signs posted for Thanksgiving. Source Not confirmed: Neither the 45-gallon container cap nor the 50-pound cap is written against a mattress, and the page does not say what a resident should do with a mattress specifically. Not confirmed: The page does not state a monthly or annual refuse rate, so what a Brooklyn household pays for collection is not established; the only figures published are the one-time cart purchase prices.
• Brooklyn put a money figure on setting a large item out wrong, which almost no Ohio city does. Ordinance No. 2016-87 of the City of Brooklyn, "COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA AND STATE OF OHIO", amended Section 951.99 and enacted a new Section 951.98, "CIVIL INFRACTIONS AND PENALTY", creating "a civil enforcement system for the infractions established by this section." The ticketable sections are listed by number and two of them bear directly on a bulky item: "Section 951.03, division (b), and Section 521.16, division (a), relating to the early set out of waste"; "Section 521.16, division (b), relating to failing to remove a waste container after collection"; "Section 951.03, divisions (b) and (c), relating to automated waste collection and recycling infractions"; "Section 951.03, division (a), relating to special collections"; and "Section 951.05, relating to the placement of recyclable materials." The schedule in division (f) sets the cost: "$25.00 for the first offense; $50.00 for the second offense; and $100.00 for the third offense and beyond." Late penalties stack under division (g): an unpaid ticket draws "an additional $20.00" after 20 days and a further "$40.00" after 40 days, "for a total additional penalty of $60.00 in such a case." The process is a warning first: a Service Department employee "shall leave a notice at the side or back door of the residential unit where the violation occurred", and a ticket follows only if the violation is still observed "at least 24 hours after the warning was issued", mailed to the parcel owner at the tax mailing address. The infractions "are noncriminal" and an owner may appeal to the Service Director within 20 days. Alongside this, Section 951.99 was amended to read "CRIMINAL PENALTY. A person who has violated this chapter shall be guilty of a minor misdemeanor and be fined not more than $100.00. Each violation shall be considered a separate offense, carrying separate penalties." Source Not confirmed: The ordinance names the sections it makes ticketable but does not reproduce the text of Section 951.03, so exactly what conduct counts as a special-collection infraction is not quoted here. Not confirmed: The ordinance does not mention mattresses or any particular bulky item.
• Brooklyn opens its Service Garage to residents one Saturday a month, and the published list of what that is for does not include bedding. "The Service Department will expand its hours of operation so residents can drop off items at the Service Garage on the second Saturday of the month. This will give residents an opportunity to drop off items that do not go in the trash such as construction and demolition materials, tires off the rim, oil, gasoline, oil-based paint, appliances, and anti-freeze. Items can be dropped off at the Service Garage which is located at 9400 Memphis Avenue between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to noon." The published dates are April 11, May 9, June 13, July 11, August 8, September 12, October 10, November 14 and December 12. A mattress is not among the item types the city gives as the reason for the Saturday opening, and the city's own routing for large items that will not fit in a cart is the Friday special pick-up rather than a drop-off. Source Not confirmed: The Saturday list is introduced with "such as", so it is an illustration rather than a closed list; a mattress is absent from it but the city does not say a mattress is refused, and no drop-off fee or residency rule is published.

• Primary names Harvard Avenue Transfer Station at 3227 Harvard Ave, Newburgh Heights OH 44105; district calls it Harvard Road at 3227 Harvard Road. Same number, city and operator support an identity candidate, but street suffix discrepancy retained. Source
• Hamilton municipal FAQ says transfer-station large-item intake Monday–Saturday. Existing Rumpke operator-locator staging record 07c7c0690194a830d775d57e lists Monday–Friday 8am–3:45pm at the same 1000 N Third Street address and phone 513-867-8661. This is an hours discrepancy, not grounds to merge unrelated branches. Source
• Ohio EPA Solid Waste Management District Locator (GIS app): select a county to see its Solid Waste Management District; the underlying layer covers all 88 counties. SWMDs are the local contact for recycling and disposal. Source
• Ohio EPA's "Where to Recycle" page names the three statewide tools it offers residents: the Ohio EPA Recycling Directory (a searchable directory of service providers who volunteered to be listed), the solid waste management district locator map, and the Ohio Materials Marketplace for businesses. It states that recycling and litter prevention activities are controlled locally through the county's solid waste management district, which "can help with information such as ... where to take hard to recycle items". Note the agency site now serves these pages under the /wps/portal/gov/epa/ path; the bare /divisions-and-offices/... URLs 404 when requested directly. Source
• The Ohio EPA Recycling Directory is hosted on RecycleSearch (Re-TRAC) and is searchable by free text or by pre-set material categories after setting a location. Its own text says results may include curbside recycling programs, drop-off recycling locations, reuse stores and other service providers, and that listing is not an endorsement. Its FAQ states the directory "is in the process of being populated" and that some areas of the state may have no information available, directing residents to their local solid waste management district instead. Listings are managed by Ohio EPA and the districts. Source
• No statewide mattress stewardship program or landfill ban found on Ohio EPA pages as of 2026-09-22; mattress disposal is handled by local governments and county solid waste management districts. The agency's own site search for "mattress" returns only 4 resources, none of them mattress-related (Revised Total Coliform Rule, Underground Injection Control, operator exam information and a Trauma Scene Clean-Up fact sheet). The Materials and Waste Management division pages cover solid waste, infectious waste, scrap tires and C&DD, with no mattress or bulky-item program. Source
• Mattress Recycling Council's Program States page names exactly four program states — California, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Oregon. Ohio is not among them, confirming there is no MRC-run mattress stewardship program or Bye Bye Mattress free drop-off network in Ohio. Source