How to get rid of a mattress in Philadelphia, PA.

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.

• A mattress is named in Philadelphia's dumping ordinance as a separate offense in its own right. Philadelphia Code § 10-710 (Dumping of Debris and Short Dumping) provides that "No person shall deposit, dump or cause to be placed any litter, trash, garbage, municipal waste, recyclable materials, or debris on or at: (a) any road, street, highway, alley, public park or plaza, other public place, railroad right-of-way or into the waters of the City, except in a clearly defined public trash receptacle; (b) the private property of another person without the prior written consent of the owner of such location and all required licenses and permits; (c) the person's own property without all required licenses and permits." Subsection (4) then states: "The depositing or dumping of any single large item of debris, such as a tire, auto part, mattress, appliance or bag of debris or trash with a capacity of more than five (5) gallons shall be a separate offense under this Section." So a mattress left on a sidewalk, in an alley or on a vacant lot is charged on its own, and a mattress plus a box spring is two offenses. Subsection (3) reaches the person hauling it as well as the householder: no owner or operator of a collection vehicle, "including private automobiles and small trucks," may deposit its load in a manner that violates subsection (1). Subsection (5) makes a person who hires someone else to remove waste liable for that remover's violation "and shall be subject to all penalties applicable to such violation" — so paying a man with a truck who then fly-tips the mattress does not transfer the liability away from the householder. Source
• Philadelphia sets a minimum fine for illegal dumping and refuses to let it be settled by mail. Philadelphia Code § 10-719(2) provides that the penalty for violating subsection 10-710(1) shall be "(a) a minimum fine of two thousand dollars ($2,000) per offense and, if authorized by the General Assembly, a maximum fine of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) per offense" together with "such equitable remedy as the court may deem proper, including, without limitation, an order to clean up the location at which the violator dumped trash, garbage or debris." Section 10-719(3) adds that a violator "shall be jointly liable for all costs incurred by the City for cleanup," with legal interest accruing on any amount unpaid thirty days after the City bills for it. Where a vehicle is used, § 10-719(4) sets "a fine of up to five thousand dollars ($5,000)" plus "the forfeiture of any property, including any vehicle, used to violate subsection 10-710(2), regardless of the value of that property," and § 10-718(4) lets a third-party administrator boot or tow a vehicle on probable cause. Crucially, § 10-718(1) sets a stipulated payment of fifty dollars ($50) for most Chapter 10-700 violations but provides at (1)(c) that "For violations of Section 10-710: no stipulated payment shall be allowed" — a dumping notice cannot be cleared by paying a ticket, and the matter goes before a court. Section 10-710.1 also funds informant rewards, where "in no event shall the total amount awarded in connection with any violation be less than five hundred dollars ($500)." Read against observation w12c-philadelphia-001, the cheap-looking shortcut of leaving a mattress at a curb that is not your own collection point starts at a $2,000 minimum, per item. Source Not confirmed: whether the General Assembly has authorized the $25,000 maximum that section 10-719(2)(a) makes conditional on that authorization Not confirmed: section 10-719 assigns the $5,000-and-forfeiture penalty to "subsection 10-710(2)", but the current text of section 10-710 places the collection-vehicle prohibition at subsection (3) and uses (2) for a cross-reference clause, following an amendment by Bill No. 260380 approved June 23, 2026; the cross-references in section 10-719 appear not to have been renumbered to match
• Not an option: Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia's ReStore, at 2318 Washington Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19146, will not take a mattress. Its published Donation Guidelines sort donations into categories with a "Yes, please!" list and a "No, thank you!" list. Under the heading "Upholstered Furniture | Excellent Condition", the "Yes, please!" list runs Armchairs, Couches, Office Chairs, Ottomans, Recliners and Sectionals, and the "No, thank you!" list immediately below reads: "Bed Frames", "Box Springs", "Cribs", "Mattresses". The refusal therefore covers the bed frame and the box spring as well as the mattress itself. The store takes other furniture — donation hours are Monday through Saturday, 10am-4pm, and Sunday, 12pm-4pm, with drop-off at 2318 Washington Ave — and it offers a free pickup for eligible items, but no part of a bed qualifies. This is the ReStore a Philadelphia reader is most likely to try first, so the trip is worth not making. Source
• Not an option: The Philadelphia Furniture Bank has closed, so the city's best-known route for giving away bulky household furniture is gone. Pathways to Housing PA, which ran it, states on the program's own page that the Philadelphia Furniture Bank and Good Haul "are no longer accepting referrals or pickup requests" and "will officially cease operations on June 30." The page gives the day and month without a year; the closure was reported in May 2026 and June 30 has since passed. A reader who finds the furniture bank recommended in an older Philadelphia donation guide should not plan a trip or a pickup around it. Separately, no Philadelphia charity was found publishing a policy that it accepts a used mattress for reuse — see the gaps below, and note that an unestablished acceptance is not an acceptance. Source Not confirmed: whether any successor program took over the Philadelphia Furniture Bank's donation intake Not confirmed: no Philadelphia charity, shelter or thrift store was found publishing a policy that it accepts a used mattress for reuse; One House at a Time's Beds for Kids program supplies new mattresses to children and its office is in Huntingdon Valley rather than Philadelphia, but it publishes no statement either accepting or refusing used mattresses, so its policy is unestablished

• Operator location page gives 219 Street Road, West Grove PA 19390; DEP permit 101069 directory gives 261 Street Road. Preserve both; no automatic address overwrite or branch merge. Source
• Seven facility cards distinguish YCRRC/Small Load Drop-Off at 2651 Blackbridge Road from management at 2700, recycling at 2685 Blackthorne Court, ash site, recreation and sanitary landfill. Operator ZIP 17406 differs from DEP YCRRC ZIP 17402. Source
• No statewide mattress stewardship program or landfill ban found on PA DEP pages as of 2026-09-22; mattress disposal is handled by local governments. Source
• PA DEP County Recycling Coordinators directory (select county) for local drop-offs and events; RecycleSearch for material-specific facilities; DEP Recycling Hotline 800-346-4242. DEP says bulky items go through your refuse hauler, or your county recycling coordinator if you have none. Source