How to get rid of a mattress in Waupaca, WI.

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.

• The City of Waupaca buys cart service and nothing else, and publishes no bulky item collection and no mattress price anywhere. The city states the arrangement plainly: "The City of Waupaca has partnered with GFL to provide each single-family residence and multi-residential properties up to 3 units with garbage and recycling collection. A 96-gallon tote for each garbage and recycling will be provided with garbage picked up weekly and recycling every other week." Cost is bundled into the utility bill - "The monthly service cost will be included on water/sewer bills" - which is a periodic charge for cart service and not a price for a bed, and it moves with fuel: a surcharge applies "when the cost of ultra-low sulfur No, 2 diesel raises above $4.00 per gallon", and "For every $0.25 rise in fuel, the cost of services will increase by 1%." The volume rule is absolute on its face: "All garbage must fit inside the cart with the lid closed." For anything beyond that the city offers two options and no figures: hold it for the next collection day, or "contact the office to make arrangements for extra pick-up or for an extra cart at 920.982.4116", with "If you would like a dumpster to accommodate larger amounts of trash, please call the office." Collection days run by cart color - "Tuesdays - Orange | Wednesdays - Green | Thursdays - Purple" - and move back one day when a holiday falls on or before the pickup day. Set-out: "Carts should be placed curbside the day before or by 5am the day of pickup", lid opening to the street, at least four feet from mailboxes, parked cars and poles, not on a snow bank or in the road, and "Carts shall be removed within 24 hours of pickup." Carts belong to GFL, are registered to the delivery address, and billing questions go to the utility billing clerk at 715.258.4422 while service questions go to GFL at 920.982.4116. The city also records that it considered letting households opt out and declined: "No, the opt-out option was considered but determined to not be the best option for Waupaca." Nowhere on the page is there a bulky item program, an allowance, a large item fee, or any mention of furniture, a mattress or a box spring. Source Not confirmed: The city publishes no price for the "extra pick-up" it tells residents to arrange with GFL, and does not say whether that arrangement covers an item that will not fit in a cart at all, as against extra bags of ordinary trash. No mattress or bulky item figure is published by the city or by GFL for Waupaca. Not confirmed: No notice period, set-out rule or booking procedure is published for an extra pickup beyond the telephone number. Not confirmed: No mattress recycler, no state or city mattress program and no retailer take-back is named by the City of Waupaca. Not confirmed: No local charity's own mattress policy was established for Waupaca.
• Waupaca's ordinance does define a bulky item, and it caps one at 50 pounds, which is the lightest a mattress gets. Section 11.08 of the Municipal Code of Waupaca, Wisconsin, Garbage and Refuse, was repealed and recreated by Ord. No. 17-21 effective January 1, 2022, and its definitions subsection reads: "Bulky Item. Items that do not fit in an empty cart, with no one item exceeding 50 pounds. This includes, but is not limited to, such items as furniture, sinks, doors, toys, and bicycles. Items qualifying as a bulky item are subject to change in accordance with the collection contractor's definition of bulky items." A mattress runs 50 to 100 pounds, so a queen or a king is outside that definition by weight and even a twin sits at its very edge - the cap is set exactly where a bed stops qualifying. Furniture is named and bedding is not. The same section pulls hard the other way on what the hauler will take: "Refuse/Recycling Must Fit in Cart. The collection contractor will only accept such refuse and recycling material as may be placed and fits within the carts provided. No refuse or recyclables shall be collected which cannot be placed in the cart due to its size, nature or content." The chapter nonetheless counts bulky items inside "Solid Waste", which "Includes refuse, recyclables and bulky items", while defining "Refuse" as solid waste "excluding recyclables, yard waste, and bulky items that are diverted for reuse or recycling." No charge for a bulky item appears anywhere in section 11.08: the only money in it is the collection cost itself, which "shall be established annually by the City Council as a special charge", is payable in monthly installments, carries a 1.5% late payment charge and goes on the property tax roll if unpaid. The section also settles where a Waupaca resident may haul their own load, and the answer is two named sites and nowhere else: "Only the collection contractor shall be authorized to remove accepted recyclables or waste within the city limits, except property owners within the city may personally remove such items solely from their own properties, provided the waste and recyclables are delivered to the Waupaca Regional Recycling and Composting Center (WRRCC) or Waupaca County Processing and Transfer Facility (PTF)." Service is compulsory for a standard residential unit - a dwelling unit that is not part of a multiple residential facility of more than three units and not on business or commercial property - and "All standard residential units shall utilize the services of the collection contractor under contract with the City of Waupaca", while other properties "shall dispose of their solid waste in compliance with all applicable laws, at their sole expense." Non-standard residential units may opt in, but only by written request to the city by January 1 each year. Set-out is "no earlier than 6:00 A.M. on the day prior to day of customary collection" and carts come off the right-of-way "no later than 6:00 P.M. the day after collection." Containers other than carts are prohibited. Scavenging is barred: refuse, bulky items and recyclables set out "shall remain the property of the owner or occupant that placed the items until the items are collected by the collection contractor", and no one else may take possession. The violations subsection makes failure to remove solid waste, scavenging, and removal of solid waste other than by the contractor or the property owner each punishable by forfeiture under section 25.04 of the code, and adds "Any violation as applicable per Waupaca County Code of Ordinance Chapter 20." Source Not confirmed: The code defines a bulky item and sets no fee for collecting one, and the city's published garbage page describes no bulky collection at all, so whether the contractor actually runs a bulky route in Waupaca - and on what notice - is not established. The 50-pound ceiling in the definition and the cart-only rule in the collection subsection are not reconciled anywhere by the city. Not confirmed: The definition's closing sentence makes qualification "subject to change in accordance with the collection contractor's definition of bulky items", and GFL publishes no Waupaca-specific bulky item list, so the operative definition at any given time is not published by anyone. Not confirmed: The forfeiture amount under section 25.04 was not read, so the penalty for dumping or for an improper set-out in Waupaca is not established in dollars. Not confirmed: Subsection (8) prohibits hazardous waste and oil in "the City sanitary landfill site", a facility the city describes nowhere else and which its own resident guide does not list among the places to take anything; whether such a site still exists was not established.
• Waupaca runs its own drop-off inside the city, and a mattress is not on its list. The Waupaca Regional Recycling & Compost Center is at 608 Lakeside Parkway, open Monday 2:00pm-6:00pm, Friday 8:00am - 12:00pm April through November only, and Saturday 8:00am - 12:00pm. The city states what it takes: the site "provides for the drop off recycling of the following items: Glass, tin, cardboard, newspaper, mixed paper, aluminum, plastic, grass, brush, leaves, waste motor oil, oil filters, tires, waste logs and vehicle batteries. Some items have a disposal fee." Fourteen materials are itemized and bedding is not among them, nor is furniture; the city attaches no list of refusals and no schedule of which items carry the fee or how much it is. Christmas trees are the one item the city prices, at no cost, and wood chips and compost are sold during open hours. This matters more than an ordinary accepted-items list, because section 11.08 of the city code allows a Waupaca householder to haul their own waste only to this center or to the county's facility, so the city's self-haul rule points at a site whose published list does not reach a bed. The city's own resident guide names the other half of that pair and says why: "Residents wishing to dispose of other items not accepted locally may be able to do so at the Waupaca County Processing and Transfer Facility in Manawa. Accepted items include: solid waste, recyclables, yard waste, trees, appliances, lights, electronics, batteries, tires, oil, antifreeze, paint and document shredding. For more details visit waupacacountyrecycling.com or call 920.596.5370." So the City of Waupaca's published answer for anything its own center will not take is the county facility at Manawa, and the city routes residents there in its own words rather than leaving them to find it. Source Not confirmed: Mattresses and box springs are absent from the Waupaca Regional Recycling & Compost Center's itemized accepted list, and the city publishes no list of refused items for the site, so whether the center turns a bed away or simply does not advertise taking one is not established. Not confirmed: The city says "Some items have a disposal fee" at the center and publishes neither which items carry it nor any amount. Not confirmed: The center's page states no residency rule and no pass requirement, although the word Regional in its name and the city code's self-haul provision both suggest it serves beyond the city; who may use it is not published. Not confirmed: No winter Friday hours are given: the Friday session runs April through November only, and what replaces it is not stated.

• 7 Rivers lists W6833 Industrial Blvd., Onalaska WI 54650 and phone (507) 205-2082. Operator describes recovering steel, foam and fibers from mattresses. Name and full address support the original national-directory facility identity; directory phone 608-783-6727 x103 differs. Source
• DNR RID=104 Rodefeld record FID 113127300 lists 1919 Alliant Energy Center Way, Madison 53713-1400, while county landfill page gives customer location 7102 Maahic Way, Madison 53718. Preserve both; registry address may be administrative but that explanation is not verified. Source
• La Crosse FAQ directs arrivals to 3240 Berlin Drive; DNR RID=104 FID 632063630 lists 3200 Berlin Dr, La Crosse 54601-1818. Keep source-address discrepancy explicit rather than overwriting either. Source
• Wisconsin DNR list of materials banned from landfills/incinerators (containers, cardboard, paper, #1-2 plastics, electronics, lead-acid batteries, major appliances, oil filters/waste oil, tires, yard waste) does not include mattresses. Source
• Wisconsin DNR: residents find their local recycling 'responsible unit' via an RU contact list, an RU map (experience.arcgis.com/experience/e2a75fccdc834fd5be13acd9fede067f) or a municipality-to-RU lookup. Source