The free recycling route in California, the real options in Arizona, what never to do, and how to have an old mattress hauled during a move. From a 15-year asset-based carrier.
Quick answer: In California, the easiest and free route is the statewide Bye Bye Mattress program, run by the Mattress Recycling Council: drop your old mattress at a participating collection site at no additional charge, or have the retailer take it when a new one is delivered. Arizona has no statewide program, so use your city bulk-trash pickup, a transfer station, or a hauler. Never put a mattress in a curbside recycling bin or dump it illegally, which carries fines in both states. If you are moving, Ontrack Moving® can haul the old mattress away for a flat $75 per mattress at the same time (we accept clean, pest-free mattresses, no bed bugs).
See our junk removal and haul-away service, and if you are packing up, our moving checklist covers what to handle before moving day.
California runs a statewide used-mattress recycling program branded Bye Bye Mattress, operated by the nonprofit Mattress Recycling Council. It is paid for by a recycling fee collected when you buy a new mattress or box spring, which means dropping off an old one at a participating collection site costs nothing extra at the point of disposal. The program lists permanent drop-off locations and periodic collection events across the state, including the Bay Area.
There are two easy paths. First, if you are buying a replacement, ask the retailer to take the old mattress at delivery: most participating retailers recycle it for you. Second, if you are not buying new, look up a participating drop-off site and bring the mattress there. Either way it is diverted from the landfill, because the steel, foam, wood, and fiber inside a mattress are recyclable when handled through the right channel.
Arizona does not have a statewide mattress recycling program, so disposal runs through local services rather than a single recycling network. Three options cover most situations. Municipal bulk-trash pickup, sometimes called uncontained or large-item collection, is offered by many Phoenix-metro cities on a set schedule, so check whether your town collects large items weekly, monthly, or by appointment. A transfer station or landfill will accept a mattress for a tipping fee if you can haul it yourself. And a junk-removal or moving company can pick it up when hauling it yourself is not practical.
Because there is no fee-funded recycling program, an Arizona mattress is more likely to be landfilled than recycled. If keeping it out of the landfill matters to you, ask a hauler whether they route mattresses to a recycler, and confirm your city bulk-pickup rules so the mattress is set out correctly and actually gets collected.
Two mistakes cause most of the trouble. Do not put a mattress in your curbside recycling cart: it is not accepted there and will not be collected, and it can jam recycling equipment. And do not leave a mattress on the street, in an alley, or on vacant land. That is illegal dumping, and it carries fines in both California and Arizona, on top of the cleanup cost. Bulk-item pickup, a transfer station, a recycling program, or a hauler are the legitimate routes.
A move is the most common reason people finally deal with an old mattress, and it is the easiest time to do it right. Rather than leaving the mattress behind for a landlord to charge you for, or wrestling it to a transfer station yourself, a mover with junk-removal service can take it as part of the job. Ontrack Moving® is an asset-based carrier under USDOT #2551548 that offers haul-away for a flat $75 per mattress, so the mattress you are replacing leaves with the crew and is routed to recycling or legal disposal. For health and contamination reasons we accept mattresses in clean, sanitary condition and free of pests, so a soiled or bed-bug-infested mattress needs a specialized disposal service instead. For everything else on your list before the truck arrives, use our moving checklist.
How do I dispose of a mattress for free in California? Use the Bye Bye Mattress program: drop it at a participating site at no extra charge, or have the retailer take it at delivery of a new one.
Where do I dispose of a mattress in Arizona? City bulk-trash pickup, a transfer station or landfill, or a junk hauler. There is no statewide recycling program.
Can I throw a mattress in the trash? Not in a curbside cart or recycling bin. Use bulk-item pickup, a transfer station, a recycling program, or a hauler. Illegal dumping is fined.
Can a mover take my old mattress? Yes. Ontrack hauls away a replaced mattress for a flat $75 per mattress and routes it to recycling or legal disposal; we accept mattresses that are free of pests.
