Mattress Disposal Services: Mattress Removal Made Easy

Learn more about our mattress removal services

One of the hardest and bulkiest junk items to get rid of is an old mattress. Besides being large, heavy, and awkward to move around, it's also not an item that many people want to purchase used. Though there is certainly a market for used bed frames, sofas, dining room tables, and other types of furniture, not everyone gets excited about sleeping on a mattress that has been used for years by other people. What most people don’t know, however, is that up to 90 percent of the raw material that goes into your mattress can be eventually recycled.

That doesn’t mean that you can simply take your mattress out to the curb on recycling day, pick up and hope that the truck will haul it away. In many cases, that strategy might land you with a significant fine from your town office for illegal dumping practices. Below, we explain how homeowners, individuals, and businesses can get rid of their used mattresses in an easy, efficient, and environmentally friendly manner. We then go on to explain why Junk Works offers the absolute best mattress removal service around the country.

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How often do you need to get rid of an old mattress? In general, most mattresses can offer around 8 years of quality sleep before they start to sag in the middle or not offer the same level of comfort. Of course, the type of mattress you purchase will also affect its longevity. Mattresses on the cheaper end of the scale might only last 4-5 years, while higher end memory foam and latex mattresses can last up to 15 years with the right care. Mattresses that have double sided pillow top covers will also tend to prolong the useful lifespan of a mattress. Periodic steam cleaning will also keep your mattress clean and make it more durable.

Even if you purchase the top quality mattresses on the market and rigorously maintain them, every mattress will eventually need to be replaced. A few of the telltale signs that your mattress needs replacing include:

1. Your mattress is noticeably sagging in the middle.
2. You can feel the coils through your mattress when you lie down.
3. Your mattress makes a lot of noise as you shift. This is more common in mattresses with box springs.
4. You notice bad smells from your mattress, even after deep cleaning.
5. Your allergies tend to get worse at night, or anytime you lay down on the mattress.
6. You notice that you tend to wake up with stiffness, joint pain, or back discomfort.
7. You find that you tend to sleep much better on a different mattress in your home or while on vacation.
8. You find yourself consistently tired and/or sleep deprived.

If you experience one or several of these signs, it is probably time to start looking for a new mattress. Trying to get a few more years out of an existing mattress that exhibits some of these signs may very well cause you serious health problems. For example, old mattresses that are not properly cleaned or maintained may become a breeding ground for several types of allergens including dust mites, pet dander, mold, and mildew. According to The Sleep Foundation, “these allergens often cause nasal congestion, sneezing, watery eyes, a runny nose, and coughing.”

Furthermore, if your mattress is noticeably uncomfortable, it may be causing you to lose precious hours of sleep.

the United States, seven out of ten adults report that they obtain insufficient sleep at least one night a month, and 11 percent report insufficient sleep every night.

Sleep deprivation has been shown to be a contributing factor to several different serious health problems such as heart disease, heart attack, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, strokes, and diabetes, among others.

This information goes to show that investing in a new mattress is often an important health decision. But what exactly are individuals, homeowners, and business owners supposed to do with those bulky and heavy old mattresses that nobody seems to want to take off your hands?

Every year, an estimated 40 million mattresses are thrown away each year in the United States — and most go directly to a landfill or incinerator. One of the biggest challenges to environmentally friendly mattress removal is the fact that there are only 56 accredited mattress recycling facilities across the United States.

If your local municipal trash service does not offer mattress recycling service, Junk Works is most likely your best bet for efficient and environmentally friendly mattress removal.

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Each year, around 4.5 million mattresses and 4.5 million box springs are sent to the landfill or incinerator in the United States. According to one recent study, these old mattresses and box springs amount to 250 million pounds of mattress material that end up in our nation's already overburdened landfills. The average mattress takes up 23 cubic feet of space in a landfill, and in many regions around the country, there simply is not enough landfill space to continue to take on this bulky waste material. This unfortunately leads to illegal dumping practices in many regions. An old bed or mattress wasting away in an abandoned lot certainly doesn’t improve the aesthetics of a neighborhood, and can even reduce the property values of people who live in the area where illegal dumps pop up.

Furthermore, many mattresses are treated with strong chemicals, such as fire retardants, wood treatment chemicals, and others. These toxic chemicals can leach out of the mattresses and pose a serious threat to local communities and ecosystems. If these chemicals leach into local rivers, streams, or underground aquifers, they can pose a serious health risk to local communities. According to a study commissioned by the State of Minnesota Department of Health, “Studies indicate that the kidney and male reproductive organs appear to be sensitive targets for TDCPP (a type of fire retardant commonly used in mattress foam) toxicity. Studies using human cells indicate that TDCPP may disrupt normal endocrine function and neurological development. Studies indicate that TDCPP is genotoxic. Long-term exposure studies in laboratory animals resulted in increased incidence of kidney, testicular and liver tumors. TDCPP has recently been added to California’s Proposition 65 list as a carcinogen.”

Given these serious environmental and health based challenges, you may be thinking how do I get rid of my old mattress in a way that doesn’t negatively affect the natural world? Below, we list the top three ways that people can get rid of their mattress in an environmentally friendly manner.

1. Donate the mattress: If your mattress is still of decent quality, you may consider donating it to a local charity or thrift store. Unfortunately, many of these organizations, charities, and businesses will not accept mattresses that are noticeably stained, ripped, or in otherwise bad shape. To donate a mattress, you will most likely need to keep it protected with a high quality mattress cover and regularly have cleaned the mattress. If this is the case, you should be able to donate it to Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, or other charities and thrift stores that exist in your region. This will mean that you´ll have to carry the mattress and box springs out of your house, load it onto a trailer, and physically haul it to the nearest donation center. However, this is a great way to keep your old mattress out of the landfill.
2. Contact a Local Recycling Center: As we mentioned above, there are limited mattress recycling centers across the United States. If you are fortunate enough to have a recycling facility in the general vicinity of where you live, you can take your mattress to these facilities. If you don’t have a way to haul your old mattress, many of these facilities may offer pickup for an extra service charge. Also, some states such as California have recently enacted laws that make mattress recycling and pick up low-cost through Extended Producer Responsibility Programs (EPRs). Bye Bye Mattress is an online database run by the Mattress Recycling Council that can help you find a minimal fee or free pick up a program to recycle your mattress if you live in certain parts of the country. You can also call your local recycling business or organization to see if they will accept used mattresses and box springs for recycling.
3. Hire Junk Works for the Easiest Mattress Removal Service: Regrettably, most people don’t live in areas where mattress recycling facilities are easily accessible. Even if you do have an accredited mattress recycling facility in your nearby vicinity, you still need to have a strong enough back to haul the mattress out of your home, and a pickup truck or trailer to tow the old mattress to the nearest recycling center. If this isn’t the case for you, then hiring Junk Works may very well be the best way to get rid of your old mattress in an easy, efficient, and environmentally friendly manner.

When you hire Junk Works for your mattress removal needs, there are several environmental and social benefits that follow. For example, making a commitment to mattress recycling means that there will be less reliance on incinerators and landfills by diverting mattresses from the waste stream. Furthermore, more mattress recycling also reduces the number of illegally dumped mattresses that are ugly to look at and might also potentially leach dangerous toxic chemicals into local ecosystems. Mattress recycling also contributes to the conservation of resources by using old steel, foam, wood and other material to create new products. Lastly, by hiring Junk Works to recycle your old mattress, you are also helping to create valuable jobs for people in your local community.

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Here at Junk Works, we make every effort to ensure that the used mattresses, box springs, and other types of bedding material that we pick up are either donated, recycled, or otherwise repurposed. We are the nation's top-rated junk removal service, and one of the reasons that individuals and businesses prefer us is because of our commitment to the greenest and most environmentally friendly junk removal service.

We are proud to say that our mission is to ensure that 60 percent of the junk collected at each job site is either recycled, reused or repurposed, rather than being dumped into landfills. All of our Junk Works franchises have developed a huge network of relationships with recycling facilities, thrift stores, donation centers and other businesses that specialize in finding ways to reuse or repurpose your junk items, including your used mattresses.

Related Resource: [Infographic] What happens when a mattress is recycled?

Furthermore, we know that between 80 and 90 percent of the material inside a mattress is completely recyclable. When you hire Junk Works for mattress removal service, there are three different ways that we can help you get rid of your used mattress in an ecological way.

1. Donate the old mattress: If your mattress is still in decent and usable condition, we will attempt to donate the mattress to one of the thrift stores, charities, or other donation centers that we work with in your area.
2. Recycle the old mattress: For Junk Works customers who live in the general vicinity of a certified recycling mattress center, our junk removal technicians will take your old mattress directly to the local recycling center. These centers then break down the mattress into the different parts for recycling. For example, the metal springs can be sent to a separate scrap metal recycling facility, while the foam materials can be recycled into other types of plastic products. According to the Mattress Recycling Council, mattress components can be recycled into new consumer and industrial products. The foam padding on your used mattress can be turned into carpet underlayment or animal bed padding. Similarly, the fabric and fibers from your used mattress can easily be turned into industrial oil filters and other textile applications. Even the wooden frame from your mattress can be shredded and turned into landscaping mulch or burned as an alternative fuel source. Any of these options are obviously better than simply sending your old mattress to a landfill where it will sit for hundreds of years and contribute to methane gas emissions that are helping to drive global warming.
3. Incineration for energy generation: Lastly, for Junk Works customers who live in areas where there are no nearby mattress recycling facilities, we may send old mattresses that cannot be donated to an incineration facility. These incineration facilities inject energy into the local electricity grid without relying on the mining and burning of fossil fuels. Though this might not be the “greenest” option when compared to recycling or donation, it is certainly better than simply tossing an old mattress into the local landfill.

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For individuals or businesses who have never worked with a junk removal company, it's important to clear up some of the questions and doubts you may have before hiring us for your mattress removal service. Below are a few answers to some of the most common frequently asked questions (FAQs) that our clients here at Junk Works have asked in the past.

Junk Works full service mattress removal and recycling service gives both residents and commercial establishments the freedom to no longer worry about maneuvering old mattresses because Junk Works will recycle and dispose of the items for you. You can schedule bulk and singular pickups or recycle your old mattress today by calling or by booking online.

Junk Works provides professional mattress and bed spring removal services. Disposing of used mattresses, box springs and furniture is difficult because they cannot be dumped into the usual dump sites. The reason for this is because they contain chemicals that are harmful to the environment. Junk Works is a full service mattress disposal company working towards an efficient and an environmentally friendly way to recycle your mattress and bed springs so that the environment is protected and your old mattress can be removed.

Our local mattress disposal process is simple, effective, and most of all, green! Junk Works recycles as much of your bulk pickups as possible. If the old mattress is salvageable, we will donate it to someone in need. If your bed springs or bed frame is broken we take it to the proper recycling service location to break down and reuse the bed frame parts and pieces. If you are searching for convenient and easy mattress removal services then, contact Junk Works to help with all your mattress and furniture disposal needs.

We take the health and welfare of our crew and customers very seriously. To keep everyone safe, we are 100 percent committed to maintaining a minimum 6-foot distance from every customer. Also, you can opt for “contact-less” service wherein our haulers can pick up your old mattress curbside, without ever entering your home. You can also send photos to the Junk Works team for a touch-less price quote, and even pay for our services over the phone to limit social exposure. Gloves, masks and hand sanitizers are provided on every truck used to protect both you and our haulers.

At this time, Junk Works franchises across the country do not accept drop offs for mattresses or other types of junk. However, we do offer a self-service junk removal option with our mini dumpster rentals. We will drop off a dumpster in your driveway and drive away. You keep it as long as you want and let us know when to come pick it up. You only pay for the space you use!

Simply leave your old mattress or bed springs outside, on the curb or driveway, in a side yard, backyard, or carport, and our professional crews will come by, pick up and haul away your car junk without ever making contact. You can even make payment over the phone.

Every one of our Junk Works franchises has a huge network of relationships with local recycling operations, donation centers, non-profit organizations, and other companies that help us find a way to either donate, recycle, or repurpose your used mattresses. We are proud to not only help keep items out of our local landfills, but to also help facilitate donations of used items to families in need. In the specific case of mattresses, our junk removal teams also abide by all local ordinances and laws related to proper removal of these bulky junk items.

Our professional junk removal teams can handle most ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, except hazardous waste. Everything from furniture and appliances to yard waste and construction debris. We unfortunately cannot take hazardous waste, for example, paints, solvents, automotive waste, and propane tanks.

No! When you hire Junk Works for mattress removal service, our junk removal technicians will do all of the heavy lifting and hauling for you. Simply let us know where the old mattress (or mattresses) are located in your home, and we´ll do the rest. Of course, if you prefer contact-less junk removal service, that is also an option.

The exact amount for each junk removal job will depend on the type of junk being hauled away, the amount of space it will take up in our truck, and the distance we will have to travel. You can either call us, text us, or contact us online for a free quote. We also offer free on-site pricing, and may be able to haul away your old mattress and other types of junk the same day you call us. We are proud to be the most competitively priced junk removal service in the country, and will beat any written estimate.

Yes. Box springs are made up of a wood frame, steel coils and generally also have a soft cotton outer layer. Box springs have a similar recycling process to that of mattresses, and can be picked up by Junk Works for environmentally friendly mattress disposal.

Yes! Junk Works offers both residential and commercial junk removal service. For hotel owners, AirBnbs, and other businesses that have several old mattresses that need to be replaced, we make it easy to help you upgrade your hospitality installations by offering the most efficient mattress removal service on the market.

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One of the greatest aspects about working with Junk Works for your mattress removal needs is that we make it incredibly easy for our customers to get a fair and transparent price estimate. We are also committed to working around your availability so that you don’t have to miss a day of work just so to get rid of an old mattress that is taking up valuable space in your home or business. Providing our customers with “fair and transparent” pricing is one of the hallmarks of our company and we offer four convenient ways for homeowners to find out how much their junk removal needs will cost:

1. On-Site Pricing Estimate: On-site pricing is the best and most accurate way for us to assess the job and offer you the lowest price. Unlike other companies, our on-site pricing estimates are completely free, and come with no-obligation on your part. Our junk removal professionals will inspect the junk you need hauled away and offer you an upfront price. If a price is agreed upon, we will often be able to get rid of your junk on the same day.
2. Call to Talk with a Trained Customer Service Representative: If you'd prefer to talk with someone before making a decision, you can call us toll-free at 1-888-888-JUNK. Our customer service representatives can help you plan the logistics for any large-scale junk removal.
3. Text us a Photo: For smaller jobs, you can simply take a photo of your items, text us at 1-737-888-5865, and we will text you back an estimate. Once you accept the estimate, all you have to do is wait for the Junk Works truck to arrive.
4. Online pricing estimator: Lastly, Junk Works also offers an easy-to-use online pricing estimator. Simply enter your zip code to ensure that you are in the right service area and provide a few more pieces of information regarding the junk you need removed. Our pricing estimator allows you to receive a transparent cost estimate based on either the actual items you need hauled away, or the anticipated volume in the Junk Works truck you plan on taking up. The online pricing estimator is convenient, reliable, and time saving for those on a tight schedule.

No matter what option you choose, as soon as a price is agreed upon, you choose a date and two-hour service window that works for your schedule. Our junk removal professionals will call you 15-30 minutes before we show up to promptly take away your used mattress in order to free up space in your home!

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Unless you have a mattress recycling facility just down the road from your home or business, chances are that hiring a full-service junk removal company will be the easiest and most cost effective way to deal with your old and used mattresses. However, not every junk removal company operates under the same principles and values. When choosing a company to help with your old mattress removal, make sure to prioritize companies that show the following characteristics:

• Transparent Pricing Mechanisms: An honest and trustworthy junk removal company should be able to offer you transparent pricing mechanisms. There is nothing worse than hiring a company to get rid of your car junk only to find out that they are going to charge you double what they had originally quoted once the truck is at your home. Look for companies that offer either online pricing estimates or free, in-person quotes.
• A Commitment to Recycling and Donations: The best junk removal companies will go the extra mile to ensure that the junk they haul away is not simply taken to the nearest landfill.
• Quality Customer Service: Lastly, the top junk removal companies will also offer superior customer service that ensures that you, as the customer, do not have to do any sort of heavy lifting or moving of the junk that you need hauled away.

Here at Junk Works, we are proud to offer the absolute best customer service on the market. We know that our customers have a choice when it comes to choosing junk removal companies, and we will go the extra mile to ensure that getting rid of an old mattress is as easy and effortless as possible. Besides doing all the heavy lifting and hauling, our trained junk removal teams will also go the extra mile to protect your home, ensuring that we don’t scratch or dent any walls or doors while hauling away your mattress, box springs, or other pieces of old furniture.

Another great thing about using pros like Junk Works as opposed to day laborers is that you can depend on us to treat your home with utmost respect. As the leading junk removal service around the country, the Junk Works team you hire will be licensed and insured, which could make a huge difference in case something should go awry like a scuffed up hardwood floor or damage to a wall. Whereas other junk removal services might leave you to deal with any mess and damage that occurs, our trained professionals will most likely not cause any damage in the first place. If something were to occur, however, we most certainly will respond in a timely and respectful manner.

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Another advantage of working with Junk Works for your mattress removal needs is that we guarantee to offer fair and transparent cost estimates in writing, and we also are confident that we can beat any written estimate. We truly believe that it is a combination of excellent customer service and a commitment to recycling, reusing, or donating more than half of the junk we pick up that has allowed our family business to continue to grow and expand into new locations around North America.

Junk Works is the number-one rated junk removal company in North America and has over 100 franchise locations in the United States and Canada. Junk Works is an established company with a proven track record. Our company is also fully insured, bonded, and licensed so that you can rest assured that you will never have to deal with unforeseen liabilities.

No matter what your old mattress looks like, we are here to help you efficiently and easily free up space in your home or business through offering the best mattress removal service you can find. Give us a call at 1-888-888-JUNK (5865), text a photo to 1-737-888-5865, or book an appointment online to save $20 on orders totaling more than $99. Junk Works continues to offer free, on-site written estimates, which is still the best way for us to give you our lowest pricing possible.

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