Check your town's curbside rules first
Curbside mattress pickup in Monmouth County is handled by each town's Public Works department or trash hauler, and the rules shift at every town line. A few examples:
Each town page on our site links to that town's official trash rules. Check the current schedule before you drag a mattress outside, since pickup days and item limits change.
- Freehold Borough takes a mattress with regular trash on the second pickup day of the week, as long as it's completely wrapped in plastic. Freehold Township is a separate town with its own rules, and its curbside bulk collection runs once a year, in the fall.
- Englishtown takes one bulk item per household with a regular weekly trash pickup, and a mattress and box spring can't go out together.
- Wall collects bulk once a month and accepts a limited number of mattresses and box springs each time.
- Allentown collects bulk only on scheduled dates, for homes that call Borough Hall to get on the list. Mattresses and box springs must be wrapped in plastic or a mattress bag, and anything larger than a full must be wrapped, folded in half and tied.
- Manalapan picks up a small number of bulk furniture items once a month on a set garbage day. Its page doesn't spell out mattress prep, so call Public Works before you set one out.
- Colts Neck doesn't pick up bulk waste and refers residents to the county Reclamation Center. In Millstone, garbage collection is a subscription each property owner arranges, so the answer comes from your hauler.
Seal it in plastic
Wrapping is the rule that catches people out. Freehold Borough and Allentown both require it, and Allentown says the rule is there to keep bed bugs from spreading. If your town requires wrapping and the mattress isn't wrapped, don't count on the truck taking it.
Mattress disposal bags are sold at home improvement stores. Slide the bag over the whole mattress, tape it shut, and bag the box spring on its own. Then keep both dry. A mattress that sits out in the rain soaks up water and gets much heavier for whoever lifts it next.
Take it to the Reclamation Center in Tinton Falls
The Monmouth County Reclamation Center at 6000 Asbury Avenue in Tinton Falls accepts bulky household waste, such as old furniture, from Monmouth County residents. Its fee schedule doesn't list mattresses as a category of their own, so call before you load one. The site has a residents' tent area, and charges go by weight.
You'll need a pickup, van or trailer and a second person to lift. Before you go:
- It takes Monmouth County waste only, not loads from other counties.
- Residents can pay by cash or personal check and must show a valid driver's license and vehicle registration.
- Residents can't come in a rental truck or a vehicle with commercial plates.
- Every open load has to be tarped or covered.
- Hours and fees change, so check the Reclamation Center's site the day you go.
Donating, selling or recycling a used mattress
New Jersey law (N.J.S.A. 26:10-20) bars anyone from selling, leasing or delivering a used mattress or box spring unless it's encased in plastic, and a used one can't be sold until it has been cleaned and disinfected by a process the state approves. That's extra work for a resale shop or charity, so call before you load one up, and expect that some will say no.
Buying a new mattress? Ask the store whether it will take the old one at delivery and what that costs. When the timing works, it saves you a trip.
Recycling options are thin. The Mattress Recycling Council runs statewide programs in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island, and New Jersey isn't one of them. A Mattress Stewardship Act (S2359) has been introduced in the New Jersey Senate, but it isn't law.
When it's easier to have us haul it
A mattress is more awkward than heavy. A king or a pillow-top fights every stairwell turn, and a box spring doesn't bend at all. If it's coming down from a second floor, your town's next pickup is weeks away, or the whole bedroom set is going, text photos to (855) 655-7552 for one upfront price.
Dominic and his crew carry it out from the bedroom, along with the frame, headboard and anything else that's leaving, and sweep up before we go. Loads from Monmouth County go to the Reclamation Center in Tinton Falls, and furniture in good shape is donated when possible. Jobs have a $250 minimum, and same-day and next-day openings are often available. See mattress removal and furniture removal for how it works.
