California recycles mattresses for free through a statewide program, and three drop-offs sit within a half hour of Roseville. Placer County residents can bring four mattresses or box springs per household at no charge. If you cannot lift it or haul it, our pickup starts at $150.
A mattress is the item that stops people cold. It will not fit in a cart, it will not fit in a sedan, and nobody you know wants it. Meanwhile it is one of the few things in your house that the state will actually recycle for nothing, if you can get it to the gate.
I'm Chris. My sons and I run Kale's Junk & Trash Hauling out of Roseville, and mattresses are one of the items we get called about most. So I will say the awkward part first: if you own a truck, you probably should not be paying me for this one. The drop-off is free and it is close.
Option 1: Free Drop-Off Through Bye Bye Mattress
California's mattress stewardship program is run by the Mattress Recycling Council, a nonprofit created by mattress manufacturers, renovators and retailers. The side of it you deal with is called Bye Bye Mattress, and the whole idea is that participating facilities take your old mattress or box spring at no charge. The state's overview sits on the CalRecycle mattress page (checked September 2026).
Three of those facilities are close enough to Roseville to be worth the drive. Here is what each one takes, when, and from whom.
Free is free, but it is not unlimited, and the counting trips people up. A mattress and its box spring are two units, not one, so one bed set uses half of a Placer household's four. Sacramento counts by the load instead, five units per vehicle. The Placer facilities are listed on the county's Placer Recycles page (checked September 2026), and the Sacramento station on the Bye Bye Mattress Sacramento listing (checked September 2026).
Call before you load if it is wet. Recycling a mattress means cutting it open and pulling the steel, foam, fiber and wood apart, so a soaked or badly soiled one may be refused at the gate. The numbers are in the table, and two minutes on the phone beats the drive. Elsewhere in the state, the program keeps a facility finder (checked September 2026).
Option 2: Ask the Store Delivering Your New One
This one only applies if a replacement is already coming. Ask the store delivering your new mattress whether they will take the old one; many do. Ask when you place the order, not when the truck is in the driveway. The crew needs it written on the work order and they need the room on the truck, and neither of those happens on the spot.
I am not going to tell you it is guaranteed or that anyone owes it to you, because I cannot back that up. It varies by retailer. But it costs you one question at checkout, and when the answer is yes the old mattress leaves in the same hour the new one arrives.
Option 3: Roseville City Services, What They Do and Do Not Do
Roseville has no curbside bulky pickup, and mattresses are not collected with the carts. Nothing outside your carts gets picked up at all. Setting one on the curb and hoping is how people collect an HOA notice.
What the city does run is free Neighborhood Clean-Up events on Saturdays each spring for Roseville residents, plus dumpster rental for a fee. Both are real options at the right time of year, but neither is a mattress recycling program. I laid out everything the city offers, with the dates and the phone numbers, in Roseville bulky item pickup options.
The drop-offs are open year round and the clean-up events are not. If the mattress is leaning against your garage wall right now, do not plan around next April.
Option 4: Have It Picked Up
Paying someone makes sense in a fairly narrow set of situations, and I would rather name them than pretend it always does.
- No truck: a mattress does not fit in a sedan, and renting a van for the afternoon is not free either.
- Stairs: a king coming down a narrow staircase with one person on it is where the injuries happen.
- More than the bed: if the frame, the dresser and the rest of the room are going too, one visit handles all of it.
- A move-out with a clock on it: when the keys are due, waiting for a free Saturday is not an option.
Our single item minimum is $150. That covers the mattress and box spring together, the carry-out from whatever floor they are on, and the run to the recycler. If the whole room is emptying out we price by volume instead: a half trailer runs $550 to $590 and a full trailer is $995. Everything else we take out of a bedroom is on the mattress and furniture removal page.
Where it ends up matters to some people, so here it is: your mattress goes to a recycler through the state program rather than to a landfill. That is the same destination it would reach if you drove it out yourself. You are paying us for the lifting and the truck, not for a better ending.
How to Move a Mattress Without Hurting Yourself
If you are hauling it yourself, four things make the difference between a quick errand and a sore week.
- Fold and strap a foam one: memory foam and latex fold in half. Two ratchet straps, or rope if that is what you have, hold the fold and turn an awkward slab into something one person can steer. Do not try it with an innerspring.
- Bag it if it is riding in your own vehicle: a mattress bag keeps road grit out of your truck bed, and keeps whatever is living in the seams off your back seat.
- Two people for a king: a king is not so much heavy as wide, and on the highway the wind will take it out of your hands before the weight ever does.
- Box spring first: it is rigid and it is the one that will not make the corner. Take it down the stairs before the mattress, so you find out about the turn while you are still fresh.
What I Would Tell a Neighbor
If you own a truck, the mattress is dry, and it is on the ground floor, load it and drive it to Lincoln. It costs you fuel and part of a morning and you keep your $150. That is the right answer more often than it is not, and I will tell you so on the phone.
If it is upstairs, if it is a king, if a whole bedroom is going out, or if you simply do not own the vehicle, call or text (916) 295-2622. The boys and I will come take a look, the on-site estimate is free, and you get the exact price before anything goes on the truck.
Frequently Asked Questions
Dumping one on a street or lot is illegal dumping anywhere in the state. Taking it to a landfill is legal but pointless, because the same facilities take mattresses for free through the state recycling program. Just do not leave it at the curb in Roseville; nothing outside the carts gets picked up.
Western Placer Waste Management Authority at 3195 Athens Avenue in Lincoln, seven days a week, up to four mattresses or box springs per household. Auburn residents can use Recology Auburn Placer on Shale Ridge Road. Both are free through the Bye Bye Mattress program, checked September 2026.
Facilities recycle mattresses by cutting them apart, so a soaked or badly soiled one may be refused at the gate. Call ahead if yours has been outside or in a flood. Bed bugs: tell them when you arrive rather than hoping nobody notices.
Our single-item minimum is $150, which covers the mattress and box spring together, the carry-out from any floor, and the run to the recycler. Add a bed frame or a second set and it stays in the minimum load as long as it fits.