Mattress Disposal in Massachusetts: the Rule and the Cost
A mattress in the wrong place is the largest single line on our fee schedule, and it is expensive in a way that is entirely avoidable. The difference between telling us about it and not telling us about it is $115.
The rule first
Massachusetts added mattresses and textiles to its disposal ban list effective November 1, 2022. That means a mattress cannot go into ordinary disposal in Massachusetts — it has to be diverted. Enforcement lands on haulers and disposal facilities rather than on residents, but the material still has to be separated, which is why it shows up as a handling fee rather than as nothing at all.
New Hampshire has no state ban covering mattresses. The full lists for both states, with the agency sources and dates, are on our MA versus NH page — this post is about what it costs, not about restating the regulation.
Four prices, and which one applies to you
A mattress appears at four different numbers across our pricing, which looks inconsistent until you see that each one is a different job:
| How it leaves | Price | When this is you |
|---|---|---|
| Single-item junk removal | $99 | The mattress is the only thing going. We carry it out. |
| Part of a truckload | $75 | Added to a junk removal job you are already having — a surcharge on the load, not a separate visit. |
| Separate pickup alongside a container | $85 | You have a dumpster and you hand the mattress over rather than putting it in. |
| Found inside the container | $200 | Nobody mentioned it. It has to be extracted and re-routed at the facility. |
The bottom two rows are the same mattress and the same regulation. The only variable is whether it went in the box, and that is worth $115 — more than the cost of having had it taken away on its own in the first place.
So the advice is boring and free
Say the word “mattress” when you book. That is the whole trick. It takes one line in a text message and it moves the item from the bottom row of that table to the third one.
The same logic covers the rest of the banned list, for the same reason — televisions, refrigerators and AC units, tires. None of them is a surprise to us, and all of them are cheaper declared than discovered.
If you are on the New Hampshire side
The mattress is not state-banned there, which genuinely does change the disposal route. What it does not change is everything else: New Hampshire bans electronics as a class and added rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to its list, neither of which appears on the Massachusetts list in the same form. The two states are not stricter or looser than each other — they are different, item by item.
Mattress removal · both ban lists · the current fee schedule · what we take
One mattress or a houseful — text 978-225-0786 and tell us what it is.
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