State Rules

Mattresses, Box Springs and Textiles: The 2022 Bans

A mattress with bed bugs and a clean one go to completely different places. Knowing which you have is worth about forty dollars.

The ban, in one line

Since 1 November 2022, mattresses, box springs and textiles have been banned from disposal in Massachusetts. They joined a list that already included construction debris, metal, yard waste and a good deal else.

They are the two bans that still surprise people, because unlike a car battery or a load of brick, a mattress is something an ordinary household throws out every few years and has always just put at the curb.

It cannot go in the trash, and it cannot go in a mixed container load.

⭐ What counts as a mattress

The regulation defines a mattress as any resilient material, or combination of materials, made for sleeping upon. That covers more than people assume:

• Every size, from a crib mattress upward
• Foam mattresses
• "Bed in a box" products
• Box springs, which are covered alongside mattresses

So a bedroom clear-out that produces a mattress and a box spring has produced two banned items, not one.

⚠️ The exceptions are real and useful

This is the section worth reading twice, because the exceptions are unusually specific and they save people real money and real hassle.

That is not a loophole. A mattress crawling with bed bugs cannot be sent to a recycling facility, and the regulation says so instead of pretending otherwise.

So if you are clearing a property where the mattresses are genuinely contaminated — water damage, a long vacancy, an infestation — the answer is different, and it is simpler. Tell us what you actually have.

Also not covered by the ban at all:

• Futon mattresses
• Sofa beds — the mattress inside a sofa bed is outside the ban
• Mattress pads
• Toppers

Worth knowing before you spend an afternoon arranging a separate collection for a futon.

Textiles: more than clothing

The textile ban is broader than most people realise. It covers:

• Clothing of all kinds, including items too worn to donate
• Clean footwear
• Bedding — sheets, blankets, duvets
• Towels and linens

The key word is clean. The ban applies to clean material, because the point of it is to get textiles into recovery rather than into the ground. Textiles soaked in hazardous substances fall outside it, for the same reason contaminated mattresses do.

An important practical point: worn-out clothing still counts. People assume the ban is really about donation, and that something too damaged to wear must be fine in the trash. It is not. Textile recovery takes material well past wearable condition.

⭐ The city's $12 route

For a small number of items, the City of Fall River has the cheapest answer available and you should use it.

The bulky item program accepts mattresses and box springs, along with furniture, appliances, carpeting and a good deal else. Two ways in:

• Drop off at the City Garage, 10 Lewiston Street — Monday to Friday 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.
• Schedule a curbside collection on the city's form, pay for it, and attach the city-issued bulky item sticker to the item.

The fee is $12.00 for one to three items unless otherwise noted. For a single mattress that is the end of the story and you do not need us.

Two warnings worth taking seriously:

• Items are collected only on the scheduled date. A mattress out on the wrong day is a mattress sitting on the sidewalk.
• Putting items out without a paid sticker can mean a fine for the property owner. In a city with a lot of rental triple-deckers, that bill tends to find the landlord.

We would rather tell you this than sell you a container for one mattress.

⚠️ Why it is not in your container by default

Because a banned item in a load is not a quiet problem.

Massachusetts disposal facilities inspect what arrives, and when banned material turns up they are required to issue a failed load notification to the hauler and to the generator, and may charge a handling fee to pull it out and route it for recycling.

So a mattress tossed into a renovation load becomes a notice with your name on it and a charge after the fact. Ten minutes of planning avoids it.

If you have a lot of them — an estate, a landlord turnover, a property clearance — tell us at the quote and we will arrange the right handling rather than discovering it at the gate.

Clearances that produce a lot of both

Three jobs where this comes up constantly around here:

• Landlord turnovers. Fall River has a great deal of rental housing, and a turnover routinely produces a mattress, a box spring and several bags of abandoned clothing — three banned categories from one apartment.
• Estate clearances. Decades of bedding and clothing, often several mattresses, and frequently some genuinely contaminated after a long vacancy. The exceptions matter here more than anywhere.
• Student turnover out toward the university, where the end of the academic year produces mattresses and textiles in volume on a very short timetable.

In all three the answer is the same: separate them from the general load, flag them when you book, and let the container carry what the container is actually for.

A short decision list

• One or two clean mattresses, Fall River address? The city's $12 bulky route
• Contaminated — mold, fluids, insects? Outside the ban; tell us and it goes as ordinary waste
• A futon, sofa bed, pad or topper? Not covered by the ban at all
• Several mattresses from a clearance? Flag it at the quote and we will arrange handling
• Bags of old clothing, however worn? Textiles — banned, even past wearable
• Textiles soaked in hazardous substances? Outside the ban
• Outside Fall River? The state ban still applies; the city program does not
• Tiverton, Portsmouth or Little Compton? Rhode Island — a different system entirely