How to get rid of a mattress in Providence

The short answer

Providence's free bulky-item pickup does not take mattresses. You can drive it to the DPW drop-off on Allens Avenue on a Saturday morning, take it to the state facility in Johnston, pay for a bagged curbside pickup, or have it carried out: twin $82, full $94, queen $103, king $114, set $143.

Why the city pickup leaves your mattress behind

The City of Providence runs a free bulky-item pickup through Waste Management. It takes furniture and large appliances from buildings with six or fewer units, if you schedule at least 24 hours before your trash day. Mattresses are the one big exception the city calls out by name. They are not part of the free program.

That surprises people, because a mattress is the most common bulky item in any apartment. But mattresses are handled on a separate track in Rhode Island, and Providence routes them to a drop-off or to a paid, bagged curbside pickup instead. If you put one out with your couch on bulky day, expect the couch to go and the mattress to stay.

The six-unit limit matters too. If you live in a building with seven or more units, there is no city trash service for the building at all, so the city program is not an option for anything, mattress or otherwise. Your landlord or property manager handles disposal, or you do.

Option 1: the DPW Saturday drop-off

The city accepts mattresses at the Department of Public Works on Allens Avenue on Saturdays, from 7:00 to 12:45. You can bring two per visit, and you need a Providence ID. That is the cheapest route on paper, because the drop-off itself costs you nothing.

The catch is getting it there. A queen mattress does not fit in a sedan, and a box spring does not bend at all. You need a pickup truck, a van, or a friend with one, plus a second person to carry it. In a triple-decker that usually means walking it down a narrow rear stairwell and around a back porch landing, which is where most mattress-moving injuries and scraped walls happen.

Plan for the clock as well. The window closes before one in the afternoon. If you miss it, the mattress sits in your hallway for another week.

• Bring proof you live in Providence.
• Two mattresses per visit, maximum.
• Strap it down properly. A mattress lifting off a truck bed on Route 95 is a real hazard.

Option 2: the state landfill in Johnston

The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation runs the Central Landfill at 65 Shun Pike in Johnston, which is the state's main disposal site and accepts residents' mattresses about six days a week. If you live in Cranston, North Providence or Johnston itself, it may be a shorter drive than Allens Avenue.

Check the facility's current hours and any notices before you load. RIRRC does close for weather, and it posted an adverse-weather closure as recently as September 2026. Driving a mattress out to Shun Pike in a borrowed truck only to find the gate shut is a wasted morning.

Rhode Island also runs a statewide mattress recycling program, Bye Bye Mattress, funded by a fee collected when mattresses are sold. It has collected more than 875,000 mattresses since 2016, and nearly every town takes part. If you are outside Providence, your own town's drop-off may fall under that program, so look up your town's page first.

Option 3: the paid curbside pickup

Waste Management will collect a mattress at the curb in Providence for a fee, but only if it is bagged. That means buying a mattress bag, getting the mattress into it inside your apartment, and then carrying the bagged mattress down to the street yourself.

Bagging is not a formality. A plastic-wrapped mattress is slippery, awkward and harder to grip on stairs than a bare one. On a third-floor walk-up in Elmwood or Mount Pleasant it is a two-person job, and you still have to do it at the right time, since bulky items go out no earlier than the night before.

If you have the help and the bag, this route works. If you do not, the real cost is your back and your Saturday.

Option 4: have it carried out at a flat price

The crew comes into the apartment, carries the mattress down whatever stairs you have, and loads it. No bag, no trash-day timing, no Providence ID. There is no stairs fee, so a third-floor queen costs the same $103 as a ground-floor one.

The minimum order is $100, so a twin on its own at $82 is billed at the $100 minimum. Adding the frame makes sense: a full set plus frame is $143 + $68 = $211. A queen and a separate bed frame is $103 + $68 = $171.

Which route fits which situation

Use the DPW drop-off if you have a truck, a helper, a Providence ID and a free Saturday morning. It is the cheapest route by money and the most expensive by effort.

Use Johnston if you live closer to Shun Pike than to Allens Avenue and can confirm it is open that day.

Use the paid bagged pickup if you can get the mattress to the curb yourself and are not in a hurry.

Book a pickup if any of these are true: you are on the second or third floor, your building has seven or more units, you are moving out on a deadline, or the mattress has a bed bug history and you do not want to drag it through shared hallways. Same-day pickup is available when you book by 4 PM, and you choose a two-hour arrival window.

Before anyone moves it

A few small steps make every option easier. Strip the bedding the night before. Clear a path from the bedroom to the door, including the bikes and shoes that collect on triple-decker landings. If the mattress might have bed bugs, bag it in the room before it moves anywhere, and say so when you book so the crew can handle it accordingly.

If you are a student on College Hill or near Providence College, line the pickup up before your lease end date rather than after. The weeks around mid-May are when every landing on the East Side has a mattress on it, and the city drop-off has only one Saturday morning a week.

For more on the rules themselves, see Providence mattress disposal rules.

Frequently asked questions