Box springs are bulky, mostly wood and steel, and rarely accepted with regular trash. Here are the five ways to get rid of one, plus how California's recycling fee already covers it.
A box spring is one of the more annoying things to throw away. It is too big for a trash bin, too heavy to carry down a stairwell alone, and in most cities it will not be collected if you simply lean it against the curb. It is also not garbage in the useful sense: a standard box spring is a wooden frame, a steel grid or coil unit, some padding and a fabric cover, and nearly all of that can be recycled if it reaches the right facility.
Here are the five realistic ways to get rid of one, roughly in order of least effort.
This is the easiest option by a wide margin, and most people forget to ask. If you are replacing the bed anyway, the delivery crew that brings the new set can take the old mattress and box spring at the same time. It costs you nothing extra in most cases, nothing has to sit in your garage for three weeks, and the old set goes into the retailer's recycling stream rather than a landfill.
The catch is that removal usually has to be arranged when you place the order, not on delivery day. Crews plan truck space in advance. If you think you might want the old set gone, say so up front. Our delivery page covers what our crews can and cannot take.
If you live in California, you have already paid for this. Every mattress and box spring sold in the state carries a small state-mandated recycling fee, and that fee funds a statewide take-back program. Box springs and foundations count, not just mattresses.
In practice that means free drop-off at participating recycling facilities and collection sites, and free pickup events run periodically in many communities. There is no additional charge at the point of drop-off, because the fee was collected when the product was originally sold. Our mattress recycling fee page explains how the charge works and where it goes.
Two practical notes. The item usually has to be dry and free of bed bugs or heavy soiling, since contaminated units cannot be processed safely. And drop-off sites often have limits on how many pieces one household can bring in a day, so call ahead if you are clearing out a whole apartment.
Most municipalities run a large-item collection service for exactly this kind of thing. In Los Angeles, city sanitation collects bulky items by appointment for residents on city trash service, and a box spring qualifies. It is scheduled rather than automatic, so you request a pickup, get a date, and put the item out the night before.
What trips people up: putting a box spring out without an appointment. Uncollected bulky items are treated as illegal dumping in many jurisdictions, and that carries a fine. Book the appointment first. If you rent, check with your building manager, because larger complexes on private hauling contracts have their own process and the city service may not apply.
People ask whether Goodwill takes box springs. Generally, no. Most Goodwill locations decline mattresses and box springs outright, and the ones that accept furniture usually exclude bedding for hygiene and liability reasons. Policies are set regionally, so it is worth one phone call, but do not plan around it.
Charities that furnish housing for families leaving shelters sometimes do accept box springs, with conditions: clean, structurally sound, no sagging, no stains, no pest history. A box spring with a cracked frame or a torn cover is not a donation, it is a recycling job. We keep a running list of options in our guide to donating a mattress in Los Angeles.
If you have a truck, an hour and a pry bar, a box spring comes apart easily. Cut the fabric cover away, pull the staples, separate the wooden frame from the steel grid or coil unit, and you have two clean material streams. The lumber goes in green or bulk waste depending on your city's rules, and the steel goes to a scrap metal yard, which will typically pay you a small amount by weight.
Wear gloves and eye protection. The staples and cut wire ends are the main hazard, and a heavy-duty staple remover saves a lot of swearing. This route makes the most sense if you are already making a dump run, or if you are in a rural area without a nearby recycling site.
Before you haul anything anywhere, it is worth asking whether the foundation is the problem. A box spring that is only a few years old and still square and quiet can usually stay. A frame that creaks, flexes underfoot or has a visible dip in the middle is done, and leaving it under a new mattress will void most warranties and ruin a good bed.
It is also worth checking whether you need a box spring at all. Many modern mattresses, especially all-foam and hybrid models, want a solid or closely slatted platform rather than a traditional spring foundation. Our guide to box springs, platform beds and bunkie boards walks through which one your mattress actually needs, and you can shop current options in our foundations collection.
Almost never. Most Goodwill locations do not accept mattresses or box springs at all, and policies are set by regional affiliate rather than nationally. Call your local store before loading anything into a car. Recycling is the more reliable route.
Handle them as one job. New mattress delivery haul-away, a single bulky item pickup appointment, or one trip to a recycling drop-off will all take both pieces. See our full guide to mattress disposal in Los Angeles for site-by-site detail.
Roughly eight to ten years for a well-built unit on a supportive frame, which is a little longer than the mattress on top of it. Weight, whether the center is supported, and how often the bed gets moved all shorten that. If it creaks, sags or flexes when you press on it, replace it with the mattress.
Yes. The wooden frame loosens at the joints, staples pull free, and on true spring units the coils lose tension. The failure is gradual, so most people blame the mattress for a bed that has actually gone soft underneath.
Foundations sit well below mattress prices, from entry-level metal frames up to matched luxury foundations built for a specific mattress line. The right answer depends on the mattress it supports, since a heavy hybrid needs more underneath it than a light foam bed.
No. Bulky items are excluded from standard curbside bins everywhere in Los Angeles County, and stuffing one into a bin or leaving it beside the bin will get the whole collection skipped.
If the old box spring is going out because the whole bed is being replaced, get the foundation choice right this time. Take our sleep quiz to narrow down a mattress, or visit one of our five Los Angeles showrooms and we will tell you honestly whether your current foundation can stay. We deliver the same day across most of the metro, and we can take the old set away on the same trip.
Skip the comparison shopping. Answer a few questions and we'll narrow it down to the mattresses that actually fit your sleep style.
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