Mattress Take-Back · California Law · Temecula Valley
Will the Store Take My Old Mattress? California's Take-Back Rule
Usually, yes. When a store delivers your new mattress in California, the law says it has to offer to take your old one at no extra charge. If the new one ships in a box by UPS or FedEx, the seller has 30 days to arrange the pickup. If you carry the new one home yourself, the rule doesn't apply.
Family-owned in Temecula since 2021 · Licensed & insured · Same-day mattress pickup most days
Wild West Junk Removal · 41713 Niblick Rd, Temecula, CA 92591 · (951) 837-8072
Mon to Sat: 7AM-7PM · Sunday: Closed · Family-owned, licensed and insured · Serving Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee and southwest Riverside County
The short version
Who Has to Take Your Old Mattress?
Any seller that delivers a new mattress to a California address has to offer to pick up an old one at no additional cost. That's Public Resources Code section 42992, part of the state's Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act, and CalRecycle enforces it. How the pickup works depends on how your new mattress shows up.
| How the new mattress arrives | What the seller has to offer | When |
|---|---|---|
| The store's delivery truck, or a delivery company the store hires | Free pickup of your old mattress | At the time of delivery |
| Shipped in a box by UPS, FedEx, or another carrier (most online orders) | To arrange a free pickup of your old mattress | Within 30 days of delivery |
| You pick it up at the store or haul it home yourself | Nothing under this law | Not applicable |
The online part is newer than people think. Sellers that shipped by carrier used to be exempt. Since January 1, 2021, they've had to offer the pickup too, according to the Mattress Recycling Council, the nonprofit that runs California's Bye Bye Mattress program. That covers the bed-in-a-box brands, the big online stores, and anybody else shipping a mattress to a California address.
The catch in the third row is real. The rule hangs on delivery. If you strap the new one into your own truck in the store's parking lot, nobody owes you a pickup, and the old one is yours to deal with.
Read the fine print once
What the Rule Covers and What It Doesn't
The take-back covers a used mattress or box spring when a new one is being delivered, and the pickup itself can't cost you anything extra. The details below are where people get tripped up.
- ✓Delivery can still cost money. The law lets a store charge for delivering the new mattress. What it can't do is add a charge for taking the old one.
- ✓Box springs count. The Mattress Recycling Council describes the rule as covering a used mattress and/or box spring. If you're replacing both, make sure both are on the order.
- ✓Futons count if the mattress comes off the frame. California treats a detachable futon mattress as a mattress. The frame isn't covered.
- ✓Toppers, pads, and crib mattresses don't. The state's definition of a mattress leaves out loose toppers and pads, crib and bassinet mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, and air mattresses with no upholstery. Bye Bye Mattress lists the exclusions.
A store or its delivery contractor can refuse a used mattress it decides is contaminated and a risk to its crew, its new products, or its equipment. Bed bugs are the obvious one, and a mattress that's been soaked is another. If yours has had bed bugs, read how to dispose of a mattress with bed bugs before the delivery date, not after.
The recycling fee on your receipt isn't the take-back
Every mattress and box spring sold in California carries a recycling fee, and it's been $18 per unit since April 1, 2026, according to the Mattress Recycling Council. It has to show up as its own line on the receipt. That money pays for the statewide recycling program, including free drop-off at Bye Bye Mattress sites. It isn't a payment to the store for hauling your old one away.
So you're paying the fee either way, and the take-back is a separate thing the store owes you on delivery. Ask for both to show up on the paperwork: the fee as a line item, the pickup as a note on the order.
Before you pay for the new one
How Do You Make Sure the Pickup Actually Happens?
Ask for the pickup when you buy, get it written on the order, and have the old mattress stripped and reachable on delivery day. That goes for a store in Temecula and for a mattress shipped to your door from anywhere. Most missed pickups come down to nobody asking until the crew is already backing out of the driveway.
Ask at checkout
Say you want the old one taken and get it on the receipt or the order confirmation. In a store, have the salesperson put it on the delivery ticket.
Count the pieces
Old mattress, old box spring, split foundation. Some sellers go one for one, so match what's leaving to what's coming in.
Online order? Watch the 30 days
Find the seller's removal request form or support chat as soon as the box lands. The clock starts at delivery, not when you get around to opening it.
Strip it and clear a path
Sheets, protector, and topper off. Ask whether the crew carries it from the bedroom or wants it by the door, and tell them about stairs.
Be home
Some sellers want an adult at the address for the whole pickup window. If nobody answers the door, the pickup usually doesn't happen.
Online sellers each run this a little differently. Mattress Firm's California removal form, for example, schedules the pickup within 30 days, hauls away one for one against the new mattress, and wants someone 18 or older at the address all day. Some online brands, like Avocado, take the request through support chat and ask for photos of the old mattress first so they can see it's in a condition their crew will take. Read your seller's version before you count on it.
Here's what I tell people who call me before the delivery: if the store is bringing a new one, let them take the old one. It's free, and it's already part of the sale. I'd rather you save the money.
Where we come in is everything the store won't touch. The guest-room set that isn't being replaced. The mattress a tenant left. The one that's been in the garage since the last move. Or the old one that's still in the bedroom when the 30 days run out.
The leftovers
When Won't Store Take-Back Cover It?
Store take-back won't help if you carried the new mattress home, missed the 30-day window, have more old mattresses than new ones, or have one the crew turned down. You've still got free options around Temecula before you pay anybody.
Bye Bye Mattress drop-off
Free at participating sites if you can haul it there. The program has said 93 percent of Californians live within 15 miles of one. Find a site and call before you load up.
CR&R bulky-item pickup
City of Temecula residents get two free bulky-item pickups a year. Call CR&R at (800) 755-8112 to schedule, and plan on the mattress waiting at the curb until the pickup day.
Wild West
One mattress is $210, carried out from any room. A mattress and box spring is $225. Coming down a flight of stairs with no elevator adds $150. Prices and how pickup works.
The full side-by-side of every free option is on our mattress removal page. We pick up at the same prices in Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Wildomar, Winchester, French Valley, Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, and Hemet, and we also run out to De Luz, Rainbow, and Fallbrook.
If you're still deciding whether the old one is done, how long a mattress actually lasts walks through the sag test. If you're going to get it to the curb or a drop-off site on your own, read how to move a mattress by yourself first, and if it's an all-foam bed, can a memory foam mattress be recycled covers what the recyclers will and won't take.
Who's writing this
Straight From the Owner
Weston Molitor
Founder · Wild West Junk Removal · Temecula, CAI started Wild West Junk Removal in Temecula in 2021. We're family-owned, licensed and insured, and we haul mattresses out of homes all over southwest Riverside County.
I wrote this because the store's free pickup is the easiest money-saver in the whole mattress process, and it's the one people forget to ask for. The law is on your side here. Use it, and call me for whatever's left over.
"Ask about the old mattress before you pay for the new one. Once the delivery truck pulls away, that free pickup gets a lot harder to get."
What customers say
★★★★★
Five star junk pick up service hands down! They came on time and promised scheduled! I’ve been calling Lowe’s for my old refrigerator pick up for months!!!
★★★★★
Weston the owner helped me by calling his buddy even though he couldn't help me in short notice and referred me. They squeezed my job into their last slot I am so grateful for that. Then they both showed up to make the job easier. Thank you so much will keep referring them both Weston and Trevvor. Amazing work put my mind at ease and very polite, Great work ethic fast and careful.
Quick answers
Mattress Take-Back Questions
No. The California mattress recycling fee isn't refunded when a retailer refuses to pick up an old mattress. The fee funds the statewide recycling program, including free drop-off sites, not the store's pickup.
No. Retailers can send the mattresses they collect to the Bye Bye Mattress program, but the law doesn't make recycling mandatory. If it matters to you, ask the store where its take-backs go.
Usually not. The take-back is tied to the delivery, and sellers like Mattress Firm only pick up from the address the new mattress went to. If the old one is at a rental or a parent's house, you'll need a drop-off site, a bulky-item pickup, or a hauler.
The store only owes you the take-back tied to your delivery, and some sellers limit it to one old mattress for each new one. The extras can go to a Bye Bye Mattress drop-off site or a CR&R bulky pickup, or we'll take them at $15 each on top of the load, which makes one mattress $210.
Not under this law. The take-back covers mattresses and box springs, not frames or headboards. A frame or headboard rides with us as furniture, priced by the room it takes in the trailer, with no per-piece fee.
Yes, if the new mattress is delivered to a California address. The requirement follows the sale to a California consumer, wherever the company ships from.
Point them to Public Resources Code section 42992 and ask for a manager, since a refusal is only allowed when the old mattress is contaminated and a risk to the crew or equipment. CalRecycle enforces the rule. In the meantime, the free drop-off and bulky-pickup options still work.
Sources & related pages
- calrecycle.ca.govCalRecycle — Mattress EPR EnforcementRetailers offer free take-back at delivery, or within 30 days when shipped by common carrier.
- calrecycle.ca.govCalRecycle — Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling ActPublic Resources Code 42985–42994; Article 7, section 42992, is the retailer take-back.
- mattressrecyclingcouncil.orgMattress Recycling Council — Retailer Take BackSection 42992 text: delivery charges, refusals, and the 2021 online rule.
- byebyemattress.comBye Bye Mattress — California FAQsFee not refunded when a retailer refuses; recycling not mandatory for retailers.
- mattressrecyclingcouncil.orgMRC — 2026 California Recycling Fee Adjustment$18 per unit on mattresses, futons, and foundations sold from April 1, 2026.
- byebyemattress.comBye Bye Mattress — What’s Accepted in CaliforniaAll-foam and detachable futon mattresses count; toppers, pads, and crib mattresses don't.
- mattressfirm.comMattress Firm — Mattress Removal Request FormCalifornia haul-away within 30 days, one to one, adult at the address.
- help.avocadogreenmattress.comAvocado — California Mattress PickupPickup requested by chat with order details and photos of the old mattress.
- wastetodaymagazine.comWaste Today — Bye Bye Mattress access in CaliforniaProgram reach: all 58 counties, 93 percent of residents within 15 miles.
- wildwestjunkremoval.comMattress Removal in TemeculaPrices, free options, and how pickup works.
- wildwestjunkremoval.comHow to Dispose of a Mattress With Bed BugsWhat to do when the delivery crew won't take it.
- wildwestjunkremoval.comJunk Removal PricesThe four load sizes and every surcharge.
Written by Weston Molitor, owner of Wild West Junk Removal. Last reviewed October 12, 2026.
This page explains California's mattress take-back law in plain English and isn't legal advice. Store policies change, so check yours before delivery day. Wild West prices as of October 2026: $195 quarter load, $350 half, $495 three-quarter, $595 full 12-yard trailer; $15 per mattress or box spring; stairs $150 on loads up to a half, $300 over a half, no charge with an elevator.