What It Really Costs to Get Rid of a Mattress, Fridge or TV in Northern Michigan

Nobody budgets for the day a mattress gives out. The box spring leans against the garage wall, the old fridge keeps humming in the basement long after the new one arrived, and a tube TV sits on a dresser nobody wants. Then you start calling around and collect three different answers and zero numbers. BARC, Bay Area Recycling for Community, prints its prices on a published sheet, the 2026-27 pricing, so this is a plain walk through the three items Northern Michigan households ask about most: mattresses, refrigerators and TVs.

Mattresses and box springs, priced by size

Mattress prices at BARC depend on what you are hauling, not on what you paid for it. Here is the 2026-27 sheet, line by line:

• Baby, RV or futon mattress: $20
• Twin mattress and box spring, or a king box: $30
• Double, full or queen mattress and box, or an air mattress: $40
• King mattress: $50
• Headboards and bed frames, per set: $20
• Latex foam or quilt mattress topper: $10

Why pay anything when the curb is free? Michigan landfills take in over 400,000 mattresses each year, and every one of them is a 40 cubic foot, gas-emitting pocket buried in the ground. Recycling a mattress saves that pocket. The rules for bringing one in are short. Keep it dry and intact. Light staining is fine, but dark brown stains are refused, and any sign of bed bugs means it cannot come in. If it has to wait for pickup day, store it indoors or tarped off the ground so a rainstorm does not turn a clean mattress into a refused one.

Refrigerators, freezers and other freon units

Anything that cools with freon has its own price tier, because the freon has to be evacuated by a certified facility before the metal and the rest of the unit can be recycled. BARC lists three:

• Small freon units, meaning A/C units, mini fridges, coolers and dehumidifiers: $65
• Standard freon, meaning refrigerators and freezers: $100
• Commercial freon, meaning oversized refrigerators and chest freezers: $150

One more thing before you pay. BARC's refrigerator recycling page says most people get double the cost back by claiming the rebates, which are offered through Cherryland Electric Cooperative and Traverse City Light and Power. Rebate rules are set by the utilities, so ask yours what it offers for your particular appliance before you schedule anything. A $100 recycling fee that earns back more than that changes how you feel about the whole job.

TVs, from old tube sets to flat screens

The sheet prices TVs by type and screen size. Tube sets are the CRT lines, and flat screens are the cheaper ones:

• Small CRT TV, 0 to 12 inch: $20
• Medium CRT TV, 12 to 32 inch: $40
• Large CRT TV, 32 to 40 inch: $60
• Wooden, projection or oversized TV: $80
• Flat screen under 32 inch: $20
• Flat screen over 32 inch: $30

Computer monitors are listed separately at $20 for an LCD flat screen and $30 for a CRT. If your flat-screen TV still works and you have the remote, hold on before you pay a fee at all. The Kaleva Resale Shop takes working flat-screen TVs with a remote, though not CRTs or analog sets, so a good one may earn a second owner instead of a recycling line. For everything else in the electronics pile, see the electronics recycling page.

What the pickup fee does to your total

Dropping items off means you pay only the listed price. Having BARC come to you adds a pickup fee of $100 within a 35 mile radius of both facilities, on top of the sheet prices. Special pickups are generally scheduled each Monday, and BARC cannot offer exact pickup times, so plan to have everything staged somewhere dry and reachable instead of waiting by the window.

A few examples, using only the sheet. A queen mattress and box dropped off: $40. A flat-screen TV over 32 inches dropped off: $30. A standard refrigerator dropped off: $100, or about $200 if you ask for a pickup, because the $100 fee is added to the $100 price. Those are the printed numbers. The final bill depends on what actually shows up, so call (231) 632-2272 for a quote when you have several large items or you are not sure which line something falls under.

Drop-off happens at two places: 466 US-31 South in Traverse City, and 14407 Industrial Dr. in Kaleva. BARC cannot accept any drop-offs when it is closed, so call to confirm hours before you load up the truck. Nothing wastes a Saturday like a full bed of mattresses and a locked gate.

A short checklist before you call

• Note the size of each mattress and whether a box spring goes with it.
• Check every mattress for dampness, dark brown stains and any sign of bed bugs.
• Write down whether each cooling unit is small, standard or commercial.
• Note each TV as tube, flat screen, projection or oversized, with the screen size.
• Decide between drop-off and pickup, and where the items will wait if you pick pickup.
• Ask your electric utility about appliance rebates before the fridge leaves the house.

Every price above is on the pricing page, and the schedule a pickup page has an item checklist if you would rather book online than talk it through. Either way, you will know the number before anything leaves your garage, which is the whole point of a published sheet.