Large-item pickup grabs 225 tons of junk, costing La Crosse $84,000

City collected 1,200 mattresses for recycling

Over 1,500 mattresses filled the alleys of La Crosse over the last two months.

And, around 1,200 of those thrown into La Crosse alleys the last two months were picked up and recycled in this spring’s large-item pickup in La Crosse.

The city will wind up paying an estimated $84,000 for both the collection of the large items and the tipping fees for the 225 tons of junk dumped in the landfill.  

There’s already talk about expanding the collection next year to possibly make rounds through the city once a week instead of once every other week.  

La Crosse mayor Tim Kabat likes that idea for next year but wants an estimate on how much that would cost, because he worries that, without some limits, “the 1,200 mattresses collected could become 12,000 mattresses.” 

An estimated 300 mattresses were left out in the rain and weren’t able to be recycled.  

Initial reviews were that everything went pretty well with very few complaints about the mountains of furniture – especially mattresses – left curbside for, sometimes, days during parts of the last two months.