Mooveapalooza!: Donation & Recycling Event

What is Mooveapalooza?

The City of Madison and Dane County Waste & Renewables are working together to provide a donation and recycling event called Moooveapoolza!

You will be able to donate items to St. Vincent de Paul and Habitat for Humanity. You can donate items for free.

And you will be able to recycle your mattress for $20 per mattress and/or with 7 Rivers Recycling from LaCrosse, WI.

Location, Date, & Time:

The event will be at the Alliant Energy Center parking lot.

Friday, August 14, 2026 from 8am to 2pm

How to Get to Mooveapalooza

Use the entrance to Alliant Energy Center from Rimrock Road.

Drive through the gate and continue forward to the back parking lot area.

You will see the donation areas to your left.

An overhead map showing you how to get to Mooveapalooza at Alliant Energy Center from Rimrock Rd.

What Can You Donate?

St. Vincent de Paul

Clothes, books, and other small household items can be donated to St. Vincent de Paul's area at Mooveapalooza.

Use the St. Vincent de Paul's guide on items they can accept.

Habitat for Humanity

Furniture, tools, and other larger usable items can be donated in the Habitat for Humanity area.

Use the Habitat for Humanity guide to learn more about the items they can accept.

How to Donate Items the Right Way

Bag or Box Your Small Stuff

For small items, like clothes, accessories, and so on - put them into bags or boxes.

Your items will be going into a truck that needs to be carefully loaded and unloaded.  When you put them into a box or a bag, it makes the whole process faster & safer.

St. Vincent de Paul has a handy visual packing guide on what you should do.

Clean the Items (Please)

Clean your items before donating. 

This includes furniture, decor, and so on that could use a good dusting. It doesn't have to be perfectly shined up like new, but let's not leave an inch of dust on the stuff either.

Remember, you are donating to non-profit organizations. If they need to spend resources cleaning your donations, it subtracts from their mission. So please, if you can, a quick wash or a wipe down is very much appreciated. 

Mattress Recycling at Mooveapalooza

7 Rivers Recycling from LaCrosse, Wisconsin will be offering mattress recycling at the Moooveapoolza event.

In order to recycle your mattress with them, there is a charge of $20 per mattress or box spring.

For example, if you bring one mattress & one box spring to this event for recycling, your total charge will be $40.  

Mattress recycling is only available when you take your mattress and/or box spring to this special event.

The payment goes directly to 7 Rivers Recycling.

Rules & Information for Mattress Recycling at Mooveapalooza

  • All mattresses & box springs must be dry
  • Remove all sheets, covers, and other bedding before dropping off your mattress or box spring for recycling
  • Futon mattresses will be accepted
  • Memory foam mattresses will be accepted
  • All mattress sizes and box springs will be accepted and charged the same price (crib mattresses up to king)
  • Mattresses & box springs that are stained with human body fluids, extremely smelly, moldy, or otherwise extremely soiled will not be accepted.
  • Mattresses & box springs infested with bugs or other animals will not be accepted

Why is there a charge for mattress recycling at this event? 

This is special. 

It is different than how mattresses and box springs are usually handled in Madison.

Currently, when these are collected by the City of Madison are not recycled. They are sent to the Dane County landfill, where they are a problem.  

To recycle a mattress, it requires a lot of labor to manually separate the foam from the spring, and fuel costs to haul the mattresses. 

7 Rivers Recycling requires the payment to pay for the extra labor and cost associated with reclaiming these materials. 

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