Ripping out old carpet is the satisfying part. Getting rid of it is the part that surprises people — a single room's worth of carpet plus its padding is dense, awkward, and heavier than it looks (padding soaks up years of everything). Here's every way to handle it in the KC metro, plus the prep that makes any option easier.
First: roll it and tie it
Before anything else, cut the carpet into strips roughly 3–4 feet wide, roll each strip tight, and tie it with twine or tape. Do the padding separately — it tears and bunches, so bag it or roll it on its own. Tied rolls are lighter to carry, fit in a normal vehicle, and are the difference between one manageable trip and a station wagon full of loose carpet. Most disposal options below expect it rolled.
1. City bulky-item pickup (know the rules)
Some KC-metro cities will take carpet through their bulky-item program, but with specifics: Kansas City, MO, for example, accepts carpet at a scheduled bulky pickup only if it's rolled and over 4 feet long or 40 pounds — smaller pieces have to go in regular trash bags. Rules and schedules vary city to city (and some suburbs run only a couple of bulky pickups a year), so check your city's solid-waste page before you drag it to the curb. See our KC bulky-pickup guide for how each city handles large items.
2. Recyclers and transfer stations
Carpet is genuinely recyclable, and the KC area has specialists for it — there are commercial carpet recyclers in the metro that take old carpet and padding as a landfill alternative, and RecycleSpot.org (the metro's recycling directory) lists current drop-off options. If recycling isn't practical, the Jackson County and Johnson County transfer stations accept carpet for a per-load or per-ton fee. Call ahead about padding specifically — some facilities take carpet and padding separately.
3. Donate — only if it's genuinely reusable
Clean, stain-free carpet in a usable piece — Habitat for Humanity ReStore locations will sometimes take remnants that measure at least about 10 by 10 feet. That's a narrow window: it has to be clean and large enough to reuse. Ripped-out, stained, or padded-down carpet from a real renovation almost never qualifies, so don't haul it across town on the hope; recycling or disposal is the realistic path for used carpet.
When we haul it
Carpet is a common part of what we take on remodel and cleanout jobs across the KC metro — often alongside the tack strip, old padding, and the rest of a room being redone. We price it by the truck space it fills (from our $100 trip minimum), do the carrying, and route it to recycling where it's workable. If it's one tidy roll and you own a truck, the options above are cheaper; if it's three rooms' worth on the second floor, that's our kind of job.