5 things Sacramento bulk pickup will not take

Before the list

Bulky collection rules differ across this metro. What the city covers is not what the county covers, and what applies in Elk Grove is not what applies in Citrus Heights or West Sacramento. Always check your own jurisdiction's current page for the specifics.

What is consistent is the exclusions. The five categories below are kept out of general bulky collection almost everywhere, for reasons that are the same everywhere: they are regulated, hazardous, or not household waste at all.

1. Anything containing refrigerant

Refrigerators, freezers, window and portable air conditioners, heat pumps and outdoor condensers. Federal rules require the refrigerant to be recovered by a certified technician before the shell can be processed, and a general bulky truck is not equipped to do that.

This is a bigger category in Sacramento than in most cities, because of the garage fridge and because cooling equipment turns over so fast here. A house in Orangevale or Fair Oaks that has been lived in for twenty years frequently has all of it at once: a second fridge, a chest freezer, and two window units.

Prices: Refrigerator (Standard) $164, Refrigerator (Side-by-Side / French Door) $183, Mini Fridge $115, Freezer (Chest) $146, Freezer (Upright) $149, Window AC Unit (Small) $87, Window AC Unit (Large) $109, Portable AC Unit $85, AC Condenser / Heat Pump $115.

Refrigerant recovery is included in every one of those. It is not a surcharge.

2. Televisions, monitors and electronics

Electronic waste is handled through California's dedicated channels, not general household or bulky collection. That covers televisions of every vintage, computer monitors, desktop towers, printers and most of the drawer of cables you are thinking of.

The CRT in the garage is the item people get stuck on. It is heavy, it contains leaded glass, and the number of places that take one is small. It is also the thing most often left in an alley in the grid or Oak Park in the hope that somebody takes it, and nobody does.

Prices: TV (under 42 inches) $62, TV (42 to 65 inches) $68, TV (65 inches and up) $73, Computer Monitor $58, Box of Electronics $77, Copier / Printer (Commercial) $97.

3. Household hazardous waste

Paint, stain, thinners and solvents. Pesticides and weedkiller. Pool and spa chemicals. Motor oil and antifreeze. Car batteries. Propane cylinders. Fluorescent tubes. Anything pressurised.

None of it goes on a bulky truck and none of it goes on ours either. It has its own drop-off channels and you should check your county's current arrangements for where and when.

Two Sacramento notes. First, the pool chemicals category is large here, because above-ground pools are everywhere in the suburban ring and the leftovers sit in garages for years. Second, all of this is stored in garages that reach 115 degrees in August, which is exactly the wrong place for aerosols, propane and oxidisers. Clearing it is a safety job, not a tidiness job.

4. Construction and renovation debris

Bulky collection is for household items, not for the output of a project. Drywall, lumber, tile, concrete, roofing, cabinets, fencing, decking and anything a contractor generated on your property are all outside it.

This catches a lot of people in this city right now, because garage conversions and ADUs are one of the most common projects across the grid, Tahoe Park, Arden and the older suburbs. The garage clear-out might be household waste. The framing offcuts and the old roll-up door are not.

Prices: Construction Debris $120, Concrete / Masonry Debris (per 1/4 truck) $219, Contractor Bag $41 each, Carpet (rolled) $68, Carpet removal per room $71, Countertop Laminate (per section) $56, Countertop Stone / Granite (per section) $111, Bathtub (fiberglass) $90, Bathtub (cast iron) $185, Toilet (Detached) $64, Bathroom Vanity $69.

A small bathroom strip-out: Toilet (Detached) $64 + Bathroom Vanity $69 + Bathtub (fiberglass) $90 = $223, which is under the quarter truck at $241, so $223 is the price.

5. Tires, vehicle parts and anything with a VIN attached to it

Tires are excluded from household collection essentially everywhere, and they have their own disposal route. So do vehicle batteries, fuel tanks, engine parts and the general contents of the corner of the garage where somebody used to work on a car.

This is a real Sacramento category. The suburban ring and the rural edge out past Elverta, Rio Linda, Wilton and Galt is full of properties with an RV pad, a trailer, a project vehicle, or all three, and the associated parts accumulate on the side of the house for decades.

Tell us what is in the pile when you book. General garage material prices as a volume load off the ladder, from $241 for a quarter truck to $732 for a full one, but tires and automotive fluids need routing separately and should be flagged, not buried in the middle of the load.

The sixth thing, which is not a category

Timing. The most common reason a bulky collection does not happen is not the item, it is that the item was out on the wrong day, outside the scheduled arrangement, or over whatever the item limit is.

And an item left out after a missed collection is now an abandoned item, which is a different problem with a different outcome. In this city that means a photograph in a neighborhood group by lunchtime and a report by the evening.

If the date is what matters to you, whether that is a walkthrough on the 31st or a closing date on a house in East Sac, book the thing that has a time slot.

What we do take

Categories one, two, four and five above, plus everything general bulky collection covers anyway, on a published price list with no stair fee, no long-carry fee and no same-day surcharge.

A representative mixed load, the exclusions from a Citrus Heights garage: Refrigerator (Standard) $164 + TV (under 42 inches) $62 + Construction Debris $120 = $346. Above the 3/8 truck rate of $338, so it books at $338.

The one thing we do not take is category three, household hazardous waste, and nobody in this trade should tell you otherwise.

Frequently asked questions