US city disposal guides
Throw it out the way your city actually collects it.
Tossguide writes one page per city and item. The rules, fees, hours, and addresses are copied from the official city, county, or state page linked at the bottom. If that page does not say it, the line reads "Not published by the city."
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Atlanta, Georgia — couch
Atlanta collects furniture as scheduled bulk waste. The Office of Solid Waste Services page says household bulk waste includes large items (furniture), which is the city rule used here for a couch or sofa. The city pages read on 2026-10-22 do not print the words couch or sofa. Effective February 16, 2026, bulk pickup is on the regular weekly collection day and still has to be scheduled at least one business day ahead. One collection is no more than 8 cubic yards. That page allows 12 collections a year and then a fee of $343.10. The billing page lists requests 1 through 12 at $0 and request 13 or more at $336.38.
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Boston, Massachusetts — mattress
Boston will not take a mattress or box spring with regular curbside trash; you have to schedule a pickup. The city collects from buildings with six units or fewer, limits the service to 10 items per calendar year, and a city announcement updated August 28, 2026 calls the pickup free. The mattress page also says residents in buildings with more than seven units should check with their property manager.
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Charlotte, North Carolina — couch
Charlotte collects a couch only as scheduled bulky waste, and only if the address already gets City of Charlotte garbage collection. Set it out by 6 a.m. on the scheduled day, no earlier than the day before. The collection guidelines do not publish a separate dollar fee for that pickup. Multifamily bulky collection is included in the property's solid waste service. Mecklenburg County full-service centers accept couches. The July 2026–June 2027 fee sheet says one large bulky item, such as a sofa, is no charge, and the centers page says residential fees now apply to bulky waste.
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Chicago, Illinois — mattress
Chicago's current sanitation pages say to arrange a bulk pick-up with the Streets and Sanitation ward superintendent before setting out any large item. Those pages do not name mattresses. The city's July 2021 waste-strategy reports do. One defines bulk as items that cannot go in regular collection because of their size, and gives mattresses as an example, and says bulk can be requested through 311. The other says large items such as mattresses are picked up during garbage collection, and that residents can also submit a 311 request for on-demand bulk pickup. The garbage-fee FAQ says there is no additional cost for bulk waste collection. City crews serve single-family homes and buildings of four units or less.
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Columbus, Ohio — mattress
Columbus collects mattresses only as scheduled bulk items, and the city describes that pickup as free. You can also drop off mattresses in poor condition for free at the two Waste and Reuse Convenience Centers. Through November 30, 2026, SWACO accepts mattresses and box springs that meet its conditions, and its page does not list a mattress fee.
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Dallas, Texas — mattress
Dallas lists mattresses with monthly brush and bulky collection, not as a separate mattress appointment. Residential customers can set out up to 10 cubic yards. The sanitation page says to put items out between Thursday and Sunday before the collection week. A code compliance page gives a Monday 7:00 a.m. deadline instead. The collections FAQ also names box springs. The facility pages do not name mattresses, and the city pages read for this record do not publish a separate mattress price.
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Houston, Texas — tv
Houston does not collect a television with garbage or heavy trash. The electronics page says not to place electronics at the curb, and the heavy trash page lists electronics as not accepted. Westpark takes residential electronics at no additional charge. The Environmental Service Centers also take TVs, with a 30-inch visit limit that does not match the electronics page's 36-inch CRT line or the Clear Lake flyer linked from that page. Residential drop-off centers list TVs as not accepted. The city also points residents to the state's manufacturer take-back list.
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Los Angeles, California — mattress
Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment picks up mattresses and box springs as bulky items, not in the regular black bin. For a home with 1 to 4 units serviced by LASAN, schedule the pickup at least one business day before the regular trash day. That page calls the service unlimited and at no additional charge. A building whose trash is hauled by a recycLA provider is on a separate on-call service that includes mattresses and is funded by a monthly Multi-Family Bulky Item Fee on the LADWP bill. Five city yards also take mattresses on the published 2026 Saturday drop-off dates.
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New York City, New York — mattress
New York City will take a mattress, box spring, or futon at the curb with trash, and the city pages call that pickup free. No appointment is offered. Seal it in a plastic bag and set it out between 6 PM and midnight the evening before the bulk trash day, up to 6 bulk items. The collection-laws page requires a clear bag that is securely sealed. The NYC311 mattress page says any color except red or orange. Those pages also publish different fines for an improper set-out.
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Omaha, Nebraska — mattress
Omaha will not take a mattress with weekly trash. The waste-collection page says bulky items of any type do not go in the waste cart, and the October 2026 Wasteline says only material in the cart is collected. The City of Omaha bulky material disposal program accepts a mattress at River City Transfer for a subsidized price: a one-time $15.00 administrative fee buys four dump vouchers each calendar year. Fall Cleanup, which the city calls a free event, also lists mattresses; the schedule read on 2026-10-22 still has Saturday, October 24.
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — mattress
Philadelphia's bulk-appointment program does not collect mattresses. A mattress or box spring that is bagged and sealed in plastic can go out with regular trash, limited to two compactible furniture items per week. Unwrapped mattresses and box springs can be dropped at a sanitation convenience center; the current city pages do not publish a fee.
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Phoenix, Arizona — couch
Phoenix's bulk trash page does not use the words couch or sofa. It says furniture is too large for the garbage or recycling container and is collected only by appointment, up to four times a year, in one pile no larger than 10 cubic yards. The monthly solid waste bill is the charge the city says includes those collections; the rate pages disagree on whether that monthly fee is still $37.32 or the July 2026 rate of $42.32. A full-service customer can also take one load of up to one ton a month to a city transfer station.
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San Antonio, Texas — mattress
San Antonio's Solid Waste page accepts mattresses in curbside bulky collection, which it says is provided twice per year, and says to wait for a door hanger before setting the pile out. The code-enforcement page calls the brush and bulky collections two free collections per resident. A mattress can also be dropped at a bulky waste collection center. That page says the visit is free if you pay the environmental fee, and it refuses mattresses with blood stains or bed bugs.
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Tacoma, Washington — paint
Tacoma's current paint flyer says latex paint must be dried and thrown away in the trash with the lid off, and that leftover oil-based paint cannot go in the trash. The Household Hazardous Waste Facility accepts oil-based paint, refuses latex and water-based stain, and the city page marked current as of 01/05/26 says that drop-off is free for Tacoma's residential customers on Friday through Monday. Pierce County says latex paint is accepted at the Hidden Valley Transfer Station. The city flyer and the Department of Ecology both describe free PaintCare drop-off for many architectural coatings. A Pierce County message says county transfer stations are not PaintCare locations.
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Tulsa, Oklahoma — paint
Tulsa's pages do not publish one rule for paint. The latex-paint page says latex paint, once solidified, is non-hazardous and can go in the normal trash receptacle, not the recycle bin, and that latex paint can also be dropped at the Household Pollutant Collection Facility. The city's refuse and recycling booklet says not to put paints in the gray or blue carts. Bulky waste collection lists latex paint, up to 10 gallons, as a scheduled curbside item. Oil-based paint and paint thinner are on the facility's accepted list. The bulky page does not name them, and that page says the pickup does not accept liquids or poisonous or hazardous materials.
No published page matches that search.