We collect items that are too large for your trash cart during specially-scheduled bulk collections. This list is not all inclusive. Please download the Austin Recycles app or visit the What Do I Do With...? page to see if your item is collected during bulk collection. 

Collection schedule

Austin Resource Recovery customers receive twice-per-year collection of bulk items. Use the My Schedule tool to get a personalized collection calendar for all residential curbside services, including bulk item pickup. You can add your schedule to Google, iCal or Outlook, or you can print it. You can also sign up for text, email or phone call reminders and alerts.

Bulk items include:

  • Doors
  • Carpet
  • Furniture
  • Appliances (remove doors)
  • Passenger car tires (remove rims; limit eight tires per household)
  • Lawn mowers (remove gas/oil)
  • Railroad ties (cut in half)
  • Pallets
  • Rolled fencing
  • Nail-free lumber

Bulk item collection crews cannot collect:

  • Brush
  • Household trash
  • Cardboard boxes
  • Hazardous materials
  • Mirrors
  • Automotive chassis and bodies,
  • Motorcycles
  • Trailers,
  • Boats
  • Tires that are still mounted on rims
  • Sheet glass and other construction and remodeling debris

Collection guidelines

  • Place bulk items at the curb in front of your house by 5:30 a.m. on the first day of your scheduled collection week. (The set-out time has been shifted to an hour earlier to minimize workers' exposure to the extreme summer heat.)
  • Separate items into three piles as described below
  • To prevent damage to your property, keep items 5 feet away from your trash cart, mailbox, fences or walls, water meter, telephone connection box and parked cars. Do not place any items under low hanging tree limbs or power lines
  • Austin Resource Recovery only collects bulk items from its residential trash and recycling customers
  • Items will not be collected if they are in an alley in any area, including Hyde Park, in front of a vacant lot or in front of a business
  • Do not put items in bags, boxes or other containers. Bulk collection is for items too large to fit in containers. Bags will be treated as extra trash and are subject to extra trash fees.

Separate items into three piles

  1. Metal items - Includes appliances (remove doors). These are taken to our Resource Recovery Center for recycling
  2. Passenger car tires - Rims must be removed. Limit of eight tires per household. We cannot collect truck or tractor tires. Tires will go to a tire recycling facility
  3. Non-metal items - Includes carpeting and nail-free lumber. These items go to a landfill. Austin Resource Recovery is working on plans to salvage reusable items from bulk collection to help meet the City of Austin's Zero Waste goal

Because these piles are collected by different trucks, they may be collected at different times throughout the week.