5 things Philadelphia bulk pickup won't take

Read your own collection guidance first

One caveat before the list, and it matters. What qualifies as bulk, how many items you may set out and when all live on the city's bulk-pickup page for your collection day, and that guidance changes. We are not going to quote you limits, fines or program names here — a wrong civic fact is worse than a vague one.

What we can tell you is the pattern. These five categories are the ones that get left behind on Philadelphia pavements again and again, and the reason is always the same: they need handling that a general collection truck is not set up to do.

1. Anything with refrigerant in it

Refrigerators, freezers, window and portable air conditioners, mini fridges, heat pumps and outdoor condensers.

Federal environmental rules require refrigerant to be recovered by a certified technician before a unit is scrapped or destroyed. It cannot be vented and the unit cannot be crushed with the charge in it. That is a specialist step, which is why refrigerant appliances are almost universally separated from ordinary bulk.

The Philadelphia version of this failure is specific: the old fridge comes up from the basement on a Sunday, goes out to the curb, and is still standing on a three-foot pavement on Thursday with the door on. It is a hazard, it blocks the walkway, and neighbors report it.

Flat prices instead: refrigerator $164, side-by-side or French door $183, mini fridge $115, chest freezer $146, upright freezer $149, small window AC $87, large window AC $109, portable AC $85, outdoor condenser $115. Refrigerant handling is inside those numbers with nothing added.

2. Televisions and computers

Electronics are handled differently from general household trash in Pennsylvania. Check the current state guidance and the city's own electronics drop-off information before anything goes out.

A television left at a Philadelphia curb is the worst version of a failed set-out. It is heavy, so nobody moves it. It gets rained on. The screen eventually breaks, and then there is glass on a narrow pavement.

Flat prices: TV under 42" $62, 42-65" $68, 65"+ $73, computer monitor $58, box of electronics $77, commercial printer or copier $97. A TV and the stand it sat on is $68 + $96 = $164.

3. Construction and renovation debris

Household bulk means household furniture. It does not mean the output of a project, and this is where Philadelphia homeowners get caught most often — because so much of the housing stock is old enough that everybody is renovating something.

The things we see put out and left: plaster and lath from a Fishtown gut job, old kitchen cabinets and worktops, cast iron radiators pulled during a heating replacement, a cast iron tub from a second-floor bathroom, rolled carpet, demolition timber, roofing material, concrete from a back-patio dig-out.

Flat prices: construction debris $120, concrete or masonry debris $219 per quarter truck, cast iron radiator $123, cast iron bathtub $185, fiberglass bathtub $90, bathroom vanity $69, detached toilet $64, rolled carpet $68, carpet removal per room $71, laminate worktop section $56, stone worktop section $111. Or price the whole lot by volume — quarter truck $241, half $431, full $732.

One extra note for row homes: renovation waste is heavy and dense, and a half truck of plaster weighs far more than a half truck of sofas. Volume pricing is usually the honest way to handle it.

4. Chemicals, liquids and fuel

Paint, stain, solvents, thinners, motor oil, gas, pesticides, pool chemicals, propane tanks, car batteries and tires. None of these belong in ordinary collection anywhere, and none of them go on a junk truck either.

These come out of Philadelphia basements in quantity, because a basement in a house that has been owned by one family for decades is where every half-used tin of paint since the Carter administration ended up. Check the city's current household hazardous waste guidance for drop-off options and events — availability and locations change, so look at the current version.

Two easy fixes while you are at it. Empty propane tanks go back through a retail exchange rather than into any load. Car batteries and tires are usually taken back by the retailers who sell them.

Drain a lawn mower of fuel and oil before the visit and it goes on the truck as a $65 lawn mower without further thought.

5. Anything from a business

Residential collection is for residences. A corner shop on Passyunk clearing out shelving, a converted floor in Old City emptying an office, a salon in Graduate Hospital replacing chairs, a restaurant on East Passyunk changing over — none of that is household bulk, however domestic the building looks from the street.

This catches out a lot of Philadelphia businesses, because so many of them operate out of the ground floor of what is otherwise a row home.

Flat prices: cubicle or office workstation $163, conference table $260, executive desk $208, office chair $61, standard desk $83, commercial printer or copier $97, storage cabinet $74, bar stool $37. Most commercial clearances price better by volume — half truck $431, three quarters $587, full $732.

Honourable mention: mattresses that are not wrapped

Not a category exclusion so much as a condition, but it causes as many failed set-outs as anything above.

Many municipal programs require or strongly expect a mattress to be sealed in plastic before set-out, and they may cap how many bulk items you can put out at once — a bed is three pieces, not one. Check your current guidance, and wrap it either way. A saturated mattress on a narrow row-home pavement is the seed of a pile.

Flat prices: twin $82, full $94, queen $103, king $114, box spring $92, set $143.

The simple rule

If it has a motor, a compressor, a screen, a chemical in it, or it came out of a wall, do not assume the curb will take it.

The cost of being wrong in Philadelphia is not a fine on day one. It is an object standing on a three-foot pavement in front of your neighbors' doors, gathering a pile, until somebody reports the address it came from.

Everything on this page can go in one visit instead. The minimum is $75 and the prices are published before you book.

Frequently asked questions