San Antonio Bulk Item Pickup: Brush & Bulky Program Schedule & Rules Explained

A door hanger shows up on your front knob, and it changes everything about what you’re allowed to put at the curb, and when. That’s how San Antonio bulk item pickup actually works: not on demand, not monthly, but twice a year. The City sets the schedule. You don’t get to pick it.

The pickup program is called Brush & Bulky, and the name matters more than it sounds like it should. Furniture and appliances go in one pile. Tree branches and shrubs go in a completely separate one. Mix them, or set either one out before your door hanger arrives, and you’re looking at a fine of up to $2,000. San Antonio is not kidding around about this line.

Here’s exactly how the twice-a-year schedule works, what belongs in each pile, the free year-round drop-off option most residents don’t know exists, and what to do if your timeline can’t wait six months for the next window.

The City of San Antonio’s Brush & Bulky program collects large items and yard debris from the curb, but only on a scheduled rotation. Each residential route gets two bulky collection weeks a year, plus two separate brush weeks, four scheduled weeks total.

Finding your collection week

• Use My Collection Day at sa.gov, or the 311SA app, for an estimated window
• You’ll get a door hanger 7 to 10 days before your scheduled collection week with the exact dates
• Do not set anything out until you’ve received the door hanger. Piles put out early, without notice, are treated the same as illegal dumping

The door hanger date is a deadline, not a pickup guarantee

This trips up more first-timers than anything else in the program. The date on your door hanger is when your pile needs to be ready, not the day the truck shows up. The City’s own guidance is direct about it: collection can take the entire scheduled week to complete.

• Pile ready by 7 AM Monday of your scheduled week
• Maximum 8 cubic yards, placed within 8 feet of the curb
• Even alley-serviced homes must place brush and bulky piles at the curb in front of the house, not in the alley
• Keep piles clear of parked cars, low-hanging branches, water meters, and vacant lots

Missed pickup? Report it online or call 311. Wait until your collection week has fully passed before assuming your pile was missed.

Brush and bulky aren’t two names for the same pile. They’re two separate programs with two different accepted-materials lists, confirmed directly from the City’s official curbside collection page. Mix them, or include something that doesn’t belong, and you’re looking at a fine of up to $2,000 per day plus a separate collection and disposal fee.

Brush pile

Bulky pile

Your scheduled week might be months away. Or the item might not qualify for curbside pickup at all. Either way, San Antonio’s four Bulky Waste Collection Centers are a free, year-round alternative. Bring a recent CPS Energy bill showing the Environmental Fee, plus a photo ID.

All four are closed Sundays, Mondays, and City holidays. Bulky items are capped at 4 cubic yards, construction debris at 1, and only residential customers can use them, no commercial haulers.

One thing worth knowing before you make the trip: the accepted-materials list at these drop-off centers isn’t identical to the curbside bulky list above. Items like glass, mirrors, and small amounts of construction material that curbside won’t take are sometimes accepted here instead. Confirm specifics at your chosen center before loading up the truck.

The Culebra Road location doubles as the Environmental Recycling Center, where electronics and household hazardous waste can also be dropped off. Bitters also hosts a monthly HHW drop-off event on select Saturdays, in addition to its regular bulky-item hours. Check the Household Hazardous Waste page for current event dates.

San Antonio also runs a quarterly Free Landfill Day at select City and private facilities, and a Community Collections program that lets neighborhoods reserve a truck and trailer through the Disposal Assistance Team. Both are worth checking if you’re coordinating a larger cleanup.

If your scheduled week has already passed, or you need something gone before your next one comes around, San Antonio offers out-of-cycle collection for a fee.

• Request online or call 311
• Items must be placed at the curb first so a staff member can provide a free estimate
• The fee is charged per cubic yard. Confirm the exact current rate with SWMD before scheduling, since published estimates can be outdated.
• Once the fee is paid, collection happens within 2 business days
• Cannot be requested during your regular scheduled collection week

For residents who’d rather skip the estimate-then-wait process entirely, a private hauler can pick up the same day without the per-cubic-yard billing step.

Joint Base San Antonio, spanning Fort Sam Houston, Lackland, and Randolph, is one of the largest military installations in the country. Peak PCS season runs May through August, with the base handling roughly 4,500 household shipments in that window alone.

A twice-a-year municipal schedule doesn’t bend for a PCS report date. A family clearing a garage or rental unit in June, with their next Brush & Bulky week not until October, has no city-provided path to get it done on time.

Twice a year works fine when you can plan around it. It falls apart the moment your timeline can’t.

Booking junk removal with a private hauler might be a better fit if:

• Your next scheduled Brush & Bulky week is months away and the item needs to go now
• You’re on a PCS or move-out timeline that doesn’t align with the City’s schedule
• You have more volume than one 8-cubic-yard pile, or more than a drop-off center’s 4-cubic-yard limit
• Items need to come out from inside your home. The program only collects from the curb.
• You have construction or renovation debris beyond the 1-cubic-yard drop-off limit
• You’d rather not pay the out-of-cycle fee and wait on a staff estimate

When the twice-a-year schedule doesn’t fit, LoadUp provides junk removal and bulk item pickup across San Antonio with same-day and next-day availability. No twice-a-year limit, no 8-cubic-yard pile cap, no waiting on a door hanger. Loaders carry items from inside the home, whether that’s a garage full of stuff that’s been waiting since spring or a rental unit that needs to be cleared before a PCS report date.

LoadUp runs 20-30% below what most junk removal companies charge for comparable work in San Antonio, and offers a price match guarantee for any written quote for the same service.