Trash Talk Blog

Silicon Valley may run on algorithms, but San Jose's junk pickup runs on a list. You book an appointment, name every item you're putting out, and the crew takes those items and nothing else. Leave the bookcase off the…

Ask a few Jacksonville neighbors when bulk pickup is and you may get different answers. That's because Jacksonville doesn't run one citywide bulk pickup program schedule. Jacksonville bulk item pickup will take…

Nobody designed a Providence, Rhode Island, triple-decker home with a sofa in mind. The stairwells are tight, the landings are tighter, and the city's bulk pickup program stops at the curb. Everything between your…

On a fridge in Cleveland, one week a month is marked with a small letter B, and it might be the most important letter in the house. It stands for bulk week, the only stretch when the city will haul your old couch away…

Heavy trash day is Indianapolis's version of a bus you can't flag down. It runs on its own schedule, it only has room for a couple of things, and if your couch isn't at the curb when it rolls by, you…

Every garage ends up the same way: with a few things that are too big for the trash and too worn out to keep. This time it’s a sleeper sofa, a chest freezer that quit last summer, and a rolled-up rug nobody’s sure what…

Somewhere in Columbus, Ohio, a couch is sitting at the curb waiting for a truck that isn't coming. The city will haul it away, but only after someone books it, and the trucks skip anything that missed that step. If the…

Kansas City has a state line running through it, and your old recliner has to pick a side. Getting rid of a couch, mattress, or broken appliance can work very differently depending on whether your curb is in Missouri or…

Ask a few Nashville neighbors who picks up a busted sofa and you'll get a shrug, a guess about the trash truck, or a flat "nobody." The real answer is a county office most people never think to call. Nashville bulk…