Weekly large-item pickup: no call needed
Akron's Curbservice (run by the city's own Sanitation Services Division, not a contractor) collects bulk items every week on your normal collection day, and the city's own flyer says it in capital letters: you do not need to call ahead for a weekly large-item pickup. Set items out after 4:30 PM the night before, at least 3 feet from your city cart.
- ✓Furniture: couches, chairs, dressers, bookcases
- ✓Mattresses and box springs
- ✓Appliances, including refrigerators
- ✓TVs 19 inches and larger
- ✓House doors, storm doors, and windows
- ✓Bicycles
- ✓Tires, up to 4 per year (more may bring a fee)
- ✓Wood, branches, carpet, and fencing, bundled or rolled, tied, 4 feet max
Verify before you put it out
Program rules change yearly. Confirm current details on the city's trash and recycling page at akronohio.gov or call 3-1-1 (330-375-2311 from any phone).
Special Bulk pickups: the 3-per-year rule
Loose volume is different from single large items. If you're putting out extra bags or cans beyond your cart(a garage clear-out, a basement purge, bagged leaves), that's a Special Bulk Pick Up, and it has real limits: you must call 3-1-1 at least one working day ahead, each pickup caps at 20 cubic yards, and every household gets just three per calendar year. Unscheduled piles don't get collected and can be tagged.
What Akron will not take, at any time
- ✗Roofing material and shingles
- ✗Concrete, bricks, dirt, sand, and gravel
- ✗Drywall, plaster, and all demolition or construction debris
- ✗Hazardous waste of any kind (plus hot ashes)
That construction line is the one that catches people. Mid-remodel, the pile of drywall, plaster, and old tile in the driveway is entirely your problem: the city won't touch it, and there's no city drop-off for it either. For hazardous waste, the county's ReWorks HHW center (1201 Graham Rd., Stow) takes it on Thursdays 2–7 PM, June 4 through September 24, 2026. Glass goes to the city's purple drop-off bins, not the cart.
Where we fit alongside the city program
Honest answer: if you have one couch and can get it to the curb, use Curbservice. It's free and it works. We're the answer for what it can't do: renovation and construction debris the city refuses outright, cleanouts bigger than the 3-per-year Special Bulk allowance, jobs where nobody's carrying a hide-a-bed up the basement stairsto stage it curbside, and same-day needs that can't wait for collection day. Usable furniture goes to donation first, and the price is confirmed face-to-face before we lift anything.
See the Akron service page for what we handle across the city, or the pricing page for how the numbers work.