5 things San Diego bulk pickup will not take

First, check who collects your address

San Diego is not one system. Some properties here are served by city collection and some by a private hauler, and the bulky-item rules differ between them - what is collected, how often, and what the setout window is.

So step one is always the same: find your provider, open their bulky-item page, and confirm the rules for your address. Do not copy a neighbor, especially if one of you is in a house and the other is in a condo or an apartment building.

Then read the exclusion list, because that is where this article lives. Five categories are refused almost everywhere, and every one of them is something people set out anyway.

1. Mattresses and box springs

The most-refused item in the county, and the most-abandoned.

California runs a statewide mattress recycling program funded by a fee charged at purchase, which means mattresses are meant to be recovered rather than thrown in with general waste. Whether your provider collects them at all depends on your address, and even where a collection exists it has to be booked and set out inside a window.

The local twist is the marine layer. A mattress left out overnight in May or June is soaked by morning, which puts it beyond recycling - wet mattresses cannot be processed and get refused at drop-off. So the item that was hardest to get rid of becomes harder.

Priced properly: twin $82, full $94, queen $103, king or Cal king $114, box spring $92, mattress and box spring set $143.

2. TVs, monitors and electronics

California classifies screens as e-waste and keeps them out of household trash. Leaded glass in tube sets, mercury in some flat-panel backlights, circuit boards throughout. A recycling fee was charged when the screen was sold, and the state's system is built to take it back.

So a TV at the curb is not collected. It sits, and in a North Park alley or a Pacific Beach walk-up's setout area it eventually gets a foot through the panel, which turns a disposal problem into broken glass on a public right of way.

Retailer takeback, county collection events and certified recyclers all exist and are worth using if you can transport it. Large and tube sets are the ones most often refused at drop-off, which is why so many of them are still in San Diego garages.

Priced properly: TV under 42 inches $62, 42 to 65 inches $68, 65 inches and up $73, computer monitor $58, box of electronics $77.

3. Anything with refrigerant

Refrigerators, freezers, window and portable AC units, outdoor condensers and dehumidifiers all contain refrigerant in a sealed system. Federal rules require it to be recovered by someone certified before the unit can be crushed or landfilled, and venting it is illegal. General collection is not set up to do that.

This category is oversized in San Diego for a structural reason: no basements. The garage holds what a basement would hold elsewhere, so the second fridge, the chest freezer and the portable AC from one bad September all live out there, sometimes for decades.

Do not leave one in the alley for a passing scrapper either. They want the copper; the refrigerant is not their concern, and the unit still traces back to your address.

Priced properly: refrigerator $164, side-by-side $183, mini fridge $115, chest freezer $146, upright freezer $149, window AC $87 or $109, portable AC $85, AC condenser $115, dehumidifier $77.

4. Paint, solvents, propane and household hazardous waste

Nothing in this category goes out with the trash, on a bulky collection, or on a junk truck - ours included.

The San Diego garage version of the list is remarkably consistent: eight cans of half-used paint in a color no longer on the house, thinner, motor oil, a propane cylinder or two off the grill, pool chemicals, fertilizer, pesticide, and a car battery.

The county runs household hazardous waste collection for residents. Look up the current locations, hours and appointment rules for your address - they vary and they change - and set this material aside in one corner before any cleanout so nobody is sorting it under time pressure.

Guidance on dried-out latex paint sometimes differs from liquid paint. Check the current advice rather than assuming.

5. Construction and renovation debris

Bulky collection is for household furnishings, not for the contents of a remodel. Drywall, lumber, tile, stucco, roofing, cabinets, countertops and concrete are all normally excluded, and the reason is weight - a small volume of construction debris weighs more than a truckload of sofas.

San Diego generates a lot of it, between the ADU garage conversions happening across North Park, City Heights and Clairemont, and the steady kitchen and bath remodels in the older bungalow stock.

Priced properly: construction debris $120, concrete and masonry $219 per quarter truck, carpet rolled $68, carpet removal per room $71, laminate countertop section $56, stone countertop section $111, bathroom vanity $69, detached toilet $64, fiberglass bathtub $90, cast iron bathtub $185.

Contractor bags are $41 each, or 10 bags for $132, 15 for $196, 20 for $259.

What to do with the five

Two sensible paths.

Split it. Put the ordinary furniture out on your provider's scheduled bulky collection, take the hazardous material to the county program yourself, and book a pickup for the rest. Cheapest, slowest, three separate errands.

Do it in one visit. Everything except the household hazardous waste goes on one truck, on a date you choose. A common San Diego combination: queen mattress and box spring set $143 + refrigerator $164 + TV 42 to 65 inches $68 = $375.

Or price the truck ladder instead: quarter $241, three-eighths $338, half $431, three-quarters $587, full $732. Minimum per visit is $75.

What happens if you put them out anyway

They are not collected, so they stay. Then one of three things happens.

In an HOA community - Carmel Valley, 4S Ranch, Eastlake, Rancho Bernardo - a violation letter arrives within days, because the association clears common-area items and bills it back through dues.

On a city street or alley, it gets reported. San Diego has well-used reporting channels and a lot of engaged neighborhood and canyon groups, and investigators open the pile looking for a name.

In a rental, the building clears it and charges the tenant, usually out of the deposit, at their disposal rate rather than yours.

All three cost more than the pickup would have.

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