5 things Columbus bulk pickup will not take

Before the list

Columbus collects bulky household items under rules that vary by address and get revised, so the one accurate instruction is to check the city's refuse collection page for your street. We are not going to print item limits or set-out hours here that might be wrong next quarter.

What is stable is the shape of the exclusions. Five categories are handled separately almost everywhere in the country, for reasons that have nothing to do with municipal preference and everything to do with what is inside the item. These are the five, and they are the five that get left sitting on tree lawns across Franklin County.

1. Anything with refrigerant

Refrigerators, freezers, window and portable air conditioners, dehumidifiers, and the outdoor condenser or heat pump beside the house.

Refrigerant is a regulated substance and federal rules require it to be recovered by a certified technician before the appliance is scrapped. That is why a sealed system is not ordinary bulky waste, why the free scrap collector who takes clean steel off your Hilliard driveway will skip a fridge, and why you cannot drive one straight into a disposal site.

In Columbus this is the biggest of the five by volume, because of the second fridge in the basement and the window units in all the pre-war housing that never got central air.

Prices: refrigerator $164, side-by-side or French door $183, mini fridge $115, chest freezer $146, upright freezer $149, window AC small $87 or large $109, portable AC $85, outdoor condenser $115, dehumidifier $77. Recovery is included, never a surcharge.

2. Televisions, monitors and electronics

Screens contain leaded glass in older tube sets, mercury in some flat panel backlights, and circuit boards throughout. Electronics go through their own recycling stream.

The Columbus version of this problem is the basement. The rear-projection cabinet television in a Reynoldsburg family room and the tube set in a Clintonville finished basement are both too heavy for one person and too regulated for the curb, which is exactly why they have been sitting there since the digital switchover.

Prices: TV under 42" $62, 42 to 65" $68, 65"+ $73, computer monitor $58, box of electronics $77, commercial copier or printer $97. Recycling is in the price.

Check what the county solid waste authority currently arranges for electronics if you want to handle it yourself, because those arrangements change.

3. Tires

Tires follow their own rules in Ohio and they are not household refuse. They do not compact, they float in landfills, and they hold water, which is why they are handled separately everywhere.

This turns up constantly in Columbus garage cleanouts. There is a set of snow tires in the back of half the detached garages in Clintonville and half the attached two-cars in Westerville, left over from a car that was sold in 2014.

Tire retailers take old tires when they fit new ones, usually for a disposal charge, and the county has arrangements for household quantities. Pull them out of the pile before your pickup and handle them on that track. Everything else in the garage we take.

4. Paint, fuel and household chemicals

The single most reliable contents of a central Ohio basement workbench and garage shelf:

• Paint, stain, solvents and thinner.
• Gasoline, kerosene and two-stroke mix. Drain the mower and the string trimmer.
• Motor oil, antifreeze and other automotive fluids.
• Propane tanks, from the grill you are also getting rid of.
• Pesticides, pool chemicals, and the ice-melt bag that burst on the floor.
• Fluorescent tubes and anything containing mercury.

None of this goes on a truck, ours or the city's. Franklin County runs household hazardous waste collection through the county solid waste authority; check the current schedule and drop-off arrangements, because they do change.

Separate these out before your pickup and the rest of the garage goes in one load. The mower itself is $65, the propane grill body is $71 and the charcoal grill is $59 once the tank is off.

5. Construction and renovation debris

Plaster and lath, drywall, flooring, tile, roofing, concrete, brick, framing lumber, kitchen cabinets torn out in one piece. Household bulky collection is for household items, and renovation waste is a contractor's responsibility rather than refuse.

This is a live category in Columbus because of the rehab cycle running through Italian Village, Olde Towne East, Franklinton, Old North and King-Lincoln. Every one of those projects produces the same pile, and it produces it faster than anyone expects.

Prices: construction debris $120, concrete or masonry debris $219 per quarter truck, carpet rolled $68, carpet removal $71 per room, cast iron radiator $123, cast iron bathtub $185, fiberglass bathtub $90, detached toilet $64, bathroom vanity $69, contractor bag $41. Bagged plaster runs the debris ladder: 10 bags $132, 20 bags $259, 30 bags $385.

One safety note specific to this housing stock: anything involving plaster, old paint or pipe insulation in a pre-1978 Columbus house should be assessed for lead and asbestos before it is disturbed. That is a licensed contractor's call.

What bulk pickup does take

Plenty, and where it works it is free, so use it. Furniture, mattresses within the limits for your address, and general household bulky items are the core of it. Check your street on the city page for what qualifies, how many, where and when.

The four things to get right every time: the item is accepted, you are under the limit, you are setting out at the correct point for your block (tree lawn at the front on most streets, the alley pad at the rear in Italian Village, Olde Towne East, parts of German Village and Merion Village), and you are inside the window rather than four days early.

Doing it in one visit

The efficient version is to separate the hazardous items for the county route, then book everything else together. The visit minimum is $75 and it is per visit, so one list beats three afternoons.

A typical Columbus garage after the exclusions are pulled out: chest freezer $146, lawn mower $65, propane grill $71, a large junk pile $208. That is $146 + $65 + $71 + $208 = $490. Compare to the ladder, where a half truckload is $431, and take the half load.

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