5 things San Antonio bulk pickup won't take

Before the list

Two things to get straight.

First, bulky collection runs on a published schedule tied to your address, not on request. Look your street up on your city's solid waste page and note both the window and the current presentation rules, because both change.

Second, the categories below are excluded from municipal bulky programs almost everywhere, for reasons that are about safety and processing rather than about being difficult. The current accepted list for your address is on the city page, and it is worth two minutes before you drag anything to the curb.

Where it is easier to just have it taken: minimum per visit is $75, item prices are published, and a quarter-truck load is $241.

1. Paint, chemicals and anything under pressure

The shelf above the workbench in every San Antonio garage. Paint, thinner, solvents, pesticides, weed killer, pool chemicals, automotive fluids, car batteries and propane cylinders.

All of it is household hazardous waste and none of it goes to the curb or on a general junk load. It goes to a dedicated drop-off. Check the current accepted list, location and hours on your city's page and treat it as its own errand.

This city produces more of this category than most, because of the pools. Between above-ground pools, in-ground pools and spas, half the garages on the South and East sides and out through the newer suburbs have a stack of chlorine and shock sitting next to the mower. Pool chemicals are oxidisers and they are the last thing that should ride in a mixed load.

Propane cylinders from the grill go to an exchange point or the hazardous waste drop-off. The grill itself is fine: $59 charcoal, $71 propane.

2. Anything with refrigerant in it

Refrigerators, freezers, window AC units, portable AC units, outdoor condensers and dehumidifiers. The refrigerant has to be recovered by a certified technician before the unit is destroyed, which is a federal requirement, so these are handled as their own category with their own conditions.

In San Antonio this is a large, permanent category. Every summer kills window units in the older bungalows around Beacon Hill, Woodlawn Lake and Dignowity Hill, finishes off outdoor condensers across the whole metro, and eventually gets the garage beer fridge that was never designed to run in a 110-degree space.

The refrigerant handling is inside those prices, never added on.

3. Televisions, monitors and electronics

Screens are their own stream everywhere. Older tube and rear-projection sets contain leaded glass, flat panels contain circuit boards, and neither belongs in a general curbside pile.

Texas requires television and computer manufacturers to offer take-back for their own products, so that is worth checking, though it is usually mail-in or drop-off rather than collection from your house. Your city's page lists what is currently accepted and where.

Or have it collected: TV under 42 inches $62, 42 to 65 inches $68, over 65 inches $73, computer monitor $58, box of mixed electronics $77.

Wipe everything with storage first. Factory-reset smart TVs, phones and tablets, and sign out of accounts.

4. Construction and renovation debris

The rule almost everywhere is that municipal bulky collection is for material a household generated, not material a contractor generated. Drywall, lumber, roofing, tile, concrete, fencing and cabinetry out of a remodel fall outside it.

This catches a lot of people in San Antonio right now. There is a great deal of renovation happening in the older housing stock inside the loop, and the fast-growing suburbs out on the North and far West sides produce constant fence replacement, patio work and post-storm repair.

The other thing that catches people is the DIY version. You replaced your own bathroom vanity, so it feels like household waste rather than construction debris, but a pile of tile and plasterboard at the curb is the same pile either way.

Priced properly: construction debris $120, concrete or masonry debris $219 per quarter truck, bathroom vanity $69, detached toilet $64, cast iron bathtub $185, fiberglass bathtub $90.

5. Tires

Tires are excluded from ordinary bulky collection essentially everywhere, and they are handled through tire retailers and dedicated drop-offs instead. Most shops will take the old ones when they fit new ones, usually for a small per-tire fee at the counter.

The reason is that tires do not compact, they trap water, and standing water inside a tire in a South Texas backyard is one of the most reliable mosquito breeding sites there is. A stack of four in a side yard through a wet spring is a genuine problem, not a cosmetic one.

Check your city's current guidance on where tires go, and ask when you book if you have some mixed into a load, because they are their own category.

The honourable mentions

Things that are technically accepted and still go wrong.

• Anything outside your window. The most common failure of all. A sofa at the curb on the wrong week is a code violation, not a collection.
• Mattresses, which often have their own presentation conditions. Bag them regardless.
• Anything rained on. Storms here arrive fast and a waterlogged item may not be taken.
• Apartment residents generally. Complex dumpster enclosures post bulky-item bans, and what gets left beside them is billed to the tenant.
• Blocked access. Items in the street, on the sidewalk line, or under low branches.

What to do with the leftovers

The realistic pattern is that bulky collection takes the furniture and leaves you with a corner of the garage holding a dead window unit, a TV, a stack of paint cans and half a bathroom.

Split it. The chemicals go to the hazardous waste drop-off as their own errand, because nobody can take those for you. Everything else goes on one visit.

A typical leftovers pile: large window AC unit $109 + TV 42 to 65 inch $68 + bathroom vanity $69 = $246, against a quarter-truck load at $241. The load price wins by $5, and at that point anything else in the garage rides along inside the same tier.

One visit, one $75 minimum. Two visits is two minimums.

Frequently asked questions