If you live inside Dayton city limits, your city trash service includes bulk pickup. It's free, and for a couch or an old mattress it's often the best deal in town. It also has rules, limits and a list of things the city won't touch. This guide pulls them together from the City of Dayton's own pages, so you know what to expect before you drag anything to the curb.
How Dayton bulk pickup works
- Bulk items are picked up one Friday a month, based on your trash zone.
- You have to schedule it in advance by calling 937-333-4800 or through Dayton Delivers online.
- Call no later than the Wednesday before your bulk Friday.
- Your dates are on your zone's collection calendar and in the Dayton Collects app.
- The waste collection line answers 8 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday.
The limit: up to 5 large items and/or up to 25 small bags or boxes per pickup.
How to set items out
- Curbside trash? Put bulk items in front of your home, away from obstructions, on your scheduled day. Alley trash? Put them at the edge of your property along the alley line.
- Leave furniture assembled.
- Wrap mattresses and box springs.
- Roll carpet into bundles about 4 feet long and 2 feet across, and tie them with rope.
- Bag, bundle or box loose and small items.
- Tape any glass. You're responsible for cleaning up glass left on the ground after pickup.
- Tie yard waste such as brush and limbs into bundles no longer than 4 feet and no wider than 18 inches, 25 pounds or less each.
- Adding metal or tires to a pickup you already scheduled? Call 937-333-4800 before 2 PM.
What Dayton won't pick up
The city's bulk page lists items it will not collect and tells residents to call a private hauler for them. They include:
- Gasoline, kerosene, diesel and other hazardous, flammable or explosive materials
- Automotive parts
- Building and excavating materials: concrete, rocks, brick, block, sand, gravel, drywall, wood and plaster
- Pianos, pool tables, spas and hot tubs
- Air conditioners and HVAC parts
- Anything from an eviction, move-out or foreclosure. Those are the property owner's responsibility.
When hiring a hauler makes more sense
We'd rather you use the free city pickup when it fits. It usually doesn't fit when:
- You have more than 5 big items or 25 bags, or a whole room or garage to clear.
- It can't wait for your Friday, or you missed the Wednesday cutoff.
- The item is on the city's no-go list, like a piano, hot tub, pool table or a pile of drywall and lumber.
- It's a move-out or rental turnover, which the city won't collect.
- You can't safely get it to the curb or alley yourself.
Zach's Pack Hauling carries items out from wherever they sit, seven days a week from 9 AM to 7 PM. Pickups start at a $115 minimum, and a single item like an old stove usually falls at that minimum. Pianos and hot tubs are each looked at before we give a final price. Like the city, we can't take loose gas cans or motor oil.