Home Garbage Removal in Austin, TX

With a goal of reaching zero waste by 2040, the City of Austin is working hard to make more ethical, greener disposal choices across the board. For residents, these efforts can make it feel as if all home garbage removal inside the Austin city limits is reasonably eco-friendly. The truth is, despite striving for an admirable goal, Austin fell considerably short of the 2015 mark, and it is important for residents to carefully consider the impact of their disposal choices.

This especially holds true when you’re dealing with items larger than typical household waste. When you need home garbage removal on a larger scale, it’s not always easy to know where to turn, especially if you’re on a deadline or dealing with other types of special circumstances. Having a full understanding of your disposal options, along with their pros, cons and environmental implications, can help you make informed disposal decisions your conscience, wallet and schedule can bear.

Understanding Austin Home Garbage Removal Options

In addition to normal household waste disposal, Austin Resource Recovery provides twice-yearly pickup for items too large to fit in a weekly pickup bin. There are restrictions and guidelines in place, however, so some residents may find that even if their schedule aligns with these relatively rare bulk collection opportunities, their needs may not.

Furniture, appliances with doors removed, lawnmowers with gas and oil removed, lumber free of nails, doors, carpeting, passenger vehicle tires, rolled fencing and similar items will be collected by Austin Resource Recovery crews during specially scheduled collection weeks set by the City. Crews will not collect cardboard boxes, hazardous materials, automotive chassis and bodies, motorcycles, trailers, sheet glass or mirrors, any construction and remodeling debris, boats or tires still mounted on rims.

Items must be separated into three piles:

• Passenger vehicle tires– Up to eight tires per household will be collected by Austin Resource Recovery during bulk collection periods. They must not be mounted on rims, nor can they be large truck or tractor tires. These items are taken to a tire recycling facility.
• Metal items– Appliances and other metal items are taken to recycling facilities. Doors must be removed from appliances to ensure children cannot crawl inside and become trapped. 
• Non-metal items– Outdated or outgrown clothing, unwanted furniture and everything else that isn’t metal or a car tire belongs in this pile. Unlike metal items and tires, these items will be collected and taken directly to the landfill. While the City is exploring more sustainable and ethical disposal options, currently landfill dumping is the sole method of disposal for much of Austin’s bulk waste. 

All these piles are collected by separate crews in different trucks, so they may be picked up at different times. In order to facilitate collection, all piles should be at least five feet from trash carts, fences and walls, mailboxes, parked vehicles, water meters, telephone connection boxes and other structures. Items must not be placed beneath low-hanging tree limbs or power lines. Items left in alleys, in front of businesses, or vacant lots will not be collected.

If you’re planning a project around the home with no particular deadline, it’s relatively easy to work around a municipal schedule. Unfortunately, life rarely considers the availability of city-sponsored waste removal and it’s just not often feasible to wait for one of two opportunities per year to get rid of large items. When your timeline is tight, you have two disposal options: DIY hauling, or private waste removal.

Do-it-yourself waste removal seems easy enough until you start to consider the hidden costs, including the enormous investment of both time and physical labor. This is, of course, assuming you have a truck large enough to accommodate everything you need to remove. If not, you’ll also need to figure in the cost of the rental, insurance, and administrative fees, not to mention fueling costs and processing fees at drop-off locations. Since doing the right thing for the planet means working to find homes for usable items, you’ll need to include charitable donation centers for items which are still serviceable. This means a good chance of multiple trips to a variety of locations, which can quickly become a full-time job in itself. 

Whether you’re working to close the estate of a loved one, tackling a hoarding mitigation mission or just trying to organize your home on your own schedule, waste management is a vital part of any large-scale cleaning project. Lack of proper planning for disposal can derail a project quickly, but it’s a task you can safely outsource. Freeing up your own time to focus on the aspects of your project only you can manage often means relying on a knowledgeable, ethical and hard-working private hauling company.

Where to Find Private Home Garbage Removal You Can Trust

You don’t want everything you discard finding its way to the landfill, especially usable items that can still make a difference for people and organizations within your community. You also don’t want to invest all your time, energy and planning into trying to haul away your own waste.

At Jiffy Junk, we understand the value of your labor and your time. We come to your home or place of business to remove just about anything you can imagine, and you never have to lift a finger. Forget hauling enormous items all the way down to the curb only to wrestle them into the proper position for collection; we’ll uninstall appliances you no longer want and tear out the old carpeting as part of the disposal process. Our white-glove service promise means we do all the heavy lifting, not you. 

Because we’re equally dedicated to environmental responsibility, we work hard to minimize our own landfill impact. When we remove items in usable condition, they’re separated for drop-off at a local donation center. Everything else is disposed of in the most sustainable manner available so you can enjoy both a clean space and a clear conscience. Call us today to learn more about our junk removal services and our commitment to greener disposal. Together, we’re working with Austinites to sprint towards that Zero Waste goal.

Image Credit: https://www.ecolife.zone/reducing-single-use-plastics/