Getting rid of a couch: $0 in New York, $31 in Seattle, $336 in Atlanta

How we did this

We took the 50 biggest U.S. cities by population and read each city’s own sanitation or solid waste pages, or the hauler the city sends you to. We only used official pages. When a live page was blocked, we used an archived copy of the same official page and say so in the CSV.

“$0” means the city’s page says the pickup is free, at no charge, or included in your service. If a city picks up couches but its page lists no price, we put it in its own group and don’t call it free.

Caveats

• Atlanta’s $336.38 is for each pickup after your 12 free ones in a year. Your first 12 are $0.
• Portland’s $39 is the $18 trip fee plus $21 for a couch. Other items cost $6 to $51.
• El Paso, Mesa, Raleigh and Tulsa charge by the load, not the item, so a couch and a few other things can go for one price.
• San Diego paused its bulky item pickup “until further notice” in June 2026. Omaha has no curbside bulky pickup; $15 a year buys 4 dump vouchers.
• Some cities limit free pickups to houses or small buildings. San Francisco’s 2 a year are for buildings with 5 or fewer units.
• Rates often change in January. Check your city’s page before you set anything out.

Getting rid of a Christmas tree after the holidays? See how the 50 biggest cities take trees.

You can use any graphic on this page with a link back to whereisthedump.com/research/couch-pickup-cost/.