Bristol, CT Trash & Recycling: Bulk Item Disposal (2026)

Sec. 10-11 splits scheduled special collections into brush/branch pickups and bulk solid waste pickups, both arranged in advance with the Department of Public Works rather than left at the curb unannounced. Only owners of residential properties can schedule a bulk pickup, and the code allows just one per unit each calendar year; anyone who needs a second pickup pays a fee the Board of Public Works sets. The maximum load is five cubic yards, described in the code as about three feet by three feet by fifteen feet, and metal items must sit in their own pile separated from the rest of the bulk pile.

Chemicals, auto parts, porcelain fixtures such as toilets and sinks, construction debris, sheet rock, shingles, ceramic tiles, yard waste, mirrors, and glass are excluded from bulk pickup unless the Board of Public Works approves an exception; residents with those materials instead haul them to the solid waste transfer station under Sec. 10-9, paying a permit fee plus a per-pound charge based on scale weight. The companion brush/branches provision in Sec. 10-11(a) limits branches to six inches in diameter and four feet in length, tied into bundles that together cannot exceed a four-foot cube; loose piles get skipped entirely.

Chapter 10 sits on the list of ordinances enforceable by citation officers under Sec. 23-2, so a resident who dodges these limits by dumping oversized bulk loads at the curb faces the ninety-dollar Sec. 23-5 citation fine per occurrence.