Council Bluffs, IA Trash & Recycling: Bulk Item Disposal (2026)

Chapter 4.12 defines bulky waste as large household appliances, stoves, refrigerators, water heater tanks, washing machines, toilets, bathtubs, furniture, carpets and rugs, and other bundled household waste (CBMC 4.12.010). Because these items do not fit the weekly 96-gallon cart limit, CBMC 4.12.060 pulls them out of the regular route entirely: a residential customer has to contact the city's contract agent and arrange a specific pickup date before setting anything out. The code caps that benefit at two bulky-waste collections and two appliance collections per residential address each year, and whatever is placed out on the scheduled day cannot exceed a four-foot by eight-foot by four-foot footprint.

Once scheduled, the bulky item still has to follow the same curbside placement rules as ordinary trash, meaning it goes within five feet of the curb or traveled way directly in front of the residence and cannot sit in the right-of-way or front yard setback past midnight on the collection day. Disabled residents who cannot get waste to curbside on their own can ask the administrative authority for direct-from-residence pickup instead, subject to the same appointment and volume limits. Anything set out without an appointment, or that exceeds the four-by-eight-by-four volume cap or the twice-yearly count, is not required to be collected and becomes the resident's responsibility to store or dispose of until the next authorized pickup.

Public Works and the city's contracted hauler run the appointment system, and unresolved excess bulky waste left at curbside can also trigger nuisance enforcement under CBMC 4.12.140.