Downey, CA Trash & Recycling: Bulk Item Disposal (2026)

Section 5242 of the Downey Municipal Code covers large discarded items the standard cart cannot hold. The code defines Bulky Goods broadly at § 5200 to include large and small household appliances, furniture, carpets, mattresses, white goods, and oversized yard waste such as tree trunks and large branches, so long as those branches are no larger than two feet in diameter and four feet in length; the same definition applies to similar large items discarded by single-family households. Section 5242 itself is short and direct: to protect public health, safety and well-being and to minimize interference with the public rights-of-way, no person may place Bulky Goods adjacent to a street or public right-of-way without first arranging pickup with a Solid Waste Collector.

That means a resident cannot simply drag an old refrigerator to the parkway and wait for someone to grab it; the City's franchised hauler has to be contacted first so a special collection can be scheduled. This sits inside the same Part 5 'Unlawful and Prohibited Acts' section of the chapter that bars burning or burying solid waste (§ 5246) and bars using another person's container without permission (§ 5254), all enforced through the same misdemeanor and public-nuisance abatement framework that runs the rest of Downey's refuse and garbage collection program, which was adopted by Ordinance 1020 on May 28, 1996.

Because Bulky Goods left unscheduled at the curb also violate the general accumulation limits in § 5238, which bars keeping solid waste that is offensive or unsanitary on any premises for more than 13 consecutive days, an uncollected pile can trigger nuisance abatement on top of the placement citation.