Worcester, MA Trash & Recycling: Bulk Item Disposal (2026)

Section 2 of Chapter Four defines a 'bulk item' as anything weighing more than thirty pounds or measuring more than thirty-six inches in any one direction, and the ordinance lists mattresses, furniture, lumber, trees, tree limbs, stoves, refrigerators and tires as examples. Section 3(c) is unambiguous: the department will not collect bulk items placed at the curb with the regular solid waste pickup, and disposing of them is the owner's responsibility, not a service folded into weekly trash collection. That leaves residents to haul oversized items to a transfer station themselves, hire a private hauler, or use whatever separate bulk-item program the commissioner operates outside this chapter's weekly curbside pickup; the ordinance text itself does not create a curbside bulk pickup day.

Because bulk items are excluded from the definition of 'solid waste' in Section 2, setting a mattress, refrigerator, or pile of tree limbs at the curb on a normal collection day does not trigger city pickup at all; Section 3(d) also lets crews refuse an entire stop over an improperly placed bulk item at the collection point. General enforcement under Section 8(b) applies to violations of this chapter, carrying a $100 fine for a first offense and $300 for a repeat offense within the same calendar year.