Junk removal costs in Savannah

Old tires can go to your Savannah curb, up to four at a time, on your regular collection day. Crews pull them out of the garbage stream and a separate truck picks them up, which can take up to a week.

For the rest, the City of Savannah counts anything too big to fit in your cart with the lid fully closed as a bulk item: furniture, mattresses and box springs, appliances, toilets, bicycles and metal. Set it out neatly with your cart before 7 a.m. on trash day, clear of the mailbox, fence and utility pole. A pile in the street, the right-of-way or a median counts as illegal dumping. To haul it yourself, the City Landfill on Dean Forest Road and the Bacon Park site on Skidaway Road take bulk items, and you'll need proof of residency.

Outside the city, unincorporated Chatham County works differently. The county doesn't collect household garbage at all; you subscribe with a private hauler, and the county doesn't regulate them. It does run a monthly bulk trash pickup. Put items out no more than three days before. Palm fronds ride along with that bulk pile, not with the weekly yard waste. Tires, car batteries, liquid paint, construction debris and land-clearing debris aren't county pickups.

Back in the city, one rule rewards a tidy pile. If your bulk items take the crew more than five minutes to load, a fee applies under the city's revenue ordinance.