Junk removal costs in Tucson

Tucson's bulky pickup will take a cactus. The city's Brush and Bulky list names cacti outright, as long as each one is boxed up for safety and weighs 25 pounds or less. Hang on to the box from that new grill.

The service runs on the city's calendar, not yours. Twice a year, crews visit each of Tucson's 26 residential trash service areas. Your pile goes out by 6 a.m. on the Monday of your collection week, and never more than two weeks early. Keep it at least 3 feet from your carts and the utility meter.

There's a cap of 10 cubic yards per household, and whatever's over it stays behind. The city's yardstick is handy: one cubic yard is about the size of a washing machine. Tires go in a separate pile, five at most. So does lumber, cut to 5 feet or shorter. A fridge or freezer goes with its doors off.

Some things never qualify. Concrete, rock, dirt, glass and mirrors stay off the pile, along with construction material, gas cylinders, and TVs or computer monitors.

If your date is months away, you can drive a load out to the Los Reales Sustainability Campus, which is open to residential self-haulers Monday through Saturday. Any load under 2,000 pounds has to arrive covered with a tarp, blanket or sheet, so nothing blows out of the truck bed on the way.