Citrus Heights has a more generous bulky waste allowance than most cities in this region — ten cubic yards. Use it. This page is about the jobs that sit outside it, and the county hazardous waste trap that costs people a wasted drive across town.
The city's residential waste contract, held by Republic Services, includes a ten cubic yard bulky item allowance. To put that in perspective, ten cubic yards is roughly a small room's worth of furniture — considerably more than the single-item pickups most neighbouring cities offer. If what you're clearing fits inside that and you can wait for a scheduled collection, call Republic, not me. I'd rather say so than take money for something you've already paid for through your utility bill.
Worth knowing if you plan around them. In February 2026 the council voted three to two to move toward a new ten-year waste contract beginning in 2028, and under the proposed terms the neighbourhood cleanup events drop from three a year to two — a saving of roughly 77 cents a month on the bill. Street sweeping gets added at about $1.19 a month, and the projected rate for a 64-gallon can lands somewhere around $37.51 to $38.71 a month from 2028. Nothing is final until the public hearing process concludes, so treat these as proposed figures. The practical upshot: one fewer free clear-out window each year.
Furniture and mattresses, appliances including fridges and water heaters, televisions and computers, garage and household clutter, yard waste, construction and remodel debris, exercise equipment, and scrap metal. Nothing needs to be at the kerb first, which is the main practical difference between me and a scheduled collection — upstairs bedrooms, garages and back yards are all normal. What I can't take is hazardous: paint, solvents, fuel, pool chemicals, asbestos. No junk removal service in California legally can, and the next section covers where those actually go.
This is the one that costs people an hour of their life. Sacramento County has two household hazardous waste sites and they do not accept the same materials. Kiefer ABOP at 12701 Kiefer Boulevard in Sloughhouse takes antifreeze, batteries, motor oil, paint, aerosols and brake fluid — and refuses gasoline, household cleaners, pesticides, solvents, pool chemicals and acids outright. The North Area Recovery Station at 4450 Roseville Road in North Highlands takes all of those, plus everything Kiefer takes. So if your garage clear-out includes weedkiller or pool shock, North Highlands is the only one of the two that will have it. Both are open to the general public with no residency requirement, and both allow 15 gallons or 125 pounds free per household per month. The county does not publish which site a given address should use — its own advice is to ring the site before you drive.
Kiefer Landfill runs Monday to Friday 6:30am to 4:30pm and weekends 8:30am to 4:30pm, but its ABOP hazardous waste counter keeps its own shorter schedule of Tuesday to Saturday, 8:30am to 4pm. North Area Recovery Station is open Monday to Friday 6:30am to 6pm and weekends from 8am, with its hazardous waste facility running Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 8:30am to 4pm. Both on (916) 875-5555. The gap between the general hours and the hazardous waste hours is where wasted trips happen — the gate is open, the counter you need isn't.
California bans electronic waste from household trash — televisions, monitors, computers, printers and anything with a circuit board. Statewide law, not local policy, and the reason dead CRT televisions sit in garages for a decade. Anything with a built-in battery has to go through an e-waste route rather than the regular bin. If it's going out alongside a larger load, I'll take it and route it to a recycler rather than a landfill.
By the cubic yard — the space it takes up in the trailer — with a $165 minimum on any trip. Not per item, so once I'm in the driveway adding the broken bookshelf costs little. Given you already have ten cubic yards of bulky allowance, the Citrus Heights jobs that reach me are usually about timing or access rather than volume: something that has to go this week, or something that can't get to the kerb without two people. Firm total before anything is loaded, and it doesn't move once I've started.
California runs a statewide mattress recycling program funded by a fee you already paid at purchase, and drop-off is free at participating sites — check byebyemattress.com for the nearest. Retailers also have to take the old one when they deliver a new one, so ask before paying anyone. Where a hauler earns the fee is the carry: a mattress bends in the middle, one person can't control it on stairs, and it's usually in an upstairs back bedroom. Tell me which room and it's handled.
This is where a scheduled municipal collection stops being useful: rental turnovers, a close of escrow, an estate that has to be cleared before a family flies home, a landlord with a unit to re-let on Monday. A cleanup event twice a year and a booked bulky pickup both run on someone else's calendar. Call or text me with your deadline and I'll tell you straight whether I can hit it.
Plainly: if it's under ten cubic yards, it can reach the kerb, and you can wait for the collection, use your city service. If it's chemicals, drive them to North Highlands or Sloughhouse depending on what you've got. You've already paid for both. Where the sums change is access and timing — anything heavy that's upstairs or can't be dragged out, a job with a deadline, an apartment or commercial property, or a clearance past what the allowance holds. My minimum is $165 and pricing is by the cubic yard, so weigh that against what your own service already covers.
Compiled 15 September 2026 from Sacramento County Waste Management and Recycling's Kiefer Landfill, Kiefer ABOP and North Area Recovery Station facility pages, and from local reporting on the February 2026 Citrus Heights council vote on the residential waste contract. Contract terms described here are proposals and subject to the city's public hearing process. Hours, fees and allowances change, so ring ahead before you drive anywhere. If something here has gone out of date, tell me and I'll correct it.
Send a photo and your Citrus Heights address and I'll give you a firm total before anything is loaded.
