How to Dispose of Furniture, Appliances and Electronics

The hard part of disposing of a household is not the sofa. It is the three categories with rules attached: appliances that contain refrigerant, electronics, and leftover paint. Each has a legal or program-based route, and once those are handled, everything else is a question of bulk pickup, donation or a junk truck.

Here is the route for each item type, with the rules that apply nationally and the state programs that change the answer depending on where you live.

Appliances: refrigerant comes out first

Refrigerators, freezers, window air conditioners, dehumidifiers and heat pumps contain refrigerant, and under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act it is illegal to vent it to the atmosphere. EPA’s rule puts the obligation at the end of the chain: the final disposer of an appliance is responsible for recovering any refrigerant it contains before the unit is scrapped. For small appliances, which EPA defines as those holding five pounds or less of refrigerant, the person recovering it does not have to be a Section 608 certified technician, but the refrigerant still has to be captured with recovery equipment rather than released.

In practice that means a refrigerator cannot simply go into a scrap pile or a landfill as it is. The routes that handle recovery for you:

• Your electric utility. EPA’s own advice is to check with your electric utility for a rebate or bounty program, sometimes called an appliance turn-in, that collects old refrigerators and freezers. These programs exist to get inefficient units off the grid, and they handle the refrigerant.
• The retailer delivering your new appliance. Some retailers offer pickup and disposal of the old unit when they deliver, or let you drop the old one off at no charge. Ask when you buy; it is easier than any other route.
• Your municipality. Many cities and counties collect large appliances separately from ordinary bulk pickup, or accept them at a transfer station, precisely because the refrigerant has to come out before the metal is recycled. Look up the appliance rules, not the general bulk rules.
• Junk removal. Crews take refrigerant-bearing appliances and pass the recovery cost through as a surcharge, which is why these appear as a line item on quotes. The junk removal hub covers what else is surcharged.

From 2006 to 2025 EPA also ran a voluntary Responsible Appliance Disposal partnership with utilities, retailers and manufacturers that committed to going beyond the federal minimum when they collected old units. If your utility or retailer took part, its program is the one to use.

Appliances without refrigerant (washers, dryers, ranges, dishwashers, water heaters) have no federal disposal rule. They are scrap metal: bulk pickup, a scrap recycler, retailer haul-away or a junk crew all work.

Electronics: take-back first, certified recycling second

Televisions, monitors, computers, printers and phones contain materials that do not belong in a landfill, and several states have passed laws that set up collection programs for them. Rather than count states, take one example. California has placed a recycling fee on covered electronic devices sold in the state since January 1, 2005, extended the program to covered battery-embedded products from January 1, 2026, and runs a directory of collectors that residents can search to find a drop-off nearby.

Whatever your state, EPA’s guidance sets the sequence:

1. Delete your data. EPA’s first instruction is to delete all personal information from a device before donating or recycling it. Sign out of accounts, then do a factory reset.
2. Reuse it if it works. A working laptop or phone is worth more donated or sold than recycled.
3. Use a manufacturer or retailer take-back program. Manufacturers and electronics retailers run donation and recycling options. EPA lists third-party locators for finding them and says plainly that it does not endorse any of them.
4. Otherwise, use a certified electronics recycler. EPA maintains a page explaining what certification means. Certification is the difference between a recycler that processes the device and one that ships it somewhere else to be dumped.

Older tube televisions and monitors are the hard case. They are heavy, they contain leaded glass, and municipal programs and junk crews often charge for them by the unit.

Mattresses: four states have a program

The Mattress Recycling Council, an industry body, runs state mattress recycling programs under the Bye Bye Mattress name in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. In those states residents can find drop-off sites and collection events through the program; the council reports more than five million mattresses recycled in California alone.

Outside those four states, the routes are:

• Retailer haul-away when a new mattress is delivered. Ask at purchase.
• Municipal bulk pickup, which in many cities requires the mattress to be sealed in a plastic bag before it is set out.
• Junk removal, where a mattress is a per-item surcharge because landfills and recyclers charge by the unit.

Donation is rarely an option. Charities that collect furniture generally decline used mattresses.

Paint and the rest of the garage

Paint is the item that ends a garage cleanout. Movers will not load it, and it needs a program rather than a trash can.

In twelve states and the District of Columbia (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, plus DC), PaintCare operates drop-off programs under state paint stewardship laws, with sites listed on its locator and a pickup service for 100 gallons or more. Its accepted-products list covers house paint, primers, stains and varnishes in original labeled containers of up to five gallons, and excludes aerosols, solvents and thinners, automotive and marine paints, and leaking, empty or unlabeled containers.

Elsewhere, paint goes to your county or city household hazardous waste program, along with the rest of the garage’s chemistry: gasoline, propane cylinders, pesticides, pool chemicals, automotive fluids. Some programs allow dried-out latex paint in the regular trash; confirm with yours before doing it.

Furniture: the free routes, then the paid one

Furniture has no disposal rule, so the question is who carries it and what it costs.

• Municipal bulk pickup. Many cities and counties collect bulky items at the curb on set days or by appointment, sometimes free and sometimes for a fee. The rules that trip people up are the set-out rules: which day, how many items, whether upholstered pieces must be wrapped, and whether appliances and mattresses are excluded. Read your city’s page before the sofa goes to the curb, because a rejected item just sits there.
• Donation with pickup. National and local charities collect furniture in good, resalable condition on a scheduled pickup. Book early, and expect the driver to decline anything stained, broken or made of particleboard.
• Selling. Solid wood, working appliances and brand-name pieces sell if the price is low and the buyer collects.
• Junk removal. The paid route, priced by the fraction of a truck your pile fills. How that fraction is set, and what pushes it up, is in how junk removal pricing works.

If you are clearing a house before a move, the order matters: sell and donate first, bulk pickup next, junk removal last for what remains. Our guide to decluttering before a move lays out the timeline and shows what it saves on the moving bill.

The route by item

Item	Rule or program	Best route	Fallback
Refrigerator, freezer, window AC, dehumidifier	Refrigerant must be recovered before disposal (Clean Air Act Section 608)	Utility turn-in program or retailer haul-away	Municipal appliance collection; junk removal with surcharge
Washer, dryer, range, dishwasher, water heater	No federal disposal rule	Retailer haul-away or scrap recycler	Bulk pickup; junk removal
TV, monitor, computer, printer, phone	State e-waste programs where they exist (California charges a fee at purchase and runs a collector directory)	Manufacturer or retailer take-back after wiping data	Certified electronics recycler; municipal e-waste day
Mattress and box spring	Mattress Recycling Council programs in CA, CT, OR and RI	Program drop-off in those states; retailer haul-away elsewhere	Bagged bulk pickup; junk removal with surcharge
Paint, stains, varnish	PaintCare in 12 states and DC	PaintCare drop-off site	Household hazardous waste program
Solvents, fuel, propane, pesticides, pool chemicals	Not accepted by movers, bulk pickup or junk removal	Household hazardous waste program	None; do not put in the trash
Sofas, tables, dressers, bed frames	No rule; set-out rules vary by city	Sell, or donate with pickup	Bulk pickup; junk removal

The pattern across the table: anything with refrigerant, a circuit board or a chemical in it has a program; everything else is a question of who carries it. Deal with the first group early, because programs run on schedules, and leave the plain furniture for the last two weeks.