How to get rid of stuff in Knoxville

From the editor

André Ribeirinho Editor, JunkSpots Knoxville Updated 19 August 2026

What residents need to know

Where things go in Knoxville

Every option in this guide, arranged by the thing you are getting rid of. A missing name is not a refusal. It means nobody has told us either way, which is worth asking about before you make the trip.

Call 311 and place a bulky alert BEFORE you set anything out, the regular trash truck does not collect bulky waste. Up to five items a week, next to your cart by 7am on your service day.

There is no free route for a mattress in this guide. Foothills Disposal will collect one by appointment and quotes the price itself rather than publishing it. If you know of a council or charity route here that we have missed, tell us and we will check it.

Appliances count towards the five-item weekly limit. Allow up to two business days after the alert for the bulky truck to come back round.

The Household Hazardous Waste facility is the free drop-off, and it is open to city and county residents alike. It takes households only, so a business needs the paid route. Anything still working is worth offering to a neighbour or a charity first, because both will take it away for nothing.

Two routes, both free, both wanting things clean and still wearable. The Salvation Army collects from your door once you book it. Buy Nothing is your own neighbours, and you need to be in the group before you can post. Knoxville has no municipal route for textiles at all.

One place, and it costs nothing: the Household Hazardous Waste facility, open to residents of both the city and the county. Households only, with a limit on how much you bring at once. Nothing here collects hazardous waste or paint from your home.

The words Knoxville uses

These are the terms on the city's own pages. They stay in the local language here for the same reason they do on a form: the English version will not get you to the right page.

bulky alert

What you place by calling 311 before you set anything out. Bulky waste travels on a different truck from the regular one, so without an alert a sofa left beside the cart is a sofa that stays there.

bulky waste

Up to five items a week, furniture, tyres, appliances and other approved household items too big for the cart. Out next to your trash cart by 7am on your service day, then allow up to two working days for the bulky truck to come round.

brush

A separate service from bulky waste, collected every two weeks from March to October and suspended during autumn leaf collection.

Household Hazardous Waste Facility

The city's free drop-off on Elm Street, open to city and county residents alike with no appointment. Latex paint has not been accepted since March 2018: the instruction is to solidify it at home with cat litter or an absorbent, leave the lid off to dry, and bin it.

reuse shelf

Usable materials still in their original containers, set aside at the hazardous waste facility. Residents who sign a waiver can take them away free.

Things that catch people out

• Call 311 and place a bulky alert BEFORE you set anything out. The regular trash truck does not collect bulky waste.
• Up to five bulky items a week, furniture, tyres, appliances and other approved household items too big for the cart.
• Items go next to your trash cart by 7am on your service day.
• Allow up to two business days after the alert for the bulky truck to return.
• Brush is a separate service, collected every two weeks from March to October and suspended during autumn leaf collection.

What it costs in Knoxville

What each option charges, in its own words, with the date we last read it. We publish no price of our own: a number we typed would go stale before the sentence it came from did.

Check who is carrying it away

• Charlotte 5 options·4 free·Checked 18 Aug 2026
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• Dallas 5 options·5 free·Checked 18 Aug 2026