How to get rid of stuff in Tokyo

From the editor

What residents need to know

Where things go in Tokyo

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.

Booked through your own ward, priced by your own ward. A two-seat sofa runs from 1,200 yen in Adachi to 2,300 in Minato, and taking it apart does not move it out of the bulky category, unlike Milan.

Bulky waste in every ward, and the one item the reuse platforms will not take. There is no cheaper route than your ward's collection, or its depot if it has one.

Six objects are refused by every ward under national law: air conditioners, televisions, fridges and freezers, washing machines and clothes dryers. One number covers all 23 wards for those. Everything else is ordinary 粗大ごみ.

Small electricals go free to a 拠点回収 box at a ward office. Anything over about 30cm becomes 粗大ごみ and needs a booking and a sticker.

Free drop-off boxes at ward offices and community facilities, two of them at Setagaya pools open until 9pm. Clothing never needs to enter the sticker system.

The words Tokyo 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.

粗大ごみ

Sodai gomi, bulky waste. The word every one of Tokyo's 23 wards uses. Not Kyoto's 大型ごみ.

粗大ごみ受付センター

Your ward's bulky-waste booking line. Each ward runs its own; there is no Tokyo-wide number.

有料粗大ごみ処理券

The paid disposal sticker, sold as A券 (200 yen) and B券 (300 yen). Your ward's only, another ward's is worthless.

排出場所

Haishutsu basho, the discharge point you agree when booking. Your own doorstep or your block's ground-floor entrance, never the communal bin area.

集積所

Shūsekijo, the communal refuse collection point. Bulky waste must NOT go here, and leaving it there is why collections fail.

持込

Mochikomi, driving it to a depot yourself. Free in Adachi, half price in several wards, full price in Nerima, apparently unavailable in Shinjuku and Shibuya.

家電4品目

The four appliance categories under the Home Appliance Recycling Act, always listed as six objects: air conditioners, televisions, fridges and freezers, washing machines and clothes dryers. No ward will collect them.

家電リサイクル券

The appliance recycling voucher, bought at a post office before you carry a regulated appliance to a designated site yourself.

指定引取場所

A designated take-back site for those four appliance categories. No appointment needed, and you pay only the recycling fee rather than a transport charge.

運び出し収集

Hakobidashi shūshū, assisted removal from inside the home, for households of over-65s or disabled residents. Ask your ward's cleansing office, not the booking centre.

清掃事務所

Seisō jimusho, your ward's cleansing office. Where to ask about anything the booking centre will not take.

拠点回収

Kyoten kaishū, free drop-off boxes at ward offices and community facilities for clothing, small appliances and batteries.

Things that catch people out

• Find your ward first. All 23 run their own bulky-waste service, and almost every number differs between them.
• Book before anything else. There is no walk-up service anywhere in Tokyo, every ward requires a booking through its own 粗大ごみ受付センター.
• Buy 有料粗大ごみ処理券 stickers to the quoted amount. They come in two denominations, A券 at 200 yen and B券 at 300 yen, so a 1,300-yen item is two A and three B.
• A sticker bought in one ward is worthless in another. Buy them in the ward the item is leaving.
• PUT IT ON YOUR OWN PROPERTY, the doorstep or gate of a house, or the ground-floor entrance of your block. Never at the communal 集積所, where it will be refused. This is the exact opposite of Kyoto's rule.
• Out by 8am on the booked day. You do not need to be there, but in an apartment building you must carry it down yourself: crews will not enter the building.
• Roughly 30cm on the longest side makes something bulky, but Minato says 30cm and over while Setagaya, Adachi and Katsushika say exceeding 30cm, so an object of exactly 30cm is bulky waste in one ward and ordinary refuse in the next.
• Taking it apart changes nothing. Unlike Milan, dismantling does not move an item out of the bulky category.
• Driving it yourself is the cheapest route where it exists, free in Adachi, up to 20 items a year, and half price in several other wards. Shinjuku and Shibuya appear to have no drop-off at all.
• Air conditioners, televisions, fridges and freezers, washing machines and clothes dryers are refused by every ward under the 家電リサイクル法. One number covers all 23 wards for those: 0570-087-200.
• Assisted removal from inside the home exists for households of over-65s and disabled residents. Ask your ward's 清掃事務所 rather than the booking centre.

What it costs in Tokyo

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.

• Kyoto 8 options·4 free·Checked 29 Aug 2026
• Amsterdam 7 options·7 free·Checked 20 Aug 2026
• Barcelona 6 options·5 free·Checked 29 Aug 2026