The Kerbside Forecast
Tap what's in your pile. For each item you'll get the honest path: what the council's bulky-goods pickup takes, what it refuses, and what needs a licensed specialist. Then a plain reading of how big the load really is. A load size, never a price; the figure comes after we've seen the job.
What's out there?
Load sizes are rough reads to help you plan, not measurements. Whichever way the forecast points, the fixed figure is only ever set after we've seen the load. And when the council pickup genuinely covers your pile, that's the tool telling you to save your money.
Item by item, both paths
The council scheme's own rules, next to what we do with the same item.
| Item | The council kerb pickup | With Southerly |
|---|---|---|
| Mattress, couch, furniture | Takes it, within limits: two-person lift, under 1.8m and 40kg per item | Taken as-is, any size the truck fits, part of the one figure |
| Fridges, washers, whitegoods | Takes them, same lift limits apply | Wheeled out from wherever they sit, stairs included |
| Boxes of household stuff | Takes them, but they eat the 3 m³ cap quickly | No cap that matters: the load is whatever the job is |
| TVs, computers, e-waste | Refused outright | Rides along with any load, delivered to a licensed e-waste facility |
| Plasterboard, tiles, reno debris | Refused: building material | A staple job. See renovation strip-outs |
| Old timber, fence palings, carpet | Small amounts only: up to 12 palings' worth of timber, 3 tied carpet rolls. Past that, refused as building material | Loaded with the rest, whatever the quantity |
| Branches, prunings, green waste | Has its own stream: the green-lid bin, one binful at a time | Truck-scale green loads, sorted as green waste |
| Paint, chemicals, gas bottles | Refused: chemicals | Not ours either. We steer you to a CleanOut drop-off or proper collection point |
| Asbestos, suspect fibro | Refused | Licensed asbestos contractors only. We'll say so plainly and step back |
Where these rules come from
- Northern Beaches Council, bulky goods collection: two pre-booked collections per household per rolling 12 months, capped at 3 cubic metres each; most unit blocks share two collections per building per year.
- Northern Beaches Council, what we can and can't collect: items must be liftable by two people, under 1.8 metres and 40 kilograms; e-waste, chemicals and building material are refused.
- NSW EPA, electronic waste: e-waste doesn't belong in general waste and goes to licensed facilities.
- Asbestos in NSW (NSW Government): handling and disposal rules, and why suspect fibro means a licensed asbestos contractor, not a truck crew.
Two loads a year, three cubes at a time
The council scheme is genuinely good at what it's for: a couple of tidy, pre-planned loads a year. Where it runs out is exactly where the garage backlog begins: the pile that's part furniture, part e-waste, part reno offcuts, and altogether bigger than 3 cubic metres. That pile either waits for two booking cycles, or it goes in one visit.
The deeper comparison, including what happens on cleanup morning and why half the pile can get left on the verge, lives in the council cleanup guide.
