Bethel's free bulky-item pickup ends this month

Bethel residents have until the end of July to claim their one free bulky-item pickup of the year — a good time to get rid of the couch, the old snow machine, or whatever won't fit in the neighborhood dumpster.

The city's Clean Up and Green Up season, running through July, is meant to keep big stuff out of the dumpsters: furniture, appliances, construction debris, car parts, snow machines, four-wheelers, brush, and the like. Because Bethel has no curbside trash pickup, anything that misses the seasonal window has to be hauled to the landfill by the resident. The city won't schedule the pickup automatically — you have to call the Utility Department to set one up.

Miss the July deadline and there's still a year-round fallback: one free truckload to the landfill a day.