Refuse and recycling carts at the curb
Streets & Urban Forestry

August Student Move Out

On this page, you will find

Student Move Timeframe

In 2025, student move collections begin on Monday, August 4 and ended on Friday, August 22. 

Student Move Out Area Map

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Donation Information

After you have made your moving plan and picked what you are moving with you, donate what is usable. We have a webpage showing some of the ways you can prevent good items from being wasted in the landfill on our donation and resale opportunities page.

Local Donation and Resale Opportunities 

Apartment Building Donation Sites

Some large buildings may be working directly with donation organizations to set up donation stations to reclaim usable items.  For example, in years past many downtown buildings worked directly with Goodwill. 

If you are unsure if your building is offering this opportunity, or if you would like your building to participate, contact your property manager to see if Goodwill or another organization may be able to set up a donation site in the building during the move out. 

Daily Cart Collection in the Move Out Area

For 2025, we will have crews in the move out area each work day emptying trash and recycling carts carts starting on August 4 and ending on August 22.

Fill up your carts with the appropriate material according to the guidelines and roll them to the curb by 6:30 a.m. 

We will empty the carts as soon as we can so you can fill them up again, so we can empty them again.

Cart Emptying Plan: More Carts Out; More Trucks Assigned

Daily patrolling for carts will start on August 4 as staffing and time allows. 

When crews complete their regular assigned routes, they go to the move out area to empty more carts with any remaining time in the shift.

As more carts are set out, more staff will be diverted from regular duties (like brush collection or street repair) to help empty them

Filling and re-filling your carts keeps your neighborhood clean, and makes our collection much faster so we can stay out of your way while you move.

Large Item Collection and the Move Out

Furniture, Mattresses, and Other Free Items

If you live in the student move out area, you will not be required to complete a work order for free large items from August 3, 2025 until the morning of Friday, August 22, 2025. 

Large item collection crews will be roving the student areas during that time.

During this window of time, you will not be required to submit a work order to have couches, chairs, box springs, mattresses, bookshelves, tables, and other free large items picked up from the curb.

If you need a large item picked up after or before this window of time listed above, you must create a work order.

A list of items that may require a fee can be found on the Large Item page.

If your large item is not listed, and it is also not an electronics item that must be recycled by state law, then it can be collected at the curb without a work order in the student move area during the window of time noted above.

What if you do not live in the student move out area? The normal large item work order requirements still apply.

Microwaves, Air Conditioners, Dehumidifiers, and Other Appliances & Special Large Items

Certain items require a large item work order for collection during the move out.  This ensures we have the correct truck pick-up these items as fast as possible.

They are mostly appliances such as microwaves, dehumidifiers, refrigerators, air conditioners, and so on.  It can also include tires, lawn mowers, and other items.

The items requiring a work order during the move out are ones listed that have a fee associated with them.  The list of items can be found on the large item page

Who pays fees?

If your home receives recycling collection from the City of Madison, that means you pay the Resource Recovery Special Charge on the monthly municipal services bill.  

This special charge covers the cost of the fees related to these special large items, so you will not be prompted to pay any fees when you fill out the large item work order to have these collected. You will also not be charged when dropping these items off at a drop-off site.

If your recycling is collected in a dumpster, or from carts that are not provided by the City of Madison, that means you do not have recycling collection from the City of Madison. 

This means you do not pay the Resource Recovery Special Charge. As a result, you will need to pay the appropriate fee for these items when making your large item work orders for these special items.  You will also need to pay the fee before you drop these items off at one of the drop-off sites.

If you are choosing to take the item to a drop-off site and you must pay a fee for the item, then you will receive a fee sticker in the mail to show that you paid for the item. You cannot drop off the item until you receive the sticker.

TVs, Computers, Printers, and Other Electronics

These items must be taken to a drop-off site for appropriate recycling.

In 2025, there are no fees for these items when you take them to a City drop-off site.

Do not set electronics to the curb.

Do not put them into the trash or recycling carts.

What about big properties and the move out?

Starting on January 1, 2025, properties of more than 8 units were excluded from the large item work order system.

Even with the new rule, the Streets Division will continue perform the move out clean out like we always have prior to that policy change.  The move out is a special situation with thousands of Madison residents all moving at the same time. 

Work Orders and the Move Out

During the move out, the work order system will be activated for everyone within the move out area from July 25, 2025 until August 15, 2025.

This includes properties that were excluded from the work order system on January 1, 2025 when the large item policy changed.

After August 15, 2025 work order availability will change back to just for properties that have fewer than 8 units. 

Our hope is that we're making a system where people who need to make a work order for us during the move out can schedule one for the Sundays during the move out.  

Why do this if crews will be roaming downtown collecting everything that is set out to the curb? 

Certain large items require special handling (dehumidifiers, air conditioners, fridges, etc.) 

We need people to schedule those collections so we get the right truck there to pick it up.  

Scheduling that on the work order helps.

Why turn off access on Friday, August 15 if the move-out collections run until Friday, August 22? That doesn't make sense.

When you schedule a large item collection, you choose to set items out on a Sunday for crews to collect during the work week that follows.

Work orders are created to set items out on a Sunday, and then crews come by during the work week following that set out date.

The last Sunday available during the move out period is August 17.  

So it makes sense that the final day to take work orders during the move out this is August 15.

What if I have large items on August 16, 2025 (or later) after my move and I can't schedule the work order?

Again, crews will keep roaming downtown through August 17, 2025 to August 22, 2025 to collect what is out. They will be collecting furniture, carpeting, and the usual move out stuff.

If you have an item that requires a fee (microwave, air conditioner, etc.) you may want to take this item to a drop-off site. 

If you move in well after the move out, and have big stuff to pick up and you can't use the work order system, choose one of these options:

  • use the drop-off sites,
  • utilize the waste hauler provided by your new home (dumpster providers all provide large item pickup), or
  • work with a private junk hauling service

 

 

Collection Guidelines

Cart Usage
  • Do not take the collection carts with you to the next apartment. Carts or dumpsters will be at your next home.
  • Please keep your trash and recycling carts separated from each other. Remember to leave space between carts so we can collect them without knocking over other carts.

  • Don't mix up carts. Place trash carts near other trash carts. And place recycling carts near other recycling ones.

     

Trash
  • Put all of your trash in the tan trash cart or in trash bags. 
  • Do not put recycling in your tan trash cart.
  • Do not put trash into cardboard boxes. 
  • If you have more trash than will fit into your cart, use trash bags. Don't pile loose heaps of your garbage on the ground.

Recycling
  • Put your clean, dry, and empty recyclables in the green recycling cart.
  • If you are bagging recyclables, you must use bags you can see through. Any other kind of bags means your recyclables will be thrown out as trash. 
  • Flatten your boxes before you recycle them.  

How to Stack Your Large Items
  • Do not pile bagged trash or recyclables on your large items
  • Stack your materials neatly
  • Keep furniture, wood, rugs, and mattresses separated from appliances and other special items.

Property Owners & Managers

Property Owner and Manger Information

In 2025, individuals that own non-owner occupied property in the student move received a letter providing notification about how the Streets Division will handle certain items set to the curb that should not be.

The 2025 letter can be read here:

The mailing included a map of the the student move area, a flyer explaining the drop-off site hours and locations for this year, and a flyer explaining large item rules.

Be sure your tenants know their responsibilities on how to safely handle these items.

Illegal Dumping

If items are dumped illegally on your property, it is a crime.  Report this to the Madison Police Department. After you get your case number from MPD, contact the Streets Division to learn the next steps.

How We Determined Who Received the Letters

In looking at the property data, if the where the owner lives did not match the physical address of the property then it was flagged as being non-owner occupied, and therefore most likely a rental property. Also, we sent letters to two-unit properties or others  that have an official property use code that seems likely to be rentals, and therefore most in need of this information. 

With that said, there may have been some mistakes in who we sent the letters and we apologize for that. If you received the letter in error, this information is useful to know even if it is not necessarily applicable to your situation.

Why were there errors? Let's use a pretend address of "123 First St." If in the property data, owner field entered this information as "123 1st St" and the address field entered it as "123 First St" then our system would flag this as being a mismatch and a letter would be generated. There's many opportunities for these kind of data entry mismatches.  We tried to proofread the addresses for these kind of mistakes before the letters were sent out, but invariably, a few probably slipped through. 

How-to Video

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