Households will be able to get a free collection once a year of items such as furniture, appliances and white goods but not mattresses, which will still incur a fee to dump.

Residents will book to have their items collected, rather than a single day being staged for all households, to avoid random pickers and illegal dumping of items.

City Services Minister Chris Steel said the contract to run the collection service would go to tender and the service would cost the government almost $15 million over the next five years, with future costs to the ACT to be determined in the next budget cycle.

"This is a free scheme for households to provide better services to Canberrans. Overall, the cost to government is $14.7 million over five years," he said, announcing the scheme on Friday in Kambah.

Mr Steel said the bulky waste collection service would start in Tuggeranong and Gungahlin residents in July, 2020.

Belconnen, Hall and Molonglo residents will have access to the collection service from 2021-22 followed by Woden and Weston Creek residents in 2022-23, with inner-north and inner-south residents to get it last, in 2023-24.

Mr Steel defended the length of time it would take to extend the service across the city. He denied Tuggeranong was one of the first areas to get the service because Labor was politically unpopular in the deep south. The Minister said rolling out the scheme all at once "would put too much pressure on the provider".

"This is a very large scheme to roll out. In order to develop the scheme in the ACT for the first time for all households, we're starting small and then we'll be moving it to all suburbs over time. Just as we did with the green bins scheme, which we rolled out ahead of schedule," he said.

The once-a-year free bulky waste collection service has been available to eligible concession card holders in Canberra for eight years. Extending the free service to all households follows green waste bins being introduced to the national capital while a food waste collection scheme is in the pipeline.

The successful tenderer will be able to recycle the items collected. The Green Shed has been running the scheme for concession card holders.

"We hope that this will improve recovery rates for hard waste, with improved recycling, with the residual amount being provided into landfill," Mr Steel said.

"Currently, people have to pay to go down to the tip to drop off their hard waste, so this will be a free service and we hope this will encourage people to drop off items at their kerb for recycling."

Mr Steel was also asked why a free bulky waste collection service had taken so long to be introduced in Canberra, when it was routine in other towns and cities.

"This is something we wanted to do. Our focus was rolling out green bins first to the whole of Canberra to help reduce the amount of methane coming off our landfill," he said.

"This is an extra service that we committed to at the last election because we are committed to providing better services to Canberra as the city grows."

Mr Steel said the booking system would help prevent illegal dumping. A total of 2 cubic metres was allowable for each household. There will be a defined list of items and Mr Steel was confident Canberrans would use the scheme responsibly.

"We've learned from other jurisdictions about their council drop-off schemes and that's why we've chosen to undertake our scheme using a booking system," he said.

Mattresses are not included in the free collection scheme. They will still cost $36 to dump at the tip. Mattresses can be recycled at the Hume facility Soft Landing for a fee to households of $25 if they are dropped off or $40 if they are collected.

The government is holding an information day on Monday for industry players to provide more information about the tender process to deliver the scheme.

Mr Steel said residents would get help if they were physically unable to move their items from their home to the kerb. That part of the service would incur a fee but would be free to eligible concession card holders.

Mr Steel said residents in apartments and units were included in the free collection scheme, with details on where the items would be placed for collection to be determined.

"We've just got to work out how to do that before July. We've got a bit of time to that," he said.

Kambah resident Steve Tattam was pleased to see the free collection service start, saying it would be convenient.

"Sometimes things are too big to put in the rubbish and not everyone has a trailer so to have this service once a year is a good opportunity to purge those big, bulky items you've been trying to work out how to get rid of," he said.

A full list of allowable items was expected to be confirmed closer to the roll-out date but would include furniture and household appliances, white goods, metal products, some building materials and tools, and outdoor equipment, a City Services spokesman said.