What Can You Put in a Dumpster?

Yes — this all goes in

Household junk and full-home cleanouts. Furniture of every kind — sofas, tables, dressers, chairs. Mattresses and box springs, at no extra charge, which is not true everywhere.

Remodeling and construction debris: lumber, treated lumber, sheetrock, trim, cabinetry, flooring, carpet and padding, tile, insulation, windows and broken glass, porcelain fixtures like toilets, sinks and tubs.

Roofing: shingles, felt, decking and tear-off debris. Roofing tar as part of a tear-off.

Outdoor material: decking, fencing including treated pickets and posts, brush, limbs, storm debris, and yard waste. Most appliances, water heaters (drain them first), exercise equipment, and even a piano.

No — these cannot go in, and why

Concrete, dirt, sod and fill. Not a matter of preference — this material is dense enough to put a truck over its legal haul weight while the container still looks half empty, and the landfill handles it differently. Call and we will point you to somewhere that takes it.

Paint, stains, solvents and oil. Liquid paint is the common one; fully dried, empty cans with the lid off are generally acceptable.

Fuel, propane tanks and batteries — both car and household. Chemicals, pesticides and hazardous waste. Tires, which are prohibited at the landfill and need a tire-specific facility. Asbestos and contaminated soil. Medical or biohazard waste.

Anything containing refrigerant — refrigerators, freezers, window air conditioning units — has to be evacuated by a certified technician first. It is not a refusal so much as a sequence.

The ones worth a phone call

Some items are fine but depend on the load or the facility. Tree stumps: small ones usually fine, large ones are extremely heavy and handled differently. Electronics and TVs in quantity: rules vary by facility. Asphalt paving, as distinct from roofing tar. Hot tubs, which need cutting down to fit. Fence posts still set in concrete footings — the posts are fine, the concrete is not, so knock it off first.

None of these are trick questions. Call, describe it, and we will tell you.

Weight is the other limit

Even with everything on the accepted list, there is a tonnage included with each container — two tons on the 15 yard, three on the 20, four on the 25 — and overage is $75 per ton.

The material that catches people out is not junk but density: wet debris, tile, plaster, and shingles. The landfill scales the truck loaded and empty, so you are billed off an actual ticket rather than an estimate, and we can show it to you.

If you are loading anything dense, the sensible move is a smaller container and a conversation before you start rather than a surprise afterwards.