Rules

What Can and Cannot Go in a Dumpster: The Local List

The regional landfill publishes its refusal list, and some of it surprises people — whole tires, major appliances and yard waste among them.

The short version

If it came out of a building, a yard or a household and it is solid, non-hazardous and not under pressure, it can almost certainly go in the container. If it is liquid, toxic, pressurised, electronic or contains refrigerant, it cannot.

That covers about ninety-five percent of questions. The rest of this is the other five percent, which is where the money and the headaches live.

What you can put in

Household and furniture

Sofas, armchairs, bed frames, mattresses, tables, wardrobes, bookcases, desks, carpet and underlay, rugs, window coverings, toys, books, paperwork, kitchenware, patio furniture, grills with the propane tank removed, exercise equipment and general clutter.

Construction and renovation debris

Drywall, plaster and lath, timber, plywood and sheet goods, doors, windows, trim, kitchen cabinets, countertops, tiling, laminate and vinyl flooring, insulation, siding, soffit and fascia, guttering and fencing.

Concrete, brick and masonry

All fine, all extremely heavy. Slab, footings, brick, block and pavers belong in a 10 yard, part-filled, and kept clean — clean concrete has its own category and a cheaper route.

Roofing

Composition shingle, tile, metal panel, felt and underlayment, flashing and decking. Weight is the constraint, not acceptability.

What is prohibited

• Liquids of any kind — paint, stains, solvents, thinners, oils, fuels and pool chemicals
• Batteries of every kind, lithium especially — a real fire risk in a loaded container and on a tipping floor
• Propane, gas and pressurised cylinders, including "empty" ones, and aerosols
• Electronics — televisions, monitors, computers
• Refrigerant-charged equipment that has not been professionally evacuated
• Asbestos-containing material
• Medical and infectious waste, including sharps
• Whole tires — see below, this one is specific
• Contaminated soil — covered here
• Fluorescent tubes and older ballasts
• Yard waste mixed into general debris — it has to stay separate

The regional landfill's own refusal list

Unusually, we can be precise about this rather than speaking in generalities, because Champ Landfill in Maryland Heights publishes what it will not accept. Since that is where most of north county's waste goes, its list is effectively our list.

Not accepted: major appliances, bulk liquids, explosives, highly flammable or volatile substances, propane gas containers, radioactive materials, regulated infectious waste, regulated quantities of hazardous waste or PCB, septic tank pumpings, whole tires, toxic waste, waste oil, and yard waste.

Three of those surprise people regularly:

• Whole tires are refused; chipped or shredded are accepted. So the four tires in the corner of the garage need a tire retailer or a scrap dealer, not a container.
• Major appliances are refused. Washers, dryers, ranges, fridges and freezers all need a scrap metal or appliance recycling route.
• Yard waste is refused, with the instruction to keep it separate for green waste recycling. Detail here.

Accepted, for completeness: clean fill soil, concrete and asphalt, construction debris, farm waste, household municipal waste including carpet, furniture and mattresses, non-hazardous commercial waste, chipped or shredded tires, and tree branches over six inches in diameter.

Household hazardous waste has one destination

Everything liquid, toxic or chemical has a single regional route, and it is worth knowing how it works because it is not a drive-up.

The St. Louis Household Hazardous Waste facility sits at 291 East Hoffmeister, on the grounds of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District's Lemay treatment plant. It serves residents of St. Louis County, St. Louis City and Jefferson County.

How it actually works:

• By reservation. Book online at hhwstl.com before you go.
• Bring proof of address — a utility bill or driver's license.
• Stay in your car. Staff unload the vehicle themselves.
• Card only. No cash, no checks.
• Transport in boxes or separate containers, not everything bagged together — it is safer in the car and tells them what they are handling.
• Contact them first if you have more than 100 pounds. There are other options for larger quantities.
• Households only. Not businesses, places of worship or schools.

That covers paint, solvents, fuel, motor oil, car batteries, garden and pool chemicals, and household batteries.

The grey areas people ask about

Appliances with a compressor

Fridges, freezers, window air conditioners and dehumidifiers need the refrigerant professionally evacuated — and even then, major appliances are on the landfill's refusal list, so they want a scrap metal route rather than a container. There is nearly always a second fridge in the basement here.

Mattresses

Accepted, and listed explicitly among household municipal waste. Bulky, so they eat volume, but no special handling.

Cast iron plumbing

Perfectly acceptable, and common in the pre-war housing of the inner-ring cities. It is also heavy and worth real money as scrap, so pull it out rather than burying it in a mixed load.

Old paint cans

Empty and fully dried with the lid off, generally fine. Anything with liquid paint in it is household hazardous waste.

Asbestos

Not in our containers. In any building predating 1980 — which is a large share of the housing across north county — get floor tile, pipe lagging, siding and textured ceilings tested before demolition starts. A licensed abatement contractor handles it from there.

Railroad ties and treated timber

Common in older landscaping here. Not yard waste, not clean fill, and not something to mix into a green load. Tell us what you have.

Basements are where the problems hide

Worth its own section, because nearly every house in this area has one and it is where the prohibited items accumulate.

A typical north county basement, particularly in a house that has been in one family since the 1960s, holds: paint from four decades of redecorating, fuel for a mower, motor oil, the old chest freezer, a workbench with solvents and adhesives, batteries in tools nobody has used in years, and often a second fridge.

Three things that matter:

• Clear the chemicals first, before anything else moves. Once boxes are stacked in front of a shelf, the shelf gets forgotten.
• Check for water damage. Anything that has sat damp is heavier and may need different handling.
• Look behind and under everything. Fuel cans and battery packs are small enough to be loaded without anybody noticing, and both are genuine fire risks in a loaded container.

A pre-load checklist

• Walk the basement, garage and shed and pull every chemical before anything else moves
• Check for batteries: power tools, garden equipment, e-bikes, emergency lights
• Pull out propane cylinders and aerosols, including "empty" ones
• Set electronics aside for proper recycling
• Check for the second fridge as well as the obvious one
• Put whole tires aside — they need a tire retailer or scrap dealer
• Put major appliances aside for a scrap metal route
• Keep yard waste completely separate
• Separate concrete, brick and clean fill into their own container
• Pull the scrap metal, including cast iron plumbing
• Book an HHW reservation at hhwstl.com and take the chemicals there
• Load flat and heavy first, bulky on top, and stop at the rail