Rules

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

The ones that catch people here are the mini-fridges in May and the farm chemicals in an old machine shed.

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 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, futons, 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.

This is the bulk of a rental turnover and of most basement clear-outs. Bulky and light, so volume binds before weight.

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, fascia, guttering and fencing.

None of this has a curbside route in Champaign, because no weekly residential service covers construction debris.

Masonry, concrete and rock

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

Roofing

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

Yard and storm debris

Brush, branches, prunings, stumps and root balls all go in, at any size - which is the main reason people call after a storm, since the City's collection stops at two inches.

What is prohibited

• Liquids of any kind — paint, stains, solvents, thinners, oils and fuels
• 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
• Refrigerant-charged equipment that has not been professionally evacuated
• Asbestos-containing material — never a container
• Medical and infectious waste, including sharps
• ⚠️ Pesticides, herbicides and agricultural chemicals — and there is a great deal of this in a Champaign County machine shed
• Ammunition
• Contaminated soil
• Fluorescent tubes and older ballasts
• Tires
• Dirt, sod and rock in quantity without telling us — extremely heavy

⚠️ Refrigerant appliances

Worth its own section here, because of what this market produces.

Anything holding refrigerant - fridges, freezers, chest freezers, air conditioners, dehumidifiers and mini-fridges - cannot go in a container unless it has been professionally evacuated and tagged by a certified technician.

Two local situations where this bites:

• Student turnover in May. Mini-fridges are the most common prohibited item in this county by a wide margin, and a multi-unit building can produce a dozen in one week. Walk every unit before the container arrives - once a futon is on top of one, nobody finds it.
• Old basements and farmsteads. There is almost always a second fridge or a chest freezer, and it is almost always forgotten until it is already loaded.

Tell us at booking and we will advise on the route. It is a small job handled early and an expensive problem handled late.

The routes for everything else

• Household garbage — your weekly licensed hauler service, which every household in Champaign is required to have.
• Recycling — included free in that service on one-to-four unit residences in Champaign, at least weekly, unsorted. Plus Illini Recycling's free 24-hour drop-off at 420 Paul Avenue, and community drop-offs in Ogden, Homer and Philo.
• Yard waste — the City's free seasonal collection within the bag and branch rules, or the Landscape Recycling Center, 1210 E. University Avenue, Urbana, (217) 344-5323, year round for a fee.
• Hazardous material — household chemical collection events and permanent facilities. Never a container, never a drain.
• Scrap metal — positive value and its own route.
• Asbestos — a licensed abatement contractor, never a container.
• Tires — a tire retailer or a county collection event.

Treated timber and landscape ties

A distinction that costs people money on nearly every outdoor project.

Clean untreated wood and brush is one thing. Treated timber is another entirely — pressure-treated lumber, painted or stained wood, laminated products and anything with a finish. Essentially all exterior wood is treated, so a "wood" load from a deck or fence demolition is almost never a clean wood load.

Landscape ties are the local version of this. Extremely common in gardens here, heavily treated, and very heavy. They belong in a container and were never yard waste.

Same for fence panels and posts, painted or not, and anything with hardware still attached. And in this county, add old fence wire — it fouls processing equipment and is worth pulling out as scrap.

⚠️ Soil, sod and rock

The single most common source of an unexpected charge.

Champaign County sits on deep black prairie soil, and it is as heavy as material gets. A 10 yard part-filled with soil hits its weight allowance while it still looks half empty.

• Tell us at booking. It changes the container we bring and the price we quote.
• Keep it separate. Clean fill has a different route from mixed waste.
• Root balls carry a lot of soil — knock it off where you can before loading.
• Contaminated soil is prohibited outright — that is a different thing from clean fill.

A pre-load checklist

• Walk the garage, basement, shed and every rental unit before anything moves
• ⚠️ Find every mini-fridge, fridge, freezer and air conditioner — refrigerant needs professional evacuation
• Check specifically for pesticides, herbicides and farm chemicals in outbuildings
• Check for batteries: power tools, garden equipment, vapes, power banks
• Pull out propane cylinders and aerosols, including "empty" ones
• Set aside bagged leaves for the seasonal collection if it is running
• Put the cardboard in the recycling you already pay for
• Drain anything holding liquid, including the water heater
• Put tires aside — they are not accepted
• Decide whether your wood is clean or treated — and keep them apart
• Tell us about soil, sod or rock before we bring the container
• Pull the scrap metal — it has real value
• In a pre-1980 building, test before you tear out insulation, tile or textured ceilings
• Load flat and heavy first, light material low, and stop at the rail