What Can and Can’t Be Thrown Into a Rental Dumpster
The itch to start spring cleaning gets stronger with every additional minute of sunlight. Take a quick survey of your basement, attic, shed, and garage to see what’s in there that you’d like to toss. Make note of what can and can’t be thrown into a rental dumpster and prepare alternate dumping strategies.
Below are a few other preliminaries.
Check Local Regulations
Our list of what can and can’t be thrown into a rental dumpster is based on common practices. Your county, city, or dumpster rental service may have different rules. Check with your local solid waste agency to see what items are acceptable, and which aren’t.
Separate Items You Can Donate or Recycle
One person’s junk is another person’s treasure. If you have clean, functional items you don’t want anymore, consider donating them. Recyclable what you can.
Ask Your Dumpster Rental Service
Get a list of acceptable and unacceptable items from your rental service and seek advice about the size dumpster you’ll need for your project. It’s unlikely a residential cleanout would need a 40-yard roll-off dumpster (“yard” refers to cubic yards). You’ll probably get along fine with a 20-yard size dumpster.
Prohibited Items
Most dumpster rental companies, municipalities and county waste agencies prohibit the following items in dumpsters:
Electronics: TVs, phones, laptops, tablets, and similar electronic items contain hazardous materials. Some of the materials in these items can be recycled, but they must go to a specialized recycling facility. Look for announcements of special electronics collection days.
Household chemicals: Don’t put gasoline, motor oil, lubricants, solvents, oil-based paints, pesticides, fertilizers, or household chemicals in a dumpster. Check with local authorities for the next hazardous waste collection day, or to make an appointment to drop these items off at an authorized facility. Refrigerators and other appliances that contain refrigerants must be drained before disposal. Refrigerants are hazardous, and draining appliances is best left to professionals.
Tires: Tires can damage landfill equipment. The inner linings in tires trap methane gas. This causes tires to rise and shift in the landfill, potentially damaging protective features intended to reduce methane release.
Non-alkaline batteries: Don’t put lithium-ion batteries in a dumpster. Never put lead acid car or lawn mower batteries in a dumpster. These contain extremely toxic materials and create the risk of explosion.
Biohazards: Generally, medical waste requires special disposal by a medical waste disposal specialist. Needles, items soaked in body fluids, dialysis waste, and prescription drugs, unused or expired, are prohibited. Animal carcasses are also prohibited. Call a veterinary service for disposal of pets or other animals that have passed.
Food waste: this may or may not be prohibited, but it’s just a bad idea to throw food waste into an open-top dumpster. Your driveway will become a smorgasbord for critters you won’t want scurrying all over your property.
We hope this general information helps you get ready for a really satisfying spring cleaning season!