Landfill and transfer station fees
Transfer station fees: what a small load really pays
Choose a vehicle and a weight. The tool ranks every public schedule we read for that load, from the cheapest to the most expensive.
Independent site, not a waste hauler or a landfill operator.
A small load: the minimum charge decides
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Cheapest schedule for this load
$0
| 27th Avenue and North Gateway transfer stations (Phoenix) | $0 (free resident load) |
| Washington County landfill (St. George) | $0 (free resident load) |
| Trail Ridge Landfill (Jacksonville) | $1 |
| Middle of the list | $15, Olinda Alpha and Prima Deshecha landfills (Orange County, south of LA) |
| Most expensive of 24 | $75, Miramar Landfill (San Diego) |
Resident rates, trash only. Schedules read on November 7, 2026.
Transfer station fees for a household load are set mostly by the minimum charge, because a car or a pickup of trash rarely weighs more than the few hundred pounds that the minimum covers. On schedules read on November 7, 2026, Seattle’s two city stations charge $37, which covers up to 420 lbs, and $174 a ton above it; the King County stations around the city charge $40.25 per vehicle and $243.38 a ton. Fairfax County in Virginia sets three minimums by size of vehicle, from $39 to $98, and also prices a few bags without weighing the car. A transfer station is not a landfill: waste is tipped on a floor, reloaded and hauled to a distant landfill, which is why its rates are higher than the gate of a landfill in the same region.
Fee schedules read and sums checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the fees are read and priced
A car with 150 lbs of trash, at every site
The smallest load a household brings: a few bags and a broken chair in the back of a car. Here is what each schedule charges for it, resident rate, cheapest first.
| Site | Area | Type | Fee | Rule applied |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27th Avenue and North Gateway transfer stations | Phoenix | Transfer station | $0 | Resident allowance: Phoenix residents who pay for full city trash service: one load up to a ton, once a month, free |
| Washington County landfill | St. George | Landfill | $0 | Resident allowance: Washington County residents: one load under a ton a month, free |
| Trail Ridge Landfill | Jacksonville | Landfill | $1 | first 500 lbs (residential rate listed by the city) |
| South Wake Landfill | Raleigh | Landfill | $2.78 | 0.07 tons at $37 a ton |
| McCommas Bluff Landfill | Dallas | Landfill | $3.73 | 0.07 tons at $49.78 a ton ($45.78 + $4 in added fees) |
| Franklin County Sanitary Landfill | Columbus | Landfill | $5 | Minimum charge $5, the least any load pays |
| Broome County Landfill | Binghamton | Landfill | $5 | Minimum charge $5, the least any load pays |
| North Dade and South Dade landfills, Resources Recovery Facility | Miami | Landfill | $8.96 | 0.07 tons at $119.51 a ton |
| Orange County Landfill, Porter and McLeod Road transfer stations | Orlando | Landfill | $10 | Minimum charge $10, the least any load pays |
| Kiefer Landfill | Sacramento | Landfill | $10 | Flat fee for this vehicle, whatever the weight |
| North Area Recovery Station | Sacramento | Transfer station | $10 | Flat fee for this vehicle, whatever the weight |
| County landfills and transfer stations | Riverside–San Bernardino | Landfill | $13.71 | up to 300 lbs of ordinary residential waste |
| Olinda Alpha and Prima Deshecha landfills | Orange County, south of LA | Landfill | $15 | Flat fee for this vehicle under 360 lbs; heavier loads are weighed |
| Alcoa/Maryville/Blount County Sanitary Landfill | Knoxville | Landfill | $15 | Minimum charge $15, the least any load pays (covers up to 500 lbs) |
| Badlands, Blythe, Lamb Canyon and El Sobrante landfills | Riverside–San Bernardino | Landfill | $15.70 | Flat fee for this vehicle, whatever the weight |
| Greater El Paso Landfill | El Paso | Landfill | from $16 | per truckload under one ton ("fees begin at") |
| Seminole Road Landfill | Atlanta | Landfill | $16.50 | Weight band up to 250 lbs |
| Salt Lake Valley Landfill | Salt Lake City | Landfill | $17 | Flat fee for this vehicle, whatever the weight |
| Los Reales Sustainability Campus | Tucson | Landfill | $20 | resident bringing their own load, loads of 2,000 lbs or less |
| Larimer County Landfill | Fort Collins | Landfill | $20 | Flat fee for this vehicle, whatever the weight |
| North and South transfer stations | Seattle | Transfer station | $37 | Minimum charge $37, the least any load pays (covers up to 420 lbs) |
| I-66 Transfer Station and I-95 Landfill Complex | Fairfax (DC area) | Transfer station | $39 | Minimum charge $39, the least any load pays |
| King County transfer stations | Seattle | Transfer station | $40.25 | Minimum charge $40.25, the least any load pays |
| Miramar Landfill | San Diego | Landfill | $75 | Flat fee for this vehicle, whatever the weight |
Three rules produce these figures. A prorated rate with a small minimum, as in Columbus or Binghamton, makes a light load almost free. A flat fee per vehicle, as in Salt Lake County or Riverside County, charges the same whatever the weight. A high minimum, as in the Seattle area, charges a light load the same as a medium one. Phoenix and Washington County in Utah charge their residents nothing for a monthly load under a ton.
Transfer station or landfill
Large cities have few landfills left inside their limits, so the public sites closest to most homes are transfer stations. Waste unloaded there is pushed onto a tipping floor, loaded into bigger trucks, containers or rail cars and carried to a landfill or another disposal plant further away. That second trip shows in the rate. Where a county runs both kinds of site, as Orange County in Florida and Fairfax County in Virginia do, the schedules name both, and the landfill gate is often the cheaper of the two for the same load, at the cost of a longer drive.
Rates move on fixed dates. King County has announced that its minimum goes to $43.50 and its rate to $264.01 a ton on January 1, 2027, in its own announcement. The per-ton table gives the effective date of every schedule.