A mixed bag becomes the whole story
Staff can only price and place what they can see. If one bag holds food waste, a handful of wire, and a broken tile, the load looks mixed even when the rest of the truck is tidy. Many sites treat the whole visit by the material that is hardest to handle. There is no national fee for that choice. Read the sheet at the site you are using, or ask before you leave home. Do not invent a number from another town. Mark bags before they go in the truck. A strip of tape, a different color, or a separate corner of the box is enough. Once the bags are buried, the mark does not help you.
Three groups are enough for most cleanouts
Household trash, metal you were told to separate, and anything you might still donate should not share a bag. Donation pieces stay whole, dry, and easy to reach if a charity actually agreed to take them. Do not crush them under wet yard waste. Metal at the door can go to a metal pile if that site has one. Trash at the door goes to the trash bay. If you are unsure which group a piece belongs in, call and ask before you tape the bag shut. Gasoline, solvents, and pool chemicals are not a fourth bag in the truck. They go to household hazardous waste. Do not dump, burn, or evaporate them.
Sort on the driveway, not on the floor
The stall is a traffic lane. Opening bags there to re-decide the contents holds up the trucks behind you. Do the sorting where you loaded, with time to pull a battery or a paint can back out. Liquid paint does not get rinsed into a storm drain to empty the can. Ask the local program how they want paint handled. Dried latex is a different question from liquid paint, and only the site or the program can say which they take. Keep sharps in an approved container and medicine in a take-back, even if both were in the same bathroom drawer as ordinary trash. Then load the marked bags in the order you will unload them.
Before you go
- Split trash, metal, and possible donations into marked groups.
- Keep gasoline, solvents, and pool chemicals out for hazardous waste.
- Load each group so the first stop sits at the door.
- Ask the site how a mixed bag is handled before you blend piles.
Taping every bag shut the same way and then sorting them on the tipping floor.
Questions people ask
Do I need special colored bags?
No. A strip of tape or a separate stack is enough if you can tell the groups apart at a glance. The mark has to survive being shoved against other bags. Color helps only when you actually keep the materials apart. A colored bag full of mixed junk is still a mixed bag.
Will the site open my bags?
Some crews spot-check. Pack as if they will. A battery, a cylinder, or a can of solvent inside a trash bag can change where the load is allowed to go. Pull those items before you leave, and ask the attendant if you find one while unloading.
Search Dumpmapper by ZIP code or city, then call the site before you load the truck. Hours and accepted materials change.