Short answer
Does it cost money to throw things away at the dump?
Almost always, yes. Every landfill and transfer station around here charges a tipping fee based on your load's weight or size, with a flat minimum for small drop-offs. From Trinity, the Polk County Landfill charges $58.00 a ton and the Huntsville transfer station $101.30 a ton if you are outside the city limits. The Angelina County landfill in Lufkin charges loads from outside the county $12.50 a cubic yard, plus $5.00 more a yard unless it is your primary landfill. Freon appliances and mattresses cost extra on top. Those rates were rechecked on 5 October 2026, and the full table with hours and minimums is further up this page.
Where to dump it yourself near Trinity
Trinity County has no landfill and no transfer station of its own.
| Nearest places to take it | Drive | Gate rate |
|---|---|---|
| City of Huntsville Transfer StationClosest | 22 mi, 33 min | $80.34 / $101.30 a ton |
| Polk County Landfill | 42 mi, 61 min | $58.00 a ton |
| Angelina County Waste Management Center | 61 mi, 87 min | $12.50 a cu yd, plus $5 unless primary |
Rates confirmed October 2026. Full rates, hours and what catches people out.
Haul-Off Cost Estimator
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Dumping junk yourself in East Texas rarely costs nothing, and it almost never lands on one flat number. You pay in four parts: getting a truck or trailer to move the stuff, the gas and hours the trip burns, the tipping fee the county station or landfill charges to take it, and the surcharges added for problem items like a freon fridge or a stack of old tires.
Miss the load size and you make a second run, and the free way to clear a garage keeps climbing. Here is where each dollar actually goes, so you can judge whether to haul it to the dump yourself or hand it off.
Most pages about this will not give you a number. This one does. Every gate rate below came off the county or city's own fee sheet, and we checked all of them again on 5 October 2026. Rates do move, so call ahead before you load up, but at least you can leave the house knowing roughly what the scale house is going to say.
How much does it cost to dump junk yourself in East Texas?
From Trinity, between $58.00 and $101.30 a ton at the gates that weigh your load, and more than that at Lufkin, which charges anyone from outside Angelina County by the cubic yard. Which end you land on comes down to which direction you point the truck.
Polk County is the cheapest published gate for a Trinity load at $58.00 a ton, and it takes most of what leaves Trinity. The Huntsville transfer station is the dearest by the ton once you are outside the city limits, and for a lot of Walker County it is also the closest one. Angelina County's low ton rates are for its own county's customers; everyone else pays by the cubic yard. On top of the tonnage you are paying for the truck, the gas and your Saturday.
Small loads do not get weighed into that at all. Most sites drop a flat minimum on a light drop-off, so a few bags and a busted chair costs the minimum and nothing more. We laid out the full breakdown of hired-out pricing in what junk removal costs in Trinity County.
What each landfill and transfer station charges
Four facilities take almost everything that leaves this part of East Texas. Here is what each one charges at the gate, and the thing about each one that catches people out.
| Facility | County | Gate rate | What catches people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angelina County Waste Management Center, Lufkin | Angelina | $12.50 a cubic yard for loads from outside Angelina County. Angelina County customers pay $44.69 a ton uncompacted or $34.21 compacted | $5.00 more per cubic yard if you have not named it your primary landfill. Another $10.00 if the load turns up uncovered. |
| Polk County Landfill, Leggett | Polk | $58.00 a ton for commercial haulers, contractors and landlords | No dump trailers on Saturdays, hand unloading only. Last load in the gate is half an hour before closing. |
| City of Huntsville Transfer Station | Walker | $80.34 a ton inside the city limits, $101.30 a ton outside them, from 1 October 2026 | Minimum charge of $15.00 in the city and $20.00 outside it. Closed-toe shoes to get in the gate. |
| Crockett transfer station | Houston | Not published anywhere | The rate, the gate hours and the address are all unsettled. Waste Connections still lists the site at 962 FM 229, the state register shows that address cancelled, and the one active transfer station registration in Houston County is at 400 N Durrett Dr, city owned. Ring the City of Crockett before you hitch up. |
Sources, all read on 5 October 2026: Angelina County's commercial rate sheet effective 1 October 2026, the City of Huntsville FY 2026-27 fee schedule adopted 15 September 2026 and in force from 1 October, and Polk County's published landfill rates. The Crockett line was checked on 24 September 2026 against Waste Connections' own page, TCEQ's active facilities register and a City of Crockett franchise assignment, which is how we know it is unsettled rather than simply missing. Gate rates move, and a county can change one without much notice. Call ahead before you load up.
There is no dump in Trinity County
Trinity County has no landfill and no transfer station. Not a county one, not a city one, nothing. San Jacinto County has none either, and its citizen collection stations are for residents dropping off household trash, with private trash collecting services barred from the compactor stations by county rule.
So if you live in Trinity, Groveton, Apple Springs or anywhere else in the county, every load you haul yourself crosses a county line. From Trinity the Huntsville transfer station is the shortest run at about 22 miles, Crockett is about 29, the Polk County landfill near Leggett is about 42, and Lufkin is about 61. Those are driving miles on the real roads, checked September 2026, and they are worth knowing because the cheapest gate is not the closest one.
Here is how that actually trades off. Take a ton and a half out of Trinity. Huntsville is a 45-mile round trip and charges the out-of-city rate, so the gate is about $152. Polk is an 84-mile round trip at $58.00 a ton, so the gate is about $87. You save roughly $65 by driving an extra 40 miles and about another hour, which is worth it on a heavy load and not worth it on a light one.
On a small load the sums flip completely. Huntsville charges a $20 minimum from outside the city, so a few bags and a chair cost $20 and half the driving. There is no version of that where the longer trip to Leggett wins.
County by county detail is in our guides to Trinity County, Polk County and Lake Livingston, Houston County and Crockett, San Jacinto County and Lufkin and Angelina County.
Four things that catch people at the gate
The per-ton number is the part everybody looks up. These are the parts that change the bill after you are already in the queue.
- The minimum charge. A light load does not get priced by weight. Huntsville charges a $15.00 minimum inside the city and $20.00 outside it, so a few bags and a broken chair costs that and stops there.
- The primary landfill provision. Angelina County charges $5.00 more per cubic yard to anyone who has not designated it as their primary landfill. On anything like a regular run that adds up, and setting up an account is what fixes it.
- Tarp fees. Angelina adds $10.00 to a commercial load that arrives uncovered, $5.00 residential. Huntsville requires every load secured so nothing can blow out of it and says offenders may be reported to law enforcement. Throw a tarp over it.
- Saturday at Polk. The Polk County landfill takes no dump trailers on Saturdays, hand unloading only, and Saturday hours run 7am to 11am. If the plan was to hitch up on a Saturday morning and run it to Leggett, that plan needs another day.
One more worth knowing: at Polk the per-pound residential rate is for Polk County residents getting rid of waste from their own house, and they can ask for a utility bill to prove it. Everybody else pays the full commercial gate rate, and the attendants are not allowed to discount or negotiate it.
What a real load actually costs
Say you have got about a ton and a half of ordinary household junk. Furniture, boxes, a bit of yard debris. Nothing exotic. Here is that same load, on the same day, at three different gates.
- Angelina County, Lufkin: about $193 at $17.50 a cubic yard, since a ton and a half of household junk runs to roughly 11 cubic yards, and the longest drive of the four.
- Polk County, Leggett: about $87 at $58.00 a ton, and a 42-mile drive from Trinity.
- Huntsville, coming from outside the city: about $152 at $101.30 a ton.
Same junk, same day, and about $105 between the cheapest gate and the dearest one. The only variable is which road you took. Put the gas both ways and the hours back in and the gap opens up further than the table makes it look, because the cheapest gate is almost twice as far as Huntsville.
That is the whole calculation, and it is worth doing before you load up rather than after. Twenty minutes of looking at this decides whether the errand costs you sixty dollars or a hundred and fifty.
What is a tipping fee, and how do dumps charge for it?
A tipping fee is what a landfill or transfer station charges to accept your waste, named for the way a truck tips its bed to dump the load. Around East Texas most sites price it by weight, so much per ton, or by volume, so much per cubic yard or per load, and small drop-offs usually hit a flat minimum. A car trunk or a light trailer almost always lands at that minimum.
Weigh-by-the-ton sites run your truck across a scale going in and again coming out, and you pay on the difference. Volume-based stations eyeball the pile or go by a set rate for a pickup bed. Which one you deal with depends on where you live, so confirm with the office that runs your site before you load up.
The surcharges that add up fast
The base tip fee is only the start. Certain items cost extra almost everywhere in Texas, because they need special handling or are kept out of the regular landfill cell. These are the ones that catch people at the gate:
- Refrigerators, freezers, and window AC units, because the freon has to be recovered first
- Tires, charged per tire, since state rules keep whole tires out of landfills
- Mattresses and box springs, which many sites price separately or turn away
- Loose concrete, roofing, and heavy construction debris, usually weighed and priced high
None of those ride along free on the base fee, and a load carrying two of them can cost more in surcharges than the junk itself. Your county or city sets these amounts and changes them, so check the official site or call before you drive over. We handle the same items on our end, with a fridge or freezer at a $35 freon add-on and each mattress at $30, quoted before we lift a thing.
Where do you take it? Know your county first
Most of our service area is rural, unincorporated East Texas, and out here there is no curbside bulk or heavy-trash pickup at all. The county handles disposal through collection or convenience stations, or by contracting private haulers such as Republic Services or Waste Management, and where you go depends on which county you sit in: Trinity, Walker, Polk, San Jacinto, Houston, or Angelina. Each runs its own sites, hours, and rates, so the county solid-waste or precinct office is your source for current locations and fees.
Inside an incorporated city the setup changes. Huntsville, Livingston, Crockett, and Lufkin run their own solid-waste service, with a transfer station or drop-off site and their own residential-versus-contractor rules.
If you are in Huntsville, the city solid-waste department at huntsvilletx.gov carries the current location, hours, and what they accept. Call ahead wherever you are headed, because a wasted drive with a loaded truck is the priciest part of the whole job. For a look at what happens to the stuff after it leaves your hands, we wrote where your junk actually goes.
When it's worth hauling yourself, and when it pays to hand it off
Hauling it yourself makes sense when you already own the truck, the load is small and clean, the dump is close, and your Saturday is open. A few boxes and a busted chair? Run it over, pay the minimum, done. That is the answer, and we will say as much if you call us about a two-item job sitting ten minutes from a station.
It stops being cheap when the load is big, heavy, or full of surcharge items, when you have to rent a truck to move it, or when the nearest site is a long haul from a rural place off the highway. That is where our flat load-size pricing tends to win. One item is $95, a quarter load is $175, a half load is $325, three-quarters is $475, and a packed full load is $650, with the labor, the drive, and the dump fee all folded into that one number.
Travel is free within 25 miles of Trinity, and past that we add about $2 a mile out to the edge of our area, always quoted first. If you are still weighing a rental against a haul, junk removal versus dumpster rental breaks that one down too.
If you want the county-by-county specifics before you decide, start with our guides to where to dump junk in Huntsville and Trinity County. Weighing the dump run against just handing it off?
Text a photo of the pile to (936) 259-3200 and we will send back a ballpark today, no walkthrough needed. We answer our own phone, seven days a week from 8 in the morning to 6 in the evening, and we cover the whole area from Trinity out to the 50-mile edge. When you are ready, get a free quote and we will find a time that works.
Questions we hear a lot
Almost always, yes. Every landfill and transfer station around here charges a tipping fee based on your load's weight or size, with a flat minimum for small drop-offs. From Trinity, the Polk County Landfill charges $58.00 a ton and the Huntsville transfer station $101.30 a ton if you are outside the city limits. The Angelina County landfill in Lufkin charges loads from outside the county $12.50 a cubic yard, plus $5.00 more a yard unless it is your primary landfill. Freon appliances and mattresses cost extra on top. Those rates were rechecked on 5 October 2026, and the full table with hours and minimums is further up this page.
It is the charge a landfill or transfer station collects to take your waste, named for the way a truck tips its bed to unload. Sites price it by the ton or by the cubic yard, and small loads usually hit a flat minimum. Weigh-by-the-ton sites run you across a scale going in and out, then bill the difference.
If you own a truck and the dump is close, hauling small, clean loads yourself and paying the minimum tip fee is usually cheapest. Once the load gets big, heavy, or full of surcharge items like tires and freon fridges, or once you have to rent a truck, a flat load-size haul often costs less. Ours runs from $95 for one item up to $650 for a full load, dump fee included.
Texas rules and most sites keep whole tires, freon appliances, wet paint, chemicals, car batteries, and often mattresses out of the regular landfill or a dumpster. They need special handling or a separate fee. When we load a job, we sort those out ourselves, take fridges and freezers for a $35 freon add-on, and haul mattresses at $30 each.
No. Trinity County has no landfill and no transfer station, and neither does San Jacinto County. Every load leaving Trinity crosses a county line. From the town of Trinity the shortest drive is the City of Huntsville Transfer Station at about 22 miles, then Crockett at about 29 (call the City of Crockett first, since that site's details are unsettled), then the Polk County Landfill near Leggett at about 42. Driving miles, checked September 2026.
For a load from Trinity, the Polk County Landfill near Leggett at $58.00 a ton on the county's published rates. It is about 42 miles away, so on a small load the Huntsville transfer station, about 22 miles out with a $20.00 minimum, can come out ahead once the fuel and the hours are counted. The Angelina County landfill in Lufkin has lower ton rates, but only for Angelina County customers; loads from Trinity County pay $12.50 a cubic yard plus $5.00 a yard, which works out dearer for most loads. Rechecked October 2026, call ahead to verify.
$80.34 a ton inside the city limits and $101.30 a ton outside them, with a minimum charge of $15.00 in the city and $20.00 outside it. Those are the City of Huntsville FY 2026-27 rates, adopted 15 September 2026 and in force from 1 October 2026. The number there is (936) 294-5712 if you want to check before you drive over.
No. Polk County takes no dump trailers on Saturdays, hand unloading only. Saturday hours run 7am to 11am and the last load into the gate is half an hour before closing. Weekdays the landfill is open 7am to 4pm. Confirmed September 2026.