Short answer
How do I get rid of old tires for free in East Texas?
The main free route is a county amnesty or cleanup collection event, which counties and cities run from time to time. They are free when they happen, and the way to catch one is to watch your county office's announcements. Outside of an event, plan on paying a fee at a facility that accepts tires, and call ahead before you load up.
You have three legal ways to get rid of old tires in East Texas: drop them at a county amnesty or cleanup collection event, haul them to a disposal facility that accepts tires (call first, and expect a fee), or, for a large pile, hire a scrap tire transporter registered with TCEQ. Those are the routes the state's environmental agency lays out for residents, and this guide walks each one in plain English.
Tires are their own category of junk. Texas regulates scrap tires separately from regular household waste, most facilities either charge for them one at a time or turn them away at the gate, and tossing them in a ditch or a creek bottom is a criminal offense that gets more expensive fast.
So before that old set behind the barn spends another five years collecting rainwater, here is what the rules actually say, what the free options look like, and what we can still haul off from around them.
Why won't the dump just take whole tires?
Because Texas makes facilities process them first. Under TCEQ's scrap tire rules (30 TAC Chapter 328), a landfill has to split, quarter, or shred a whole tire before it can be buried. That processing costs money, which is why most facilities charge per tire or refuse whole tires entirely.
That one rule explains almost everything frustrating about tire disposal. A tire is cheap to buy and stubborn to get rid of, because the moment it becomes waste it stops being a trash bag and becomes a regulated material with its own chapter of state rules.
The facility that takes it has to cut it up or shred it before burial, or route it to a processor that will, and that work gets passed along as a charge at the gate or a flat refusal to accept tires at all.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality runs the whole scrap tire program, from how tires are stored to who is allowed to haul them in quantity. If you want the rules straight from the source, TCEQ's scrap tire pages are the place to read. The practical takeaway for a regular household is simpler: no legitimate route treats a tire like ordinary trash, every legitimate route involves a small cost or a little planning, and every one of them beats what happens in the next section.
Is it illegal to dump old tires in Texas?
Yes. Dumped tires count as litter under Texas Health and Safety Code 365.012. Penalties start at a Class C misdemeanor and climb all the way to a state jail felony as the weight or volume of the dump goes up, and a repeat offense bumps the charge up a category.
Every county road in our part of the state has a low spot where somebody's old tires ended up, so this is worth saying plainly: the ditch is the one option on this page that can put you in front of a judge.
The illegal dumping statute, chapter 365 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, scales the charge with the size of the dump. A little is a misdemeanor with a fine. A trailer load can reach felony territory. Do it twice and the second charge starts a rung higher.
Beyond the legal risk, a dumped tire is just a bad neighbor. It sits in that creek bottom for decades, holds water after every rain, and raises mosquitoes all summer. And be careful about the guy who offers to make your tires disappear for a few bucks cash, because tires that disappear that way have a habit of reappearing in a ditch down the road. Stick to the routes below and the problem stays solved.
What are the legal ways to get rid of old tires?
Three routes work for a household: a county amnesty or cleanup collection event, hauling them yourself to a facility that accepts tires, or, for a big pile, a registered scrap tire transporter.
- County amnesty and cleanup events. Free when they happen. Watch your county's announcements.
- Haul them yourself to a facility that accepts tires. Call first and ask what they charge.
- Tires mixed in with other junk? We haul everything else, and the tires go by one of these routes.
- A property covered in tires? Ask TCEQ about registered scrap tire transporters for large quantities.
The amnesty events are the closest thing to free tire disposal that exists. Counties and cities run them now and then as cleanup collections, and the only way to catch one is to keep an eye on your county office's announcements. If your tires can wait in the barn a few more months, waiting for an event can save you the disposal cost entirely.
The registered-transporter route matters when the pile is genuinely big, the kind of thing you inherit when you buy rural acreage from someone who collected tires for thirty years. Moving scrap tires in quantity is its own regulated activity in Texas, so for a serious pile, start with a call to TCEQ or your county office and ask how they want it handled before anybody starts loading.
Can you take tires to the dump yourself in East Texas?
Sometimes. Some stations and landfills around here accept tires for a fee and some refuse them outright, and those policies change without notice. Always call the facility before you load a single tire, and ask what they charge and how many they will take from a resident.
You will notice we are deliberately naming no facility on this page as a place that takes tires. That is on purpose. Acceptance policies and fees shift constantly, and the surest way to waste a Saturday is to drive a load of tires to a gate that turned them away the month before. One phone call ahead of time settles it. Ask three things: do you take tires from residents, what does it cost, and is there a limit per visit.
If you are working out who to even call, our guide to where to dump junk in Trinity County covers the county offices that keep the current details, and our breakdown of the real cost of dumping junk yourself walks the full DIY math, from fuel to fees to the second trip. Tires follow the same logic as the rest of your junk: the gate fee is only part of what the trip costs you.
Can County Line haul off old tires?
Not right now. Hauling scrap tires for hire in Texas takes a TCEQ scrap tire transporter registration, which we do not hold. The rest of the pile is a different story.
Tires usually turn up in a garage, a barn or a shed full of other junk, and we haul all of that. Our load rates cover the space your stuff takes in the trailer: a single item is $95, a quarter load is $175, a half load is $325, three-quarters is $475, and a full load is $650.
Set the tires to one side and we price everything else. The number we quote on site is the number you pay, and you are free to walk if you do not like it.
We are based in Trinity, we run 7 days a week from 8 AM to 6 PM, and we answer our own phone. That coverage reaches Huntsville inside the free zone and stretches out to Lufkin at the edge of our range, where the trip fee applies and gets quoted before we roll.
If you are curious where the rest of it goes, we wrote up where your junk actually goes after it leaves your driveway.
Ready to make those tires somebody else's job?
Text or call (936) 259-3200 with a photo of the pile and we will send you a ballpark today. Payment is cash, check, or Cash App once the work is done, and the price is firm before we touch a thing. Grab a free quote, or see how we work around Trinity and the rest of our 50-mile stretch of East Texas.
Questions we hear a lot
The main free route is a county amnesty or cleanup collection event, which counties and cities run from time to time. They are free when they happen, and the way to catch one is to watch your county office's announcements. Outside of an event, plan on paying a fee at a facility that accepts tires, and call ahead before you load up.
Dumping them is. Tires left in a ditch, creek, or vacant lot count as litter under Texas Health and Safety Code 365.012, and the charge scales from a Class C misdemeanor up to a state jail felony depending on the weight or volume dumped. A repeat offense bumps the charge up a category. The legal routes are a collection event, a facility that accepts tires, or a hauler.
Sometimes, and always for a fee where they are accepted, because Texas requires landfills to split, quarter, or shred whole tires before burial. Some stations and landfills take tires from residents and some refuse them, and policies change. Call the facility first and ask whether they take tires, what they charge, and whether there is a limit per visit.
A scrap tire transporter registered with TCEQ, or your county at an amnesty or cleanup event. County Line Junk Disposal cannot take tires right now, because hauling scrap tires for hire in Texas needs that registration and we do not hold it. We can haul everything else off the same property: text a photo to (936) 259-3200 for a ballpark today.