City services

What Beaumont City Collection Will and Will Not Take

Beaumont gives residents an unusually good deal — weekly heavy trash and free landfill disposal. Knowing exactly where it stops tells you when you need a container.

Weekly heavy trash, not monthly

We are a dumpster company, so this may be an odd thing to lead with: for a lot of household jobs in Beaumont you should not rent a container at all.

Weekly is genuinely generous by the standards of most cities we work in, and it means a slow, staged clear-out of furniture and appliances can be done for nothing. If you are not in a hurry, use it.

If you need a hand, there is special assistance available for seniors and disabled residents who cannot get trash to the curb, and the service line is (409) 842-1483.

What heavy trash will not take

This is the part that sends people to us, and it is worth reading in full. Excluded from regular collection:

Read that list against a renovation and you will see the problem. A bathroom gut produces plaster, tile and lumber. A re-roof produces shingles. A window replacement produces siding and insulation. A patio removal produces brick and sand. None of it is a heavy trash item.

That is the single clearest line between what the city does and what a container is for.

How to stack it so it gets collected

The placement rules are specific and crews do enforce them:

• Material must be stacked neatly in separate piles
• Not under low overhead utility lines or trees — the grapple truck needs overhead room
• Not on top of water lines or near water meters
• On a corner lot, stack as far from the intersection as possible while staying on your own property, so drivers have a clear unobstructed view

Separate piles is the one people miss. Brush in one pile, furniture in another, is not fussiness — they go to different places.

The cart rules

For the wheeled cart:

• Nothing larger or longer than six inches — no limbs, concrete, furniture or lumber. It damages the trucks. That material goes out for heavy trash instead.
• All garbage inside the container with the lid closed.
• One extra bag may be placed on top — no boxes. Nothing on the ground can be picked up.
• Collection begins at 7:00 AM, and city ordinance requires the container to be removed by 8:00 PM the same day.

Need more capacity? Additional containers can be requested for a one-time $20.00 delivery fee added to your water bill, delivered within five working days.

Yard waste and the measurement rules

Yard waste is a genuinely separate stream here, with its own specific measurements:

• Limbs and branches up to 8 feet go curbside for heavy trash. Limbs must be cut to a maximum 8 foot length.
• Tree trunks larger than 12 inches in diameter must be cut to a maximum of 2 feet in length.
• Yard waste is prohibited from the wheeled container.
• The ordinance defines yard waste as clean woody vegetative material not greater than six inches in diameter — and it explicitly excludes stumps, roots and shrubs with intact root balls.

There are also conditions on the free collection that catch people out. The property must be in a residential zone, not larger than one-half acre, the material must come from normal vegetation maintenance, the property must not be being cleared for construction, the trimmings must not come from selling usable timber, and the owner must live in a single-family residence in the city currently paying a solid waste fee.

And on the other side: tree surgeons, nurserymen and independent contractors must remove all trash from the premises they service. If you paid someone to take a tree down, that pile is theirs.

One benefit worth knowing: free compost for Beaumont residents on Saturdays, 7am to 1pm at the landfill.

Free disposal for residents who self-haul

The most valuable thing the city offers, and plenty of people do not know about it.

Take proof. A trailer and two trips will clear a lot of a garage for nothing.

The limits are equally clear. Contractors — the city names roofers, lawn services and tree trimmers — are charged. Businesses are charged regardless of who hauls the material. And it applies to single-family residences, not commercial property or apartments.

The landfill, and who it is for

• Beaumont Municipal Landfill, 5895 Lafin Road — (409) 842-5686
• Monday to Friday 7:00am to 4:00pm
• Saturday 7:00am to 1:00pm
• Residential use only
• Closed on US federal holidays. All other holidays are regular working days for collections and the landfill.
• Yard waste cannot be buried — it goes to the compost area as directed by landfill staff.

The Solid Waste Department is at 4955 Lafin Road, (409) 842-1483; Public Works is on (409) 880-3725. For paint, solvents and garden chemicals, the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission runs regular household hazardous waste collection events for the region.

When a container is the right answer

• Any renovation or construction work. Building debris is excluded outright.
• Anything a contractor generated. Their load is chargeable and the landfill is closed to them.
• Clearing a lot for construction. The free yard-waste service explicitly does not cover it.
• Stumps and root balls, which are not yard waste under the ordinance.
• Property over half an acre, which falls outside the free yard-waste conditions.
• More volume than you can move in a few trailer loads, or when you need it gone now.
• Business, rental, apartment or commercial property.
• Any address outside the City of Beaumont — Nederland, Groves, Vidor, Lumberton and the rest have their own arrangements, and none of the above applies.

Call and describe what you are clearing. If the city services will handle it, we will say so — and if they genuinely will not, we will put you in the right size container.