Rules

What Can and Cannot Go in a Dumpster: The Beaumont List

The accepted list is long and boring. The prohibited list is short, strictly enforced, and the reason loads occasionally get turned away. Here is both.

The short version

If it came out of a building, a yard or a household and it is solid, non-hazardous and not on fire, it can almost certainly go in the container. If it is liquid, toxic, pressurised, or contains asbestos or refrigerant, it cannot.

That covers about ninety-five percent of questions. The rest of this article is the other five percent, which is where the money and the headaches live.

What you can put in

Household and furniture

Sofas, armchairs, beds, mattresses and box springs, tables, wardrobes, bookcases, desks, carpets, rugs, curtains, clothing, linens, toys, books, paperwork, kitchenware, patio furniture, grills with the propane tank removed, exercise equipment and general clutter. No mattress surcharge on our containers.

Construction and renovation debris

Drywall, plaster, lath, timber, plywood and sheet goods, doors, windows, trim, kitchen cabinets, countertops, tiling, laminate and vinyl flooring, insulation, siding, soffit and fascia, guttering, fencing and deck timber, and general non-hazardous building material.

Worth stating plainly because the city will not take any of it: building debris, lumber, shingles, siding, insulation, brick, dirt, plaster, sand, gravel, scrap metal and wire are all excluded from heavy trash collection. A container is the route.

Roofing

Asphalt shingle in both three-tab and architectural, metal panels, felt and synthetic underlayment, flashing, drip edge and roof decking. Weight is the constraint, not acceptability.

Heavy and inert material

Concrete, block, brick, pavers, stone, rubble and tile. All fine, all heavy — these belong in a 10 yard. Also on the city's excluded list, so a container is the only route.

Scrap metal

Ductwork, conduit, steel studs, railings, farm sheeting and fencing. Worth separating if there is enough of it, and again excluded from city heavy trash.

What is prohibited

• Liquids of any kind — paint, stains, varnish, thinners, solvents, oils and fuels
• Asbestos-containing material — common in pre-1980 floor tile, mastic and pipe lagging. Licensed abatement only
• Tyres
• Batteries of any kind
• Propane, gas and pressurised cylinders, including "empty" ones
• Refrigerant-charged equipment that has not been professionally evacuated
• Pesticides, herbicides and fertiliser
• Medical and infectious waste, including sharps
• Hot ashes or anything smouldering
• Contaminated soil
• Fluorescent tubes and older ballasts

Vegetation is a separate stream here

This is a genuine local rule rather than a preference, and it is worth knowing.

Practically, that means clean brush and clean general debris genuinely are two different loads. If you mix them, the whole container is handled as mixed waste and the vegetation loses its cheaper route.

On a big clearance, keeping brush in its own container is usually the single largest saving available. And there is a benefit on the other side too: the city gives Beaumont residents free compost on Saturdays, 7am to 1pm, which is worth knowing if you are landscaping afterwards.

The six-inch rules

Two separate six-inch rules operate in this city and people mix them up constantly.

In the wheeled cart: nothing larger or longer than six inches — no limbs, concrete, furniture or lumber. It damages the collection trucks. That material goes out for heavy trash instead.

For yard waste: the ordinance defines it as clean woody vegetative material not greater than six inches in diameter, and explicitly excludes stumps, roots and shrubs with intact root balls.

So a stump is not yard waste, a root ball is not yard waste, and anything woody over six inches across is outside the definition entirely. That is exactly the point where people call us.

The grey areas people ask about

Paint cans

Liquid paint is prohibited. Dried-out latex paint is generally acceptable — open the can and let it harden, with cat litter or sand to speed it up. Oil-based paint is hazardous wet or dry, and the regional planning commission runs household hazardous waste collection events for exactly this.

Treated timber

Acceptable in a mixed load, not in a clean-wood container. Fence and deck timber here is nearly always treated.

Stumps and root balls

Fine in our containers. Not yard waste under the city definition, and heavy because of the soil that comes with them — shake the roots out where you can.

Appliances with a compressor

Fridges, freezers and window air conditioning units need the refrigerant professionally evacuated first. In a Gulf Coast summer these fail regularly, so it comes up often.

Anything from a contractor

Straightforward: it is theirs to remove. The city ordinance is explicit that nurserymen, tree surgeons and anyone trimming as an independent contractor shall remove all trash from the premises they service.

Where the rest has to go

A pre-load checklist

• Walk the pile and pull out anything liquid, pressurised or chemical
• Check the garage for propane cylinders and old fuel cans
• Check any appliance with a compressor for refrigerant
• If the building predates 1980 and you are disturbing floor tile, mastic or pipe insulation, stop and get it tested
• Keep clean brush separate — it has a different route and mixing it loses that
• Set aside scrap metal if there is enough to be worth it
• Shake the soil off root balls before they go in
• Load flat and heavy first, bulky on top, and stop at the rail