Local Rules

The County Landfill, and What Illinois Law Lets It Take

It accepts asbestos, which most landfills will not. It cannot accept your old fridge, which most people assume it can.

The facility down the road

The Upper Rock Island County Landfill sits at 17201 20th Avenue North, East Moline — about seven minutes from our yard. It is the regional disposal facility for this county, and having it inside our own service area is a genuine commercial advantage that shows up in what we can quote.

Hours are Monday to Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. — worth noting that it is closed at weekends, which shapes when a self-haul is realistic. Call (309) 496-2396 for current pricing; rates change and they are not published as a simple list.

What it accepts

Broadly, more than most people expect:

• Municipal solid waste
• Demolition and construction debris — the main reason our containers go there
• Asbestos — genuinely unusual, and covered below
• Non-hazardous special waste — industrial process waste, contaminated soils — on a pre-approval basis

There is also a Materials Recycling Facility on site accepting fiber and commingled recyclables on a fee basis, and a compost yard for green waste.

For a renovation, the important line is the second one. Construction and demolition debris has a proper local destination, seven minutes away, which is not true in every market we could compare this one to.

⚠️ Four things Illinois law bars outright

This is the part worth committing to memory, because it is state law rather than a site policy — no phone call and no fee gets round it.

Unpacking each, because each catches somebody:

Hazardous waste. Paint, solvents, pesticides, fuel. None of it. That is precisely why the City sends you across the river to the Scott Area facilities instead.

Whole tires. Not the landfill, and not our containers either. Rock Island County residents get free curbside tire collection — up to 10 passenger tires a year on 877-934-5378 — which is the right answer and costs nothing.

White goods. Fridges, freezers, washers, dryers, ranges. Again, Rock Island County residents get free curbside appliance collection, up to 4 a year, on the same number.

Free liquids. Anything that would pour if the container tipped. This is the one people find counter-intuitive: a half-full paint tin is barred even though dried paint in an open can is generally fine, and a water heater still holding water needs draining first.

Because that restriction applies to the landfill, it applies to our containers too. We cannot take to a facility what the facility is not allowed to accept.

Asbestos, and why that matters here

The landfill does accept asbestos, which is unusual and genuinely useful in this market.

It matters because of the age of the housing. The older neighborhoods of Rock Island, Moline and the river villages have a great deal of pre-1980 building stock, and in any building of that age you should have the following tested before demolition starts:

• Floor tile and the adhesive under it
• Pipe lagging and duct insulation
• Siding and roofing felt
• Textured ceilings
• Boiler and furnace insulation — common in houses of this vintage

Acceptance at the landfill is not the same as it being fine to put in a roll-off. Asbestos requires proper handling, packaging and usually a licensed abatement contractor, and it never goes in a general container. Call the landfill and speak to them before you plan anything around it.

Testing first costs a fraction of what discovering it mid-demolition costs. It is the single most expensive thing to get wrong on an older renovation here.

The compost yard and the 3-inch grinder

The site runs a compost facility taking grass clippings, brush and tree limbs.

One specification explains a rule that otherwise looks arbitrary: the grinder has a 3 inch diameter capability. That is why the City's curbside brush rule caps branches at 4 inches and why thicker wood is left behind — it physically cannot go through the green processing route.

So trunk sections, split rounds and stumps are not a green waste problem to be solved with a bigger pile. They are general waste, and they belong in a container or with a tree service that hauls as part of the job.

The Moline resident drop-off

Moline residents can take refuse or yard waste directly to the drop-off site with proof of Moline residency, for a per-load fee of roughly $25 to $29 per pickup-truck-size load plus tax.

We give that as a range on purpose — the City publishes slightly different figures on different pages, so confirm the current rate before you load up.

Honest guidance on when to use it:

• One load, and you have a pickup: drive it out. Cheaper than anything we can offer.
• Two or three loads: a close call. Count the fuel, the fees and the hours.
• More than that, or you are working weekdays: the site closes at 4 p.m. and shuts at weekends, which is usually what decides it.
• Heavy material: be careful. An overloaded pickup or trailer on the interstate is a real hazard, and shingles and masonry get heavy faster than they look.

Special waste and pre-approval

Non-hazardous special waste — industrial process waste, contaminated soils — is accepted on a pre-approval basis.

Two practical implications:

• Contaminated soil is not a same-day problem. If a site investigation has flagged something, the approval process needs starting well before the excavator arrives.
• Commercial and industrial waste streams need a conversation, not an assumption. If your process generates anything unusual, call the landfill before you plan disposal around a container.

We would rather have that conversation at quoting stage than have a load rejected at the gate, which costs everybody a day.

Where a container still makes sense

• Volume. A renovation is many trips, and the site is closed at weekends and after 4 p.m.
• Weight. Shingles, tile and masonry are far heavier than a domestic trailer should carry.
• Schedule. A container sits on the drive until you are done rather than requiring you to stop and drive.
• Sorting. We separate streams as part of the job, which is where the savings are.
• Job sites. A crew loading as they work is faster than anybody hauling loads out.
• The barred four. Hazardous waste, whole tires, white goods and free liquids need their own routes regardless — and every one of those routes is free locally.