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Los Reales landfill fees: what a self-haul really costs
The city publishes every fee at the gate. The part nobody publishes is what your Saturday and your truck are worth, and that is the number that decides it.
The Los Reales landfill fees, line by line
The Los Reales Sustainability Campus is the City of Tucson’s landfill, at 5300 E. Los Reales Road — south of Los Reales Road at Craycroft, reached by turning south on Craycroft off I-10. It is open to residential self-haulers as well as private and commercial haulers, Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sundays, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The published residential and self-hauler rates are:
- Covered load under 2,000 pounds: $18
- Any covered load over 2,000 pounds: $38 per ton
- Uncovered load: $10 added
- Tires: $5 each, passenger tires only, limit ten
- Appliances designed to use refrigerant: $20 per appliance
- Special handling: $120 per ton, $78 minimum
- Environmental fee: $2 on every load
Payment is by card or tap only — Visa, Mastercard, Discover, debit, Apple Pay — and no cash. Loads over 10,000 pounds need a deposit, which is not a homeowner problem.
What one pickup load actually costs
A half-ton pickup with a normal bed of household junk — a couch, a few boxes, a broken chair, some yard cuttings — weighs in under 2,000 pounds almost every time. That is $18 plus the $2 fee: $20. Forget the tarp and it is $30, and the tarp is not optional in any real sense; a load that sheds a cushion on I-10 is a citation and a hazard. Add a refrigerator and it is $40. Add four tires and it is $60.
Go over 2,000 pounds and the meter changes. A pickup bed of broken tile or concrete can weigh a ton and a half, which is $57 plus the fee. A full trailer of demolition debris at two tons is about $78. The scale house weighs the vehicle in and out, so the number is exact, and the receipt shows it — which is why asking a hauler for the receipt is the simplest audit of any quote.
The costs the fee sheet does not show
The drive. From midtown, Los Reales is a run down to the southeast side and back; from Oro Valley, Marana or Green Valley it is most of an hour each way with a loaded, covered truck. The truck. If you do not own one, a rental adds its own daily rate and a deposit, and the numbers above stop being cheap. The loading. Every item goes into the bed once at home and out of the bed once at the tipping face, which for a sleeper sofa is a two-person job twice. The sorting. Anything hazardous — paint, chemicals, propane, batteries, oil — is refused at the landfill and has to go to the Household Hazardous Waste drop-off on the same campus, which keeps different hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed the second Saturday of most months. A Tuesday self-haul with a can of paint in it is two trips.
And the things the landfill refuses outright: explosives and ammunition, hazardous waste, PCBs, radioactive material, bulk liquids, intact automobiles, lead-acid batteries and waste oil. None of that is going anywhere on a Saturday except back home.
Self-haul versus a hauler, honestly
The published ranges for a hauler in 2025 and 2026 put a few items to a quarter truck at $150 to $350, a half truck at $300 to $550 and a full truck at $600 to $900. The landfill fee inside those numbers is $20 to $80. Everything else is labor, fuel, insurance and the hauler’s time, and that is the trade you are weighing. Self-haul wins when you own a truck, the load is light and non-hazardous, you have help for the heavy end, and the Saturday is free. A hauler wins when there is no truck, the load is a house rather than a bed, there are stairs, the date is fixed, or the pile has paint and a propane tank in it and you would rather someone else made the second trip.
Inside the city limits there is a third option that costs nothing at all: Brush and Bulky, twice a year, up to 10 cubic yards at the curb. Brush and Bulky vs hiring a hauler covers when it is enough. The cost guide puts all four options side by side.
A self-haul checklist for Los Reales
- Pull out the hazardous items and plan an HHW trip on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday morning instead — free with a city address, $15 with a Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita or county one.
- Take tires off rims if you can; they are $5 each and limited to ten.
- Note each refrigerator, freezer or window unit; they are $20 apiece, and do not cut the lines to get them out.
- Tarp and strap the load. Uncovered is $10 more and dangerous.
- Bring a card. There is no cash lane.
- Keep the receipt. It is the weight, the fee and the proof.
‘Can I do junk removal by myself?’ The self-haul case, honestly
Yes, and for a lot of Tucson loads it is the right answer. The gate is open to residential self-haulers six days a week, the fee for a covered pickup load is $20, and nothing about the process needs a professional: you load, you tarp, you drive to Craycroft and I-10, you weigh in and out, you pay by card. Doing it by yourself works when the items are light enough for one person and a hand truck, the truck is yours or borrowed, the load is free of anything on the refused list, and you have a Saturday. It stops working at the sleeper sofa, the refrigerator, the third trip, the second-floor apartment, and the pile with paint cans in it that turns one drive into two. The published ranges for a hauler start at $150 for a few items; the question is whether the difference between that and $20 buys back a day you would rather have.
Questions this guide gets asked
Can anyone use Los Reales, or only city residents? The city’s rate page lists private haulers, commercial haulers and residential self-haulers, with no residency requirement stated for the landfill itself. The residency rule applies to the hazardous-waste drop-off on the same campus, which is free for city residents and $15 for everyone else in Pima County.
Does the landfill take mattresses and furniture? Yes — mattresses, furniture, rugs, green waste, pallets, concrete and asphalt, construction debris and even mobile homes are on the accepted list.
Is there a cheaper place for concrete and dirt? Usually. The Tank’s land reclamation and recycling sites on Speedway, Ina Road, Old Spanish Trail and Wilmot Road are built for inert material; call for their per-load rate.
What if my load is over 2,000 pounds by a little? Then it is priced at $38 per ton on the actual weight, not rounded up to a full ton — the scale is precise. A 2,400-pound load is about $46 plus the fee.