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What junk haulers can’t take in Tucson, and where it goes instead
A hauler’s truck ends at the Los Reales gate, and the gate has a list. Everything on it needs a different address, and most of those addresses are on the same campus.
Why the refused list is the landfill’s, not the hauler’s
The City of Tucson’s Los Reales Sustainability Campus refuses explosives and ammunition, hazardous waste, PCBs, radioactive material, bulk liquids, intact automobiles, lead-acid batteries and waste oil, and anything else prohibited by state or federal law. Brush and Bulky, the free curbside pickup inside the city, adds gas cylinders, household hazardous waste, and televisions and monitors to its own refusals. A hauler who says he takes everything is describing what he loads, not what the gate accepts; the difference ends up in a wash or at the bottom of a load somebody else pays to sort. The honest version is a hauler who walks the garage with you, separates the items below, and tells you which of them he will run to the right place for a fee and which he will leave for you.
What junk haulers can’t take in Tucson: the list, and the place for each
Paint, stain, thinner and solvents. To the Household Hazardous Waste drop-off at Los Reales, 5300 E. Los Reales Road: Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed the second Saturday of most months. Up to 25 gallons of paint per visit. Free with a City of Tucson address; $15 with a driver’s license or utility bill from Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita or unincorporated Pima County. Dried paint and empty cans go in the regular trash.
Motor oil, coolant, brake fluid and other automotive fluids. HHW, up to 10 gallons per visit, in a container you leave behind. Engine oil filters are accepted too. The landfill refuses waste oil outright.
Pesticides, pool chemicals, drain openers, cleaning products, hobby chemicals and anything labeled acid, flammable, caustic, poison, toxic, danger or warning. HHW.
Propane cylinders. HHW accepts them; commercial gas cylinders are refused there and everywhere else on this list. Brush and Bulky refuses all compressed gas cylinders.
Car batteries. HHW takes auto batteries; the landfill refuses lead-acid. Rechargeable, lithium and button batteries go to HHW too, sorted by type. Ordinary alkaline batteries go in the household trash — the city says so.
Fluorescent tubes and bulbs, mercury thermostats. HHW.
Electronics. HHW accepts TVs, laptops, phones, cameras, game controllers, speakers, computer equipment and printer cartridges. It does not accept CRT tube monitors, so an old console television needs a phone call first. Brush and Bulky refuses televisions and monitors entirely. Marana households can also use the Town’s spring recycle event, which took working and non-working electronics in 2025.
Refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners: allowed, but with a rule
These are the one category a hauler can take that still needs handling. The EPA’s Section 608 rules cover equipment that enters the waste stream with its refrigerant charge intact — household refrigerators and freezers and window air conditioners are the named examples — and make the final person in the disposal chain, such as the landfill owner or a scrap recycler, responsible for ensuring the refrigerant is recovered before final disposal, using recovery equipment that meets the servicing standard. Los Reales charges $20 per appliance designed to use refrigerant to cover it. The hauler pays it and passes it on. What nobody should do is cut the lines to get a fridge through a door; that vents the charge the rule exists to capture. Take the doors off instead. Working units are worth a call to the HabiStore, St. Vincent de Paul or Gospel Rescue Mission first.
Tires: allowed everywhere, priced everywhere
Los Reales takes passenger tires at $5 each, ten per load. Brush and Bulky takes up to five auto tires at the curb inside the city. Pima County’s waste tire collection site at 5301 W. Ina Road, west of I-10, is open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and charges $30 a ton with a $15 minimum for standard tires, $150 a ton for off-road tires, and $75 extra per load if the tires are still on rims. A hauler will take tires; he will also charge for them, because every gate does.
The things nobody on this page takes
Medications. HHW does not accept medical waste, sharps, syringes or old medications. Oro Valley Police collect pills and powders in their original containers at scheduled Dispose-A-Med events — not liquids, creams, inhalers or syringes, and not at the station. Ask your pharmacy or police department elsewhere in the county; do not put a cabinet of prescriptions in a junk load.
Ammunition and explosives. Refused by the landfill and by HHW. A law-enforcement agency is the only right answer.
Asbestos. Los Reales does not list it. The WM Marana Regional Landfill on Avra Valley Road lists friable and non-friable asbestos among the wastes it accepts, but the removal is a licensed abatement job and the material has to arrive packaged and documented. A junk hauler should not touch suspect floor tile, mastic, popcorn ceiling or duct wrap from a house built before about 1980. Construction and remodel debris covers it.
Business and commercial waste. HHW is a household program and refuses commercial waste and gas cylinders; a business needs the city’s small-business assistance program or a licensed hazardous-waste contractor.
How to run the hazardous-waste trip in one go
- Box everything from the list above in one place, upright, lids on, labels visible.
- Keep paint under 25 gallons and automotive fluids under 10 gallons per visit; split a bigger garage across two Saturdays.
- Bring a driver’s license or a current utility bill — required for proof of residency, and it sets whether you pay $0 or $15.
- Go Thursday, Friday or Saturday between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m., and not the second Saturday of the month outside summer.
- Leave the automotive-fluid container behind; they keep it.
- Ask about the CRT monitor before you load it.
The full accepted list is on the city’s What Can I Bring to HHW page and on Know Where to Throw. Everything left in the garage after that trip is a junk hauler’s job, priced by the truck. Garage and storage unit cleanouts is the companion page.
Questions this guide gets asked
Can a hauler take the paint if I pay extra? He can take it to HHW for you, inside its hours, and some will for a fee. He cannot take it to the landfill. Ask which he means.
Is the county’s $10 HHW fee still right? Pima County’s page says $10; the City of Tucson, which runs the program, says $15. Bring $15.
What about the propane tank that is still full? Keep it, give it to a neighbor, or exchange it at a retailer. HHW will take it if you want it gone.
Do haulers take mattresses? Yes. Mattresses are accepted at Los Reales; the refusal comes from donation centers, not the landfill.