Landfill Tipping Fees by State

What are the key landfill tipping fee statistics?

The strongest figures are listed first, and every line names its year, scope, qualifier, and primary source. The ★ symbol means the claim was read directly against a current code, issuing-agency page, or official fee schedule on July 23, 2026.

1. 1
   Verified direct per-ton state landfill charges span 36.4× in Edition 1, from $0.36 in Michigan to $13.097 in Wisconsin. The comparison covers 13 states with a directly comparable per-ton headline amount and excludes Minnesota's mixed-unit structure. ★ (Michigan Compiled Laws § 324.11525a; Wisconsin DNR fee schedule effective January 1, 2026)
2. 2
   Wisconsin charges $13.097 per ton for Category 1 municipal solid waste effective January 1, 2026. The total is $7.00 recycling, $5.70 environmental repair, $0.25 licensing surcharge, $0.10 groundwater, $0.04 well compensation, and $0.007 siting board. ★ (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)
3. 3
   Four West Virginia statewide statutes create a verified gross stack of $8.25 per ton before the landfill-closure set-aside deduction and statutory exemptions. The components are $2.75 under § 22-15-11, $2.50 under § 22-16-4, $2.00 under § 22-15A-19, and $1.00 under § 22C-4-30. ★ (West Virginia Code, current amounts as of July 23, 2026)
4. 4
   Pennsylvania's ordinary baseline statutory landfill stack is $7.50 per ton before host-fee credits, written agreements, and municipal-owner exceptions. It combines DEP's $6.25 state stack, the $1.00 host municipality benefit, and the $0.25 site-specific postclosure trust payment. ★ (Pennsylvania DEP; Act 101 of 1988 §§ 1108 and 1301)
5. 5
   Minnesota charges $6.66 per ton at weighed metropolitan mixed-MSW landfills, but it does not have one statewide per-ton structure. Unweighed metro facilities pay $2 per cubic yard; Greater Minnesota uses $2 per equivalent cubic yard; mixed-MSW service taxes are 9.75% residential and 17% commercial; and nonmixed waste is taxed at $0.60 per noncompacted cubic yard. ★ (Minn. Stat. §§ 473.843, 115A.923, and ch. 297H)
6. 6
   New Jersey's verified statewide tax stack is $5.10 per ton when all three charges apply to covered waste accepted at a sanitary landfill. The components are a $3.00 Recycling Tax, $1.60 Solid Waste Services Tax, and $0.50 Landfill Closure and Contingency Tax. ★ (New Jersey Division of Taxation)
7. 7
   Ohio's state MSW fee is $4.75 per ton, while the separate state C&D structure totals $1.60 per ton. Solid-waste management districts and local governments can add other authorized charges. ★ (Ohio Rev. Code §§ 3734.57, 3714.07, and 3714.073)
8. 8
   Iowa's base tonnage fee is $4.25 per ton; qualifying environmental-management-system planning or service areas pay $3.65 per ton. The applicable figure depends on the area's statutory designation. ★ (Iowa Code §§ 455B.310 and 455J.5, 2026 Code)
9. 9
   North Carolina imposes a $2.00-per-ton solid-waste disposal tax on qualifying MSW and C&D. The tax applies to in-state landfill disposal and to qualifying waste transferred for disposal outside the state. ★ (North Carolina Department of Revenue)
10. 10
    California's current maximum state disposal tipping fee is $1.40 per ton, effective since July 1, 2001. CalRecycle states that state law caps the fee at that level. ★ (CalRecycle)
11. 11
    Texas charges MSW landfills $0.94 per ton, $0.30 per compacted cubic yard, or $0.19 per uncompacted cubic yard. The current schedule states that these rates took effect June 1, 2013. ★ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, RG-289)
12. 12
    Tennessee's state surcharge is $0.90 per ton on municipal solid waste at Class I disposal facilities and incinerators. The operator may retain 1% when the required report is filed on time; local fee layers are separate. ★ (Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-211-835)
13. 13
    Arizona's July 1, 2026 solid-waste schedule charges $0.58 per ton, $0.58 per six uncompacted cubic yards, or $0.58 per three compacted cubic yards. Dry or dewatered recycling residue is $0.29 per ton. ★ (Arizona Department of Environmental Quality)
14. 14
    EREF's 2025 MSW landfill tipping-fee report analyzes 350 facilities nationwide and is available as a free download. EREF says it covers national, regional, ownership, and facility-size trends and is not a directory of individual landfill prices. ★ (Environmental Research & Education Foundation)
15. 15
    The United States generated 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2018 and landfilled 146.1 million tons, or 50%. EPA still identifies 2018 as the most recent year in its national Facts and Figures overview. ★ (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

Where do landfill tipping fees by state come from?

There are two separate source systems because there are two separate questions. Market gate rates come from landfill operators and surveys such as EREF's annual analysis. Statutory charges come from state law, tax guidance, and issuing-agency fee schedules. A number from one system cannot be substituted for a number from the other.

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation publishes annual analyses of municipal solid-waste landfill tipping fees. EREF says its 2024 analysis uses data collected from 351 landfills and includes national, regional, and state-level data. Its 2025 analysis covers 350 facilities and examines national, regional, ownership, and facility-size trends. Both report pages list the publication at $0.00 and provide a free-download path.

EREF also draws a line this page preserves: the annual analysis is a market benchmark, not a directory of individual landfill prices. EREF directs readers who need participating-facility prices to a separate companion product. The statutory dataset below answers another question entirely: what fee, tax, assessment, or surcharge does government law place on disposal?

That distinction changes how the number should be written:

• Market gate rate: what the facility charges for accepting the load.
• State statutory charge: what state law adds, requires, or collects.
• Local or district charge: an additional layer authorized or imposed below the state level.
• Customer invoice: the final amount after the applicable service, contract, minimum, material, weight, tax, and disposal terms are applied.

A state statutory figure can be checked in public law. It still does not tell you the complete gate rate.

What does a landfill tipping fee actually measure?

A landfill tipping fee — also called a gate rate or tip fee — is the price charged to accept waste, commonly expressed in dollars per ton and sometimes in dollars per cubic yard. A state disposal tax or surcharge is a different number: it is one legal component that can sit inside or on top of the facility's price.

The National Academies describes a tipping fee as generally charged by weight, while recognizing volume-based pricing. It separates the facility owner's baseline fee from a surcharge intended to address public or environmental costs. EPA likewise distinguishes public spot or drive-up prices from contract rates, volume discounts, and special-waste charges.

The practical rule is simple: a statutory fee is not the full price. It can be a fixed per-ton amount, a stack of several charges, a cubic-yard amount, a percentage of the waste-service bill, an annual facility charge, or a structure with credits, deductions, and exemptions.

Which state landfill disposal fees are verified in Edition 1?

Edition 1 publishes 14 states, and every live row was read directly against a current state code, issuing-agency page, or official fee schedule. No provisional row is published. The table preserves each state's native structure instead of manufacturing a false 50-state comparison.

Verification key: ★ Direct primary-source verification — the amount and its legal scope were checked at the source on July 23, 2026.

Where can the landfill fee dataset be downloaded?

The 14-state dataset is available in CSV and JSON. Both files contain the same core records and preserve the native fee structure, components, effective date, authority, issuing office, purpose, comparability note, verification tier, check date, and primary-source URLs.

Dataset columns

What does this dataset show — and what does it not show?

It shows verified statutory structures in 14 states. That includes charges imposed per ton, per cubic yard, or as a percentage of the waste-service price; stacked fees; material-specific fees; credits; deductions; and local layers explicitly required or authorized by the cited law.

It does not show the full cost of landfill disposal. It does not rank all states by market price. It does not turn a noncommercial county schedule into a commercial gate rate. It does not convert unlike units into a modeled per-ton estimate.

The 36.4× figure is deliberately narrow. It compares the lowest and highest headline amounts among the 13 Edition 1 rows that support a direct per-ton comparison:

$13.097 ÷ $0.36 = 36.3805, rounded to 36.4×

Minnesota is excluded from that calculation because combining its $6.66 metropolitan per-ton fee, $2-per-cubic-yard structures, 9.75% residential tax, 17% commercial tax, and $0.60-per-cubic-yard nonmixed tax into one number would require assumptions this dataset does not make.

The table also does not prove that Michigan is inexpensive or Wisconsin is expensive. A state statutory charge is one input. Facility baseline rates, contract terms, minimums, material type, local fees, transportation, and the specific disposal market still determine what is charged at the gate.

How was the State Landfill Disposal Fee Index built?

The dataset was built row by row from current primary sources. A state appears in Edition 1 only when the live page can state the amount, native unit, legal scope, and important qualifications without relying on a secondary article or filling a gap with an estimate.

What was collected

For each published state:

1. The current statutory fee, tax, assessment, surcharge, or service-tax structure.
2. The native unit used by the source.
3. Each verified component where several charges stack.
4. The effective date or current source vintage.
5. The governing statute, rule, act, or official fee schedule.
6. The issuing or collecting office.
7. The stated purpose of the money where the source identifies it.
8. Credits, deductions, exemptions, material categories, and facility-type limits that change interpretation.
9. The verification date.
10. Every primary-source URL used for the row.

Source hierarchy

Sources were used in this order:

1. Current state code published by the legislature or official code portal.
2. Current issuing-agency fee schedule.
3. Current state tax or revenue guidance.
4. Official state regulatory guidance that identifies both amount and legal authority.
5. Official county material for the local worked example.
6. EREF and EPA for market-survey and national-context claims.

No live fee row is sourced to a news article, trade publication, commercial cost page, or search-result summary.

Treatment of unlike fee structures

The dataset preserves what the law actually does.

• A per-ton fee stays per ton.
• A cubic-yard fee stays per cubic yard.
• A percentage tax stays a percentage.
• A range stays a range.
• A gross stack with a statutory deduction stays labeled gross.
• A baseline with a host credit or exception keeps that qualification.
• A material-specific fee is not silently relabeled as MSW.
• A facility-type fee is not silently generalized to every landfill.

No density factor, weight-to-volume conversion, inflation adjustment, or modeled statewide average was added.

Calculation of the 36.4× spread

The spread uses the 13 rows with a directly comparable per-ton headline amount. It divides Wisconsin's verified $13.097 Category 1 MSW total by Michigan's verified $0.36 ordinary noncaptive-landfill amount.

The result is a comparison of published headline statutory amounts in Edition 1. It is not a market-price ratio, a prediction, or a statement that each state's full legal and local stack is identical in scope.

Quality-control rules

• All 14 live rows are ★ direct-verification rows.
• No provisional ● rows appear on the page.
• Every row's source URL is stored in the downloadable data.
• The visible page and the machine-readable files use the same edition number and verification date.
• The Dataset JSON-LD points only to files included in the production package.
• A changed source amount requires a new dataset version and an updated visible verification date.
• A design edit alone does not justify a new verification date.

Relationship to EREF

No state market-rate table from EREF is reproduced or presented as this site's measurement. EREF's annual reports answer the market-benchmark question. The State Landfill Disposal Fee Index is a separate compilation of government-imposed structures.

Why do two landfills in the same state charge different rates?

A common state charge does not create a common gate rate. The operator still sets a baseline price, and local governments, districts, host agreements, material categories, minimums, and contracts can add different layers.

Tennessee places several of those layers in one code section, making it a useful worked structure.

Two Tennessee Class I facilities can both carry the $0.90 state surcharge while charging different final amounts. One may be publicly owned and use a locally calculated tipping fee. Another may have a different host surcharge, service-cost structure, minimum charge, or customer contract.

The state row therefore says $0.90 state surcharge. It does not say Tennessee landfill price.

What does the Montgomery County, Tennessee schedule show?

Bi-County Solid Waste Management provides a local example of how a posted public schedule differs from a state surcharge and from a commercial gate rate. Its current county page says it serves Montgomery County, Stewart County, and Fort Campbell; the two counties formed a solid-waste authority in 1974; and the Dover Road site has one Class I household-waste landfill and two Class III C&D landfills.

The schedule below is expressly noncommercial and says it took effect January 1, 2023. It must not be labeled Montgomery County's commercial tipping fee.

Bi-County's $48 amount is not directly comparable with Tennessee's $0.90 surcharge. One is a noncommercial large-load charge under a county schedule; the other is a state statutory component applied at Class I facilities and incinerators.

Why does landfill fee verification matter in 2026?

The source year and the effective date can change the answer. Wisconsin's current schedule took effect January 1, 2026. Arizona publishes a July 1, 2026 fee schedule. West Virginia's latest phase-in step took effect July 1, 2025. A table copied from an older publication can therefore be wrong even when its original number was accurate.

The market-survey side also changes by edition. EREF's 2025 report now covers 350 facilities and is available free from EREF. Its 2024 report covers 351 landfills and expressly includes state-level data. Any quoted average should carry the report year rather than being relabeled with the year an article happens to be published.

The federal national baseline moves more slowly. EPA's national overview still uses 2018 as its most recent year and reports 292.4 million tons generated and 146.1 million tons landfilled. The number remains useful only when the 2018 vintage stays attached.

A verified page therefore needs three dates, not one:

• The data year for a market survey.
• The effective date for a statutory schedule.
• The verification date when the source was reopened.

What are the limitations of this landfill fee dataset?

This edition is designed to be quoted accurately, which means its boundaries must remain attached to the numbers. The limits below identify exactly where a figure stops being comparable or where another source is required.

1. Edition 1 covers 14 states. The other 36 states and the District of Columbia are not estimated and should not be inferred to have zero fees.
2. A statutory fee is not a gate rate. It is a legal layer, tax, assessment, service tax, or fee structure.
3. The state rows are not perfectly uniform. Minnesota uses per-ton, cubic-yard, and percentage structures; Indiana uses a facility-type range; Iowa uses a base and reduced EMS rate; and several states distinguish MSW from C&D.
4. Some headline totals are conditional. Pennsylvania's $7.50 is an ordinary baseline before host credits and exceptions. West Virginia's $8.25 is gross before the closure set-aside deduction and statutory exemptions. New Jersey's $5.10 applies when the three named taxes apply to the same covered landfill ton.
5. Local and district charges are not exhaustively cataloged. They appear only where needed to explain the verified state structure or the Tennessee worked example.
6. The 36.4× spread is not a full-cost comparison. It uses 13 directly comparable per-ton headline amounts and excludes Minnesota.
7. EREF's market-rate tables are not reproduced. EREF remains the source for its survey findings and participating-facility information.
8. EPA's national tonnage is 2018-vintage. It is not relabeled as a 2026 measurement.
9. Bi-County's schedule is noncommercial. Its commercial demolition gate-rate amount is not published on the county page.
10. No unresolved proposal is treated as enacted law. Pending legislation and proposed fee increases are outside the live dataset until they become effective authority.
11. No unsupported conversion is made. Cubic yards, service-price percentages, annual captive-facility fees, and per-ton amounts remain in their source units.
12. This page does not address hazardous or regulated special-waste acceptance. Those questions require the relevant facility and regulator.

Figures not published

The dataset does not publish a number when the current statewide structure, legal interaction, applicable material category, or primary source cannot be resolved to the same standard as the live rows. It also does not publish a current federal count of active MSW landfills, a commercial Bi-County gate rate, or a proposed state increase as if it were current law.

What are the most common questions about landfill tipping fees?

The answers below separate market rates, statutory charges, material categories, and final customer prices. Each answer is written to remain accurate when read on its own.

How should this page be cited?

This block provides the publication, page, version, and date fields for neutral attribution. It does not change the scope of the underlying figure: the cited sentence should still carry its state, unit, effective date, and qualification.

Dumpster Rental Clarksville Research is the independent research and reference section of DumpsterRentalClarksville.com.

Which primary sources support this page?

All sources below were read or checked on July 23, 2026 unless the entry states a source-effective date. State fee rows rely on the issuing government; EREF and EPA support the separate market-survey and national-context sections.

Federal definitions and national context

1. 1.National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Municipal Solid Waste Recycling in the United States, tipping-fee discussion — nationalacademies.org (tipping fee discussion)
2. 2.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, regulatory-impact material discussing spot, contract, volume, and special-waste rates — EPA regulatory-impact material (nepis.epa.gov)
3. 3.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling — EPA National Overview
4. 4.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Guide to the Facts and Figures Report — EPA Guide to Facts and Figures

Published market surveys

5. 5.Environmental Research & Education Foundation, 2025 Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill Tipping Fees — EREF 2025 Tipping Fee Report
6. 6.Environmental Research & Education Foundation, 2024 Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill Tipping Fees — EREF 2024 Tipping Fee Report

State codes and issuing agencies

7. 7.Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin Landfill Environmental Fees for Various Waste Categories, effective January 1, 2026 — Wisconsin DNR fee schedule (PDF)
8. 8.Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Report Quarterly Municipal Waste Management Fees — Pennsylvania DEP quarterly fees page
9. 9.Pennsylvania General Assembly, Act 101 of 1988, including §§ 1108 and 1301 — PA Act 101 of 1988
10. 10.West Virginia Code § 22-15-11, base and additional solid-waste assessment fees — W. Va. Code § 22-15-11
11. 11.West Virginia Code § 22-16-4, landfill-closure assessment and deduction — W. Va. Code § 22-16-4
12. 12.West Virginia Code § 22-15A-19, recycling assessment fee — W. Va. Code § 22-15A-19
13. 13.West Virginia Code § 22C-4-30, interim solid-waste assessment — W. Va. Code § 22C-4-30
14. 14.Minnesota Statutes § 473.843, Metropolitan Solid Waste Landfill Fee — Minn. Stat. § 473.843
15. 15.Minnesota Statutes § 115A.923, Greater Minnesota Landfill Cleanup Fee — Minn. Stat. § 115A.923
16. 16.Minnesota Statutes § 297H.02, Residential Generators — Minn. Stat. § 297H.02
17. 17.Minnesota Statutes § 297H.03, Mixed Municipal Solid Waste Commercial Generators — Minn. Stat. § 297H.03
18. 18.Minnesota Statutes § 297H.04, Nonmixed Municipal Solid Waste — Minn. Stat. § 297H.04
19. 19.New Jersey Division of Taxation, Recycling Tax — NJ Recycling Tax
20. 20.New Jersey Division of Taxation, Sanitary Landfill Tax — NJ Sanitary Landfill Tax
21. 21.Ohio Revised Code § 3734.57, solid-waste disposal fees and district authority — Ohio Rev. Code § 3734.57
22. 22.Ohio Revised Code § 3714.07, C&D disposal fee — Ohio Rev. Code § 3714.07
23. 23.Ohio Revised Code § 3714.073, additional C&D fee — Ohio Rev. Code § 3714.073
24. 24.Iowa Code § 455B.310, tonnage fee — Iowa Code § 455B.310 (PDF)
25. 25.Iowa Code § 455J.5, reduced environmental-management-system fee — Iowa Code § 455J.5 (PDF)
26. 26.North Carolina Department of Revenue, Solid Waste Disposal Tax — NC Solid Waste Disposal Tax
27. 27.CalRecycle, Local Government Recycling Program and Infrastructure Funding and Financing Mechanisms — CalRecycle fee guidance
28. 28.Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Municipal Solid Waste Quarterly Report Requirements and Disposal Fee, RG-289 — TCEQ RG-289 (PDF)
29. 29.Tennessee Code Annotated § 68-211-835, official Tennessee code portal — Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-211-835
30. 30.Tennessee General Assembly, Public Chapter 462, state surcharge text — Tennessee Public Chapter 462 (PDF)
31. 31.Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Solid Waste Fees — ADEQ Solid Waste Fees
32. 32.Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Managing Waste: Fees — IDEM waste fees page
33. 33.Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Recycling Market Development Program — IDEM Recycling Market Development
34. 34.Michigan Compiled Laws § 324.11525a — MCL 324.11525a

County source

35. 35.Montgomery County Government, Tennessee, Bi-County Solid Waste Management — montgomerytn.gov/bi-county