Michigan dumpster and disposal rules
Michigan prohibits whole tires — and means the word literally. Cut the tire in half and the same rubber may be landfilled, which is the clearest example on this site of a ban you comply with by changing the material rather than the destination. Both prohibitions here sit in Part 115 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act.
How Michigan controls what you can throw away
Section 11514 of Part 115 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, prohibits specific materials from a non-hazardous solid waste landfill. Two are confirmed here. Whole motor vehicle tires are prohibited, but a landfill may accept them once they are cut in half or otherwise shredded, cut or chipped. Yard clippings must be composted on site or taken to a composting facility, and only clippings that are diseased, infested, or part of an invasive species control programme may be landfilled. Michigan defines yard clippings unusually precisely: leaves, grass, garden debris, shrubbery, brush or tree trimmings under four feet long and two inches in diameter — so a large limb is not a yard clipping under this rule at all.
Citation: NREPA 1994 PA 451, Part 115, s. 11514
Materials banned from disposal
- Whole motor vehicle tires — unless cut in half, shredded, cut or chipped
- Yard clippings — unless diseased, infested, or part of an invasive species control programme
The exception worth knowing
The size definition matters as much as the ban. A tree limb over four feet long or two inches thick falls outside Michigan's definition of a yard clipping, so the composting requirement does not reach it — which is the opposite of what most people assume when they see a yard waste ban.
What this means for how you order a container
If a Michigan job produces tires, cutting them is cheaper than a separate haul in most cases. If it produces brush, sort it by size before assuming the whole pile has to go to a composter.
One caution: michigan.gov refuses automated requests from this build environment, so the EGLE page was read through a search index rather than fetched directly. Only the two prohibitions confirmed that way are published here. Michigan restricts other streams that this page does not speak for — check with EGLE before assuming anything absent from this list is permitted.
Materials with a Michigan-specific answer
- Conditional
Yard waste, brush and branches
Many haulers take yard waste in a general container; many others require a dedicated green-waste container because the material has a separate compost outlet. Leaf and yard waste is banned from disposal in Massachusetts, and a majority of states have some form of yard-waste landfill restriction.
North Carolina: Yard trash is banned unless it is source separated and taken to a facility that maintains its own yard trash composting operation. (N.C.G.S. 130A-309.10)
Massachusetts: Leaf and yard waste is a banned material. (310 CMR 19.017)
Georgia: Banned since 1 September 1996 from lined municipal solid waste landfills and from any that took a vertical expansion under the Act — including C&D landfills so expanded, which are then classified as MSW landfills. Private industry landfills taking only their own waste, and inert waste landfills operating by permit-by-rule, are outside it. Critically, land-clearing debris is legally NOT yard trimmings under O.C.G.A. 12-8-22(42), so trees, stumps and limbs from clearing a lot fall outside the ban entirely. (O.C.G.A. 12-8-40.2; definition at 12-8-22(42))
Illinois: Landscape waste has been banned from Illinois landfills since 1 July 1990 — one of the earliest such bans in the country. (Illinois EPA — banned since 1 July 1990)
Michigan: Yard clippings must be composted on site or taken to a composting facility. Only clippings that are diseased, infested, or part of an invasive species control programme may be landfilled. The rule defines them precisely: leaves, grass, garden debris, shrubbery, brush or tree trimmings under 4 feet long and 2 inches in diameter. (NREPA 1994 PA 451, Part 115, s. 11514)
Florida: Banned from lined Class I landfills — unless that landfill runs an active gas-collection system and puts the gas to beneficial use, in which case yard trash may be accepted. So the answer turns on which facility your hauler tips at, not on what is in your container. (Fla. Stat. 403.708(12)(c))
We have not verified this material against your state’s own regulator. That means unknown, not allowed — check with your state before you load it.
Varies by state Yard and green waste NC, MA, GA, IL, MI, FL - Prohibited
Tires
Whole tires are restricted from landfill disposal in most states because they trap methane and float back to the surface of a capped cell. Nearly every hauler refuses them in a general container, and where they are accepted it is at a per-tire fee.
North Carolina: Whole scrap tires are banned. The ban does not reach whole solid rubber coverings. (N.C.G.S. 130A-309.58(b))
Massachusetts: Whole tires are a banned material. Shredded tires are not covered by the ban. (310 CMR 19.017)
Ohio: Scrap tires are prohibited from landfill disposal, with limited exceptions for permitted scrap tire facilities. (ORC ch. 3734 — scrap tire programme)
Georgia: Scrap tires are banned from entering Georgia landfills. (Georgia EPD — tire management)
Illinois: Used tires have been banned from Illinois landfills since 1 July 1994. (Illinois EPA — banned since 1 July 1994)
Michigan: Whole motor vehicle tires are prohibited, but a Michigan landfill may accept them once they are cut in half or otherwise shredded, cut or chipped. As in North Carolina, the word "whole" is doing the work — processing the tire changes the answer. (NREPA 1994 PA 451, Part 115, s. 11514)
We have not verified this material against your state’s own regulator. That means unknown, not allowed — check with your state before you load it.
Varies by state Automotive NC, MA, OH, GA, IL, MI
How Michigan compares with the other states we have read
A state rule only means something next to another one. The table shows every state whose rules we have read at the agency that issued them, with how many materials each one changes the answer for — which is the fastest way to see whether you are in a strict jurisdiction or a permissive one.
| State | Regulator | Materials it changes | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | Florida DEP | 5 | Fla. Stat. 403.708(12) |
| New York | NYSDEC | 1 | ECL 27-2611; 6 NYCRR 368-3.13 |
| Illinois | Illinois EPA | 6 | Illinois EPA — Disposal Methods |
| Michigan this page | Michigan EGLE | 2 | NREPA 1994 PA 451, Part 115, s. 11514 |
| Pennsylvania | PA DEP | 5 | 25 Pa. Code s. 273.201 |
| Ohio | Ohio EPA | 2 | ORC 3734.911 |
| Georgia | Georgia EPD | 3 | O.C.G.A. 12-8-40.2 |
| North Carolina | NCDEQ | 11 | N.C.G.S. 130A-309.10 |
| Massachusetts | MassDEP | 14 | 310 CMR 19.017 |
| California | CalRecycle | 1 | CALGreen — California Green Building Standards Code |
| Wisconsin | Wisconsin DNR | 0 | Wis. Stat. ch. 289 |
Three states is deliberately few. A state appears here only after its rule was read at the issuing agency, because the alternative — restating what other sites say about the other forty-seven — is how wrong answers spread. States not listed are unverified, never permitted.
What this does not tell you
A state rule sets the floor, not the whole answer. Your city can be stricter, and the permit for putting a container in the street is a municipal matter that has nothing to do with Michigan EGLE — different department, different timetable, different document. And the prohibited-items list attached to your rental agreement is stricter again in almost every case, because a hauler refuses things no statute mentions.
The practical order is therefore: check the state rule for what is banned outright, check your city for whether placement needs a permit, and read the rental agreement for everything else. Only the first of those three is on this page, and it is the one that changes least often.
There is also a limit on what any state page can tell you about money. Statutory fees per ton are public and cited above where they exist, but the gate rate a facility actually charges is a commercial price negotiated per account, and it is the larger of the two numbers. A state can tell you what surcharge rides on every ton; only a hauler can tell you what the ton costs.
What a state page is genuinely good for is the question of whether your load is legal at all, and that is worth checking before you order rather than after the truck has gone. A banned material found at the disposal facility is rejected against the account that hired the container, and the reason enforcement lands there rather than in your driveway is that the facility is the party whose permit is at risk.
Sources
- Primary source Landfill prohibited materials and appropriate disposal options — Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) · last reviewed 2026-08-19
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