Ohio dumpster and disposal rules
Ohio words its lead-acid battery rule unusually: rather than banning disposal, the statute forbids commingling the battery with solid waste in the first place — which reaches the container on your driveway, not just the landfill gate. Two prohibitions are confirmed here, and the battery one is the more instructive of the pair.
How Ohio controls what you can throw away
ORC 3734.911 states that no person shall commingle a used lead-acid battery with solid waste, nor dispose of one at a solid waste or hazardous waste facility. The commingling half is what makes it unusual: most state bans operate on the facility, so the rule bites when the truck reaches the gate. Ohio's bites earlier, at the moment the battery goes into the container, which is a duty on whoever is loading. The statute then names the permitted routes rather than leaving you to find one — a lead-acid battery collection or recycling entity, or an entity operating under rules adopted under ORC 3734.12. Separately, scrap tires are prohibited from landfill disposal, with limited exceptions for permitted scrap tire facilities.
Citation: ORC 3734.911
Materials banned from disposal
- Used lead-acid batteries — may not be commingled with solid waste, nor disposed at a solid waste or hazardous waste facility
- Scrap tires — limited exceptions for permitted scrap tire facilities
What this means for how you order a container
The commingling wording is worth taking literally. In Ohio a battery that goes into a mixed container has already breached the statute, regardless of what the facility later does with the load — so the compliant sequence is to set batteries aside before anything else is loaded, not to hope they are picked out downstream.
One caution: codes.ohio.gov refuses connections from this build environment, so the statute was read through a search index rather than fetched directly. Only the two prohibitions confirmed that way are published here. Ohio restricts further streams through its state solid waste management plan under ORC 3734.50, and this page does not speak for those.
Materials with a Ohio-specific answer
- 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 - Prohibited
Car batteries and lead-acid batteries
Managed as universal waste under the federal rules at 40 CFR Part 273, and banned from disposal in Massachusetts by name. No hauler will take one knowingly.
North Carolina: Lead-acid batteries have their own banning statute, separate from the general disposal ban list. (N.C.G.S. 130A-309.70)
Massachusetts: Lead-acid batteries are a banned material. (310 CMR 19.017)
Ohio: No person may commingle a used lead-acid battery with solid waste or dispose of one at a solid waste or hazardous waste facility. The statute names the permitted routes instead — a battery collection or recycling entity, or one operating under rules adopted under ORC 3734.12. (ORC 3734.911)
Georgia: Lead-acid batteries are among the wastes that must be kept out of Georgia municipal solid waste landfills. (Georgia EPD — prohibited wastes)
Pennsylvania: Lead-acid batteries may not be disposed at a municipal waste landfill, stated flatly and without condition. (25 Pa. Code s. 273.201(h))
Illinois: Banned from Illinois landfills since 1 September 1990. (Illinois EPA — banned since 1 September 1990)
Florida: Banned from landfills and, uniquely, from waste-to-energy facilities as well. Retailers selling lead-acid batteries must accept used ones as trade-ins. (Fla. Stat. 403.708(12)(a))
Federal rule Hazardous and regulated NC, MA, OH, GA, PA, IL, FL
How Ohio 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 | Michigan EGLE | 2 | NREPA 1994 PA 451, Part 115, s. 11514 |
| Pennsylvania | PA DEP | 5 | 25 Pa. Code s. 273.201 |
| Ohio this page | 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 Ohio EPA — 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 ORC 3734.911 — used lead-acid batteries; scrap tire landfill prohibition — Ohio Revised Code / Ohio EPA · last reviewed 2026-08-19
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