7 states · official sources only
What states ban from the dumpster
Some states keep brick, drywall, wood or cardboard out of landfills; others set a recycling rate for whole projects. These pages copy each state agency's own list or rule and show what it means for a load. A state is listed only where its agency publishes the rule.
- 1States 7
- 2Items named 66
- 3Construction materials 21
- 4Read 2026-10-21
| State | Rule | Items | C&D items | Fee pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 310 CMR 19.017 | 14 | 4 | 4 |
| Vermont | Act 175 (2014), 10 V.S.A. § 6605m | 7 | 5 | 0 |
| New Hampshire | RSA 149-M:27 | 5 | 0 | 14 |
| California | CALGreen (Title 24, Part 11) §§ 4.408 and 5.408 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| North Carolina | G.S. 130A-309.58(b), 130A-309.70, 18B-1006.1 and related bans | 15 | 1 | 3 |
| Wisconsin | Wisconsin's recycling law (Wis. Stat. ch. 287) | 13 | 0 | 1 |
| Florida | Rule 62-701.200 and 62-701.730(12), F.A.C. | 6 | 6 | 1 |
Read 2026-10-21 from each agency's page; links on each state page. Not covered: Minnesota: disposal bans are spread over several statute sections (115A.9xx) with no single agency list read in this pass. Washington, Oregon and other states: no statewide construction-debris disposal ban found; local rules (for example Seattle's) are city ordinances, not state rules. Florida: the statewide list of items prohibited from landfills (Rule 62-701.300) was not read from an official FDEP page, so the Florida page covers only the C&D definition, reporting rules and FDEP's county fee table.
State by state
- Massachusetts (MassDEP): Massachusetts bans a long list of materials from disposal or from transfer for disposal, and several of them are the bulk of a renovation dumpster: brick, concrete, asphalt paving, clean drywall, metal and wood. The first bans began in 1990 and others were phased in.
- Vermont (Vermont DEC): Vermont's Architectural Waste Law (Act 175, passed in 2014) makes larger building projects near a recycling facility recycle their clean wood, drywall, metal, plywood and OSB, and two construction materials, cardboard and clean wood, are banned from the landfill whatever the job size.
- New Hampshire (NH General Court): New Hampshire's disposal bans are short and aimed at batteries, electronics, yard waste and large food-waste generators. None of them names construction debris, so in New Hampshire what a load may contain is set mostly by each town's transfer station and each hauler.
- California (CalRecycle): California does not ban single construction materials from the dumpster; instead the CALGreen building code makes new buildings and demolition projects divert at least 65% of their construction and demolition material from landfill, or keep total disposal under a weight per square foot.
- North Carolina (NC DEQ): North Carolina keeps a statewide list of items its landfills may not take. Most are household and automotive items, but two matter on a job site: wooden pallets, which may go to a C&D-only landfill when mixed into construction waste, and fluorescent lights and mercury thermostats, which every C&D landfill must refuse because the state treats all C&D landfills as unlined.
- Wisconsin (Wisconsin DNR): Wisconsin's recycling law bans recyclable containers, paper, corrugated cardboard, appliances, electronics, tires and yard waste from landfills and incinerators. On a remodel the items that bite are cardboard packaging, old appliances and brush.
- Florida (Florida DEP): Florida defines construction and demolition debris narrowly and keeps it separate: mixing it with other solid waste means the load is no longer C&D debris, which matters because C&D can go to cheaper C&D facilities. FDEP also publishes each county's disposal fees.
Two kinds of rule
Ban lists (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Wisconsin, New Hampshire) name materials a landfill or incinerator may not take, so a mixed load carrying them can be refused or surcharged. Project rules (Vermont's Act 175, California's CALGreen) instead require a share of a building job's debris to be recycled. Florida sits between: it defines what counts as construction and demolition debris, and a load mixed with other waste loses that status.
For the weight of each material, see debris weights; for local per-ton and per-yard prices, the disposal fee pages.