What Happens to Your Junk After Pickup in Polk County?

The trailer pulls out of your driveway and the job is over for you. For me it's the start of the second half: the drive, the scale, the scrap yard, sometimes a donation stop. People ask where it all goes, and a few ask because they've heard stories about haulers dumping in the woods. Here's the actual trip, with the county's own numbers.

Where does the trailer go first?

For most loads out of Davenport or Haines City, the county landfill. Polk County runs the North Central Landfill in Winter Haven for commercial haulers like me, carrying material from inside the county. Residents use the transfer station next door; commercial trailers use the landfill gate. The load has to be covered and secured on the road, which is why the crew straps and tarps before we leave your street. The photos on this site of a dump trailer tipping its bed were taken at the landfill on regular jobs.

At the gate the truck and trailer get weighed in, I dump, and I get weighed out. The difference is what I pay for. The county's posted schedule, in effect since October 2025, looks like this:

The county has said these rates go up 5% a year for the next five years. That's the bill behind every flat price on my pricing page, and it's why the weight of a load matters to me even when it doesn't change what you pay.

Why doesn't everything go to the landfill?

Look at that table again. Scrap metal costs $27.50 a ton to bury, and a scrap yard pays me for it instead. Tires are $300 a ton. A fridge with the refrigerant still in it is the most expensive thing on the list.

So a mixed load gets sorted on the trailer as we load it, and the trip has more than one stop:

The scrap yard. Metal bed frames, grills, water heaters, filing cabinets, exercise machines and every refrigerator and freezer. The fridges matter most. At the scrap yard the refrigerant is recovered by people equipped for it before the shell is processed. Fridges never go into the landfill on my trailer.

The donation drop. When a load has furniture or housewares somebody could use, I set them aside and run them to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, whichever is on the way and taking that day. It's case by case, and they decide at the door.

The recycling container. Flattened cardboard from move-ins. Polk County takes cardboard, cans, paper and #1, #2 and #5 plastics in the drop-off container at the North Central Landfill.

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What can't be dumped anywhere on this trip?

Paint, solvents, oil, propane, pool chemicals and batteries. The landfill refuses them and so do I, which is why the crew leaves that shelf in your garage. Polk County residents take them free to the Household Hazardous Waste facility at the same Winter Haven site, Friday mornings and Saturdays until 12:30.

Concrete and dirt don't ride in my trailers at all. Those go through partner dump trucks and recyclers, quoted per job. Tile is landfill material but carries an extra dump-fee charge because of what the facility charges for it, so I say so when I quote.

What does the second half of the job cost you?

Nothing extra. The $125 single item, $225 quarter, $350 half and $700 full trailer prices include the drive, the scale ticket, the scrap yard stop and the donation run. Tires are the one line item: $10 each, $20 on the wheel, because of that $300-a-ton rate.

The reason I can hold a flat price is that I know what a full trailer of garage junk weighs and what the county charges for it. When a customer asks whether the dump fee is "extra," the answer is that it's already in there.

What Big Rob's does here

Junk removal in Davenport and Polk County is the main page, and appliance removal explains the scrap yard trip for fridges, washers and water heaters. Loads out of Davenport and Haines City run to the Winter Haven landfill most days, and jobs in Auburndale, Winter Haven and Lakeland are the short drive. The county's own facility list is on the Polk County disposal guide.

Text a photo of the pile to (863) 225-2147. The rest of the trip is my problem.