What Midland's Trash Trucks Won't Take — and What to Do Instead
August 28, 2026
The cart and the alley container have a shorter accepted list than most people think. Here is the City's prohibited list, item by item, with the legal way out for each.
The City's Prohibited List
Midland's residential trash service — the Monday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday routes — is for household garbage. The City's published rules prohibit collection of a specific set of items, and its wording is blunt: unauthorized disposal of prohibited items is considered illegal dumping.
Straight from the Trash Service page, the trucks will not pick up:
- Tires
- Vehicle batteries
- Barrels of oil or related materials
- Tree limbs
- Construction debris
Tree Limbs and Yard Waste Have Their Own Door
Brush — tree trimmings and yard trimmings — goes to the Citizens Collection Station at 4100 Smith Road, north of the ClayDesta post office, open Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is free for City residents hauling from their own home, with a single-axle trailer limit and a secured-load rule.
After a windstorm drops half a pecan tree, the gap between 'free station exists' and 'limbs are cut, loaded, and hauled' is a chainsaw, a trailer, and a free afternoon. Whether that gap is yours to close or worth handing off is a fair question either way.
Paint Has a Trick, Construction Debris Has No Shortcut
For leftover paint, the City suggests a genuinely useful move: spread it on old wood or cardboard and let it dry. Once dry, it can go into the alley container legally. Liquid paint cannot.
Construction debris is the hard case. The trash route refuses it, and the free Citizens Collection Station refuses construction material of any type — along with fencing, concrete, dirt, and rock. Renovation waste has exactly two legitimate paths: a container, like the City's 30-cubic-yard open-tops or a private roll-off dumpster rental, or a crew that loads and hauls it under a construction debris removal arrangement.
Tires, Batteries, and Oil: The Small Stuff That Gets Houses in Trouble
The three automotive items on the prohibited list are the ones most often found leaning against an alley fence, waiting for a truck that will never take them. They are also the items that make a load hazardous in the eyes of every free facility — the Citizens Collection Station lists tires and hazardous waste on its refused list too.
Tire shops and auto parts stores commonly take back used tires, batteries, and oil, often when you buy replacements. For a garage holding years of accumulation, folding them into one hauled load is usually simpler than retailing them off one errand at a time.
The broader category — hazardous waste — is worth reading generously. Solvents, pool chemicals, pesticides, and anything in a rusting unlabeled can are refused at the free station for the same reason they should never ride loose in a trailer: they leak, they mix, and they turn an ordinary load into a problem load. Keep them separate from the junk pile and deal with them as their own errand.
When One Pile Has a Little of Everything
The prohibited list is manageable when items show up one at a time. The mess is when a cleanout produces a mixed pile — furniture the City would take, limbs the station would take, debris neither will touch, and two bald tires on top. Sorting one pile into four legal destinations, each with its own hours and rules, is the actual chore.
That sorting problem is what a local hauling service is for: one crew, one load-out, with the split across landfill, station, and recyclers handled on the back end. The market rates for that convenience are on the cost guide — weigh them against the number of separate trips your pile actually requires.
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Quick Answers
Can I put tree limbs in my Midland alley container?
No. The City prohibits its trash service from collecting tree limbs. Brush and yard trimmings go to the Citizens Collection Station at 4100 Smith Road, free for City residents hauling from their own home.
How do I throw away paint in Midland?
The City's guidance: spread the paint on old wood or cardboard and let it dry completely. Dried paint can be placed in the alley container. Liquid paint cannot go in the trash.
What happens if prohibited items get dumped anyway?
The City's rules state that unauthorized disposal of prohibited items is considered illegal dumping, and Texas law grades dumping offenses by weight — from a Class C misdemeanor up to a state jail felony for loads of 1,000 pounds or more.