Junk Removal in Midkiff, Texas
Midkiff is a crossroads community in the northeast corner of Upton County, on FM 3095 and RM 2401 about a mile and a half south of the Midland County line, near the point where the Midland, Glasscock, Upton and Reagan county lines meet. It exists because of oil. The Spraberry Trend was discovered in northeastern Upton County in 1950, the post office opened in September 1952, and by then the area had hundreds of active wells. The place was called Hadacol Corner until the postal department rejected the name, and it took Midkiff instead, after an earlier settlement in Midland County named for the rancher John Rufus Midkiff.
It is small, fewer than two hundred people at the last local count, and it sits in the middle of the busiest oil country in Texas. In July 2026 Upton County ranked third in the state for crude oil, behind only Martin and Midland counties, by the Railroad Commission's preliminary figures. Children here have ridden a bus 75 miles round trip to school in Rankin since the 1950s, which says something about distance that applies to junk, too.
A county landfill near Rankin, a city station for city residents, and a gap in between
The Upton County Landfill is north of Rankin on State Highway 349, at the far end of the county from Midkiff. It is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and accepts scrap wood, trash and tree limbs, but not appliances, furniture or concrete. The City of Midland's Citizens Collection Station, which does take furniture and white goods, is for the exclusive use of City of Midland residents and does not accept hired haulers. That leaves the household items people most need gone, furniture and appliances, without a free outlet within reach.
The road matters too. State Highway 349 is the main route between Midland and Rankin, and TxDOT reports that crashes on it rose 96 percent between 2015 and 2019, with a proposal to widen the 50-mile stretch to a four-lane divided highway. A loaded pickup and trailer sharing that road with oilfield traffic is part of the real cost of doing it yourself, along with the hours.
Burning has limits of its own. Upton County posts burn bans on its home page, a county ban can last up to 90 days, and even with no ban in place, state rules keep furniture, carpet, appliances and tires out of any fire, along with wire insulation and any construction debris that is not wood.
Residential junk removal in Midkiff
Household junk here has no free place to go: the county landfill near Rankin refuses furniture and appliances, and the Midland station is for city residents. That makes a labor-included haul the default for anything larger than a trash bag, such as a sofa, a mattress set, a washer or a garage of boxes, priced by how much of the truck it fills, with half a truck at about $350 to $500 and a full truck at $550 to $800 in the Midland market, plus travel.
The drive runs roughly half an hour each way from Midland, so batching is the main lever on cost. A single trip for everything, from the house, the carport and the shed, beats several small ones, and neighbors along the same road can share a visit. Photos of the pile and of the route in, including gate codes, cattle guards and the last stretch of caliche, help the estimate hold.
Roll-off dumpster rental on Midkiff ranches and lease pads
On a ranch or a lease pad, a container goes on firm, level private ground, such as the pad itself, a caliche yard or a graded spot beside the barn, and not in a county right-of-way; Upton County requires a permit and 48 hours' notice to the county judge just for pipeline crossings under its roads. RM 2401 and FM 3095 are state roads, so the approach matters too: a straight pull in and out, nothing overhead, and room for the truck to set the box down and slide it off.
What goes in the box matters as much as where it sits. Household and ranch junk is ordinary waste. Material from the oil and gas side, even inert debris such as wood, metal, wire, plastic or fiberglass from a lease, counts as oilfield waste in the Railroad Commission's eyes and can go only where it is authorized, so lease material and household material do not share a container. Loads get tarped as well: in the May 2022 Permian Basin dust storm, gusts passed 45 to 60 mph and visibility fell below two miles.
Construction debris and demolition cleanup in Midkiff
Upton County's landfill takes scrap wood but not concrete, so a slab, footings or a block wall from a teardown needs another destination, and so does most mixed remodel debris. Jobs out here include ranch outbuildings, sheds, pens and fencing, along with the occasional house, and the community's building goes back to the 1950s boom, when a gas company built a processing plant with company housing just east of town.
Metal is the valuable part of an old building and comes out first. For a commercial building, Texas requires a demolition notice to its health department ten working days before work starts, whether or not asbestos turns up; a single house is exempt. Small teardowns with haul-off, a shed or a carport, typically run $350 to $1,200, and concrete goes by weight in a small container.
Furniture, appliance and mattress removal in Midkiff
This is the clearest gap in the area. The county landfill will not take appliances or furniture, so a dead refrigerator or a worn-out sofa in Midkiff has no free outlet nearby. Single pieces in the Midland market run about $85 to $175 for a sofa, $85 to $150 for a mattress set and $125 to $225 for a refrigerator or freezer, and several pieces on one trip spread the drive.
Refrigerated appliances follow a federal rule. The final processor, usually a scrap yard or a landfill, has to make sure the refrigerant is recovered or keep a signed statement naming who recovered it and when, and must hold those records for three years. Leaving an appliance on a county road is the expensive alternative. State law grades dumping by weight, starting with a misdemeanor and reaching a state jail felony at 1,000 pounds, and anything dumped in a closed barrel or drum is a state jail felony regardless of weight.
Ranch house and crew housing cleanouts in Midkiff
Midkiff has housed oilfield workers since the 1950s, when the gas plant's company housing went up east of town, and its economy still rests on ranching, oil and gas, and farming, as the state historical marker puts it. Cleanouts follow that pattern: ranch houses after an estate, rentals after tenants move on, and barns and shops that have collected years of equipment, wire and parts.
Distance makes these one-trip jobs whenever possible. A full house typically runs $1,200 to $3,500, estate jobs that take several days start around $2,500 and are billed by the day, and a container left on site for a week can cost less than repeated truck visits. Sorting first, pulling out salvage metal, usable equipment and donations, trims the volume before any of it is priced.
Oilfield, lease and pipe-yard junk removal in Midkiff
This is Spraberry country. A small field named Midkiff was one of those the Railroad Commission merged into the Spraberry Trend on March 1, 1953, and the Handbook of Texas once called the Spraberry "the largest uneconomic oil-producing pay in the world." Today Upton County has more than 8,000 oil wells on commission records, as of February 2025, and it ranked third in Texas for crude in July 2026.
The rules that matter start with the source. Junk from a service company's own yard is commercial waste under the TCEQ. Trash from a lease, a drill site or an operator's own pipe yard, including barrels, dope cans, oily rags, mud sacks, wood, metal and wire, is oil and gas waste under the Railroad Commission. Hauling inert material for hire needs no commission hauler permit, but it can only go to a facility authorized to take it, the operator has to profile it, and starting December 31, 2026, transfers to facilities outside the commission's jurisdiction must be reported.
Two more lines decide what is scrap. Used pipe, rods, tanks and valves tagged "NORM", or reading above 50 microroentgens per hour including background, are not ordinary scrap until they are cleared, and a drum counts as empty only with no more than an inch of residue left in it. Drilling fluids, produced water, tank bottoms and oily soil need a commission-permitted waste hauler and an authorized disposal site, not a junk truck.
Midkiff FAQs
Where can Midkiff residents take furniture and appliances?
There is no free outlet nearby. Upton County's landfill, north of Rankin on Highway 349, takes trash, scrap wood and tree limbs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but not appliances, furniture or concrete, and the City of Midland's Citizens Collection Station is for city residents only. That leaves a paid landfill that accepts them, or a pickup.
Can oilfield trash go in the same dumpster as household junk?
It should not. The Railroad Commission treats lease and drill-site trash as oil and gas waste even when it is inert material like wood, metal or wire, and it can only go to a facility authorized to accept it, with the operator profiling the waste. Household and ranch junk is ordinary municipal waste. Keeping them in separate containers keeps both legal.
How far is Midkiff from Midland for pricing?
About thirty miles south-southeast, roughly half an hour each way by State Highway 349 and RM 2401, or by FM 1379 and FM 3095. That shows up as a travel line on the estimate, which is why combining everything into one trip, or keeping a container on site for a week, usually costs less than several small visits.