On a permitted job in the City of Sacramento the debris is rarely the hard part. The paperwork attached to it is. Sixty-five per cent of what comes off the site has to be recycled, the plan has to be approved before the permit is issued, and the tickets have to be filed afterwards. Here is how that works, what it costs, and the one rule that decides whether I am allowed to be the one who hauls it.
The City of Sacramento requires a Construction and Demolition Waste Management Plan to be submitted and approved before your building permits are issued — one plan can cover several related permits at one address, or a run of houses in a subdivision. The target is 65% of all debris generated over the course of the project. Afterwards you file a Waste Log with the tickets within 30 days of the permit being finaled or expiring, keep the approved plan and the log on site in the permit folder throughout, and hold the weight tickets for a year from the day the log goes in.
This is the distinction that decides who is allowed to touch your debris, and most people do not know it exists. Mixed construction and demolition debris has to be taken by a city franchised hauler or self-hauled by you, and it has to go to a county-certified mixed C&D sorting facility. Source-separated material — clean wood in one pile, metal in another, concrete in a third — may be hauled by anyone to a permitted recycling facility. So on a sorted job I can take it. If it is one bin of everything mixed together, your route is the franchised hauler or your own truck, and I would rather tell you that now than quote for it and put your paperwork at risk.
An administration fee of 0.04% of the job valuation, with a $40 floor and an $800 ceiling. Where a security deposit applies it is 1% of valuation, capped at $10,000. Missing the 65% can bring a fine. A late Waste Log can bring a fine and hold up approval on your next project, and a record of non-compliance is what gets a deposit attached to jobs that would not otherwise need one. Ask the city directly about the conditions for releasing a deposit, because the form sets the amount without spelling that part out. The cheap version of all this is sorting while the job is still running.
Worth saying plainly, because people do try. The city's free household junk pickup refuses construction debris outright, with dirt, rock, rubble and concrete named individually on the list, and refuses treated wood alongside them. The city's annual free disposal Saturday refuses construction and demolition material too — concrete, asphalt, sand, brick, dirt and rock are all excluded at the gate. There is no residential route for this material. Everything from here on is either a self-haul to the scales or a hauler.
Kiefer's schedule, effective 1 January 2026, is where the sorting argument stops being theoretical. Clean inerts — asphalt, tile, brick, rock, stucco and concrete with no rebar, nothing over 36 inches, no dirt and no trash — cost nothing. Mixed inerts with minimal rebar and a little dirt are $28.45 a ton. Certified clean soil, pre-approved, is $11.60. Ordinary refuse is $61.35 with a $45 minimum. Concrete with excessive rebar, pieces over three feet, treated wood and structures over eight feet long all fall into hard-to-handle at $144.90. Clean metal, cut to eight feet with batteries and fluids removed, is free.
One ton of clean broken concrete: no charge. The same ton with light rebar still in it and a bit of dirt: $28.45. The same ton with heavy rebar, or in pieces over three feet: $144.90. The same ton again with the site's general trash swept into it: $61.35 and no longer an inert load at all. Four prices for one material, separated by what happened in the fifteen minutes before it was loaded and by whether anyone took an angle grinder to it. Green waste and clean wood are the other surprise on that schedule at $115.65 a ton — more than ordinary rubbish — so cleared vegetation is never the cheap half of a lot clearance.
Framing lumber, drywall, cabinetry, countertops, flooring and underlayment, fencing and decking, roofing, siding, windows, fixtures, pallets, and the general sweepings of a remodel. Scrap metal and clean inerts I will take kept separate so they go to the free gates rather than onto your bill. What I will not carry is hazardous: paint and solvents, fuel, and anything containing asbestos. Non-friable asbestos is special-handling material at $347.80 a ton at Kiefer and it needs a contractor set up for it, not a junk truck.
Volume based, by the cubic yard, with a $165 minimum — but on this kind of work the volume is only half the question. Concrete, tile, dirt and roofing are charged by the ton at the gate, so a small-looking pile of them can cost more to dispose of than a truck packed with cabinets. I quote dense material separately for that reason. Tell me what is in the load rather than only how big it looks, and the number will be right the first time instead of revised on arrival. A photo, the address, and the permit number if there is one is enough to work from.
Sites run to dates: a final, a walkthrough, a handover, a crew arriving Monday who need the floor clear to start. The debris has to be gone before the next trade can work, and that is almost always a specific morning rather than a loose week. Tell me the date when you ask for the price and you will get a straight answer about whether I can hold it, which is more useful to you than an optimistic one.
If it is a load of clean concrete and you have a truck, Kiefer takes clean inerts at no charge and you would be paying me to deliver something free. If the load is mixed and the job is permitted, the rules point you at a franchised hauler or your own vehicle, not at me. Call me on a sorted job, on a remodel where nobody wants to make nine trips, or where the material is heavy, awkward, and on the wrong floor.
Compiled 17 October 2026 from the City of Sacramento's Construction and Demolition Waste Management Plan form dated 7 April 2025, the city's 2026-27 service guide and free disposal day notice, and Sacramento County's Kiefer Landfill fee schedule effective 1 January 2026. The conditions written on your own permit govern over anything on this page. Fees, hours and accepted materials change. Call ahead before you load a vehicle, and tell me if anything here has gone out of date.
Send a photo, your Sacramento address, and the permit number if there is one. Firm total before anything is loaded.
