Placerville is about three miles from the transfer station, which makes it the one town in my service area where hauling it yourself is genuinely easy. So this page starts by telling you when not to call me — and then covers the one thing Placerville doesn't have that the towns down the hill do.
The El Dorado Disposal Materials Recovery Facility sits at 4100 Throwita Way in Diamond Springs — roughly seven minutes from Main Street. The minimum load charge is $24.53 and mixed loose waste runs $27.06 a yard, while recycling, all electronic waste and scrap metal cost nothing to drop. If you have a car boot's worth and a free hour, that's a cheap morning and you don't need me. I'd rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise; Placerville is the hardest town in the county to justify hiring a hauler in, and the jobs where it does make sense are specific.
Here's the thing that catches Placerville residents out, and it's the opposite of what you'd expect from the county seat. El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park each have a recycling centre that takes up to two cubic yards of green waste a day at no charge for their own district residents. Placerville's centre, at 580 Truck Street, does not. It's bottle-and-can buyback and household batteries only — no green waste, no cardboard. So the free drop-off your friends down the hill talk about doesn't exist here. Green waste from a Placerville address goes to the Diamond Springs facility as a charged load, or onto your annual voucher. Worth calling El Dorado Disposal on (530) 626-4141 to check what yours covers, because the published allowance differs by area.
County ordinance adds a 25% surcharge to any unsecured load arriving at the facility. Not a tarp thrown loosely over the top — properly secured. It's the most common way a short self-haul trip ends up costing more than planned, and it applies just as much on a three-mile run as a thirty-mile one. A pickup bed piled high under one bungee cord is a false economy. Everything that leaves in my trailer goes out tarped and strapped, and that's part of what you're paying for.
Furniture and mattresses, appliances including fridges and water heaters, televisions and computers, garage and household clutter, brush and yard waste, construction and remodel debris, exercise equipment, and scrap metal. Nothing needs to be at the curb first — upstairs bedrooms, back sheds and basements are normal. What I can't take is hazardous: paint, solvents, fuel, pool chemicals, asbestos. No junk removal service in California legally can, and there's a free route for it further down this page.
By the cubic yard — the space it takes up in the trailer — with a $165 minimum on any trip. Not per item, which matters here more than most places: if I'm already coming, the marginal cost of adding the broken bookshelf and two bags of clothes is small. Given how close Placerville is to the facility, a single small item is usually cheaper to take yourself. A full garage is not. You get a firm total before anything is loaded and it doesn't move once I've started.
Before you pay anyone to haul brush, use this. The El Dorado County Fire Safe Council runs a free chipping program on the western slope, funded by CAL FIRE and county air quality grants — two free services a year per address, renewing on 1 January, up to six hours of chipping per visit. Material has to be seven inches diameter or under, brush only, stacked next to a driveway or road, and it's primary residences only. No service on Red Flag days. Placerville has its own Fire Safe Council as an associate. Apply through the chipping program portal at edcfiresafe.org. Where I come in is what chipping won't take — stumps, fencing, lumber, anything with wire or nails in it.
El Dorado County residents can drop household hazardous waste free at the Diamond Springs facility — but only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 4pm, closed between noon and one. It's a different gate and different hours from the regular tip, which is why turning up on a Tuesday with a boot full of paint cans doesn't work. Charges apply to business waste. If you're clearing a garage, sort the chemicals out for a weekend run and call me for everything else.
California bans electronic waste from household trash — televisions, monitors, computers, printers, anything with a circuit board. That's statewide law, not local policy. The Diamond Springs facility takes all of it free of charge, seven minutes from town. There is no good reason left to still own a dead CRT television in Placerville. If it's going out alongside a bigger load anyway, I'll route it to a recycler rather than a landfill.
El Dorado Disposal customers get two free bulky item pickups a year, plus free spring and autumn yard waste collection. Items have to be under 100 pounds and under eight feet in any dimension, and you need to confirm the pickup date before putting anything at the curb. That covers a single couch or a mattress perfectly well. It does not cover a garage, an estate clearance or a rental turnover, and the weight and size limits rule out most appliances and anything structural. The City's Solid Waste Division on (530) 642-5584 can sort out your account, and the city runs a Waste Wizard lookup tool if you're unsure which bin something belongs in.
Being honest about a town this close to the tip: if it fits in your vehicle and you have a free morning, take it yourself. If it's one bulky item and you haven't used your two free pickups, book those. Where the sums change is volume, weight and access — a load needing more than one run, a fridge or treadmill that takes two people and a ramp, anything upstairs or down a flight of steps, a whole garage, brush that chipping won't take, or a property that has to be clear by a fixed date. My minimum is $165 and pricing is by the cubic yard, so weigh that against several trips, the fuel, the tip fees and a 25% surcharge if the load isn't strapped down properly.
Compiled 15 September 2026 from El Dorado Disposal's facility and recycling centre pages, the City of Placerville's solid waste page, El Dorado County's franchise and household hazardous waste listings, and the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council. Hours, fees and allowances change, so call ahead before you drive anywhere. If something here has gone out of date, tell me and I'll correct it.
Send a photo and your Placerville address. You'll get a firm total before anything is loaded — and the soonest I can get there.
