Two county facilities take almost everything. They sit on opposite sides of the county, and they do not accept the same things. Get that wrong and you drive out to Sloughhouse with a trunk full of weedkiller and bring it home again. Here's what goes where.
Kiefer Landfill, 12701 Kiefer Boulevard in Sloughhouse. Open Monday to Friday 6:30am to 4:30pm and weekends 8:30am to 4:30pm, on (916) 875-5555. It takes household waste from the public, from businesses and from private haulers, along with some recyclables, some special waste and the hard-to-handle items most places turn away. Green waste, clean wood and treated wood — railroad ties, fence posts — are all accepted, and treated wood matters because plenty of facilities won't touch it.
Every load arriving at Kiefer must be covered or secured under the California Vehicle Code, and they ask you not to pull the tarp off until you reach the tipping area. This isn't a landfill policy you can argue your way past — it's a traffic violation before you even get there. It is also the part people improvise worst: a mattress on a roof rack under a length of rope is the classic. Everything that leaves in my trailer goes out tarped and strapped as standard.
Kiefer asks you to arrive at least fifteen minutes before closing, and the county warns the site may close early once it hits its daily vehicle limit. On a Saturday in spring that is a genuine risk. Having loaded the car and driven out to Sloughhouse, being turned around at the gate makes for an expensive morning.
Sacramento County residents get up to 15 gallons or 125 pounds of household hazardous waste free every month. The ABOP and special waste drop-off at Kiefer runs Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30am to 4pm, and takes antifreeze, household and automotive batteries, motor oil, oil filters, cooking oil, latex and oil-based paint, aerosol cans, brake and transmission fluid, fluorescent tubes up to twelve a month, mercury thermometers and switches, sealed sharps containers, and up to two barbecue-size propane tanks.
This is the part worth reading twice, because it costs people a wasted round trip. The Kiefer ABOP site does not accept gasoline, household cleaners, pesticides, solvents, pool chemicals, acids, ammunition, asbestos or explosives. The North Area Recovery Station in North Highlands does accept household cleaners, pesticides, solvents, pool chemicals, acids and flammables. So a garage clear-out containing weedkiller and pool shock has to go to North Highlands, not Sloughhouse — and they are on opposite sides of the county. Sort it before you load it, not at the gate.
4450 Roseville Road, North Highlands. Open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 8:30am to 4pm, closed on major holidays. Free for residents and no appointment needed, with the same 15 gallon or 125 pound monthly limit. It will not take ammunition, asbestos, compressed industrial gas, controlled substances, explosives, medical waste, PCB materials or anything radioactive — those need a specialist route regardless of who is hauling.
Kiefer requires items with built-in batteries to go through electronic waste programs instead, and anything holding fluids or removable batteries has to be drained and stripped before it arrives. That covers a surprising amount of modern junk — cordless tools, laptops, e-bikes, robot vacuums, anything rechargeable. It is one more reason a single garage clear-out quietly turns into three separate trips when you do it yourself.
Kiefer accepts green waste, clean wood, and treated wood including railroad ties and fence posts. The treated wood is the useful part — old fencing and landscape timber get refused in a lot of places, and people end up driving them around for weeks. Fees are set by the county and change; check the current schedule before you go rather than trusting a number someone posted on a forum three years ago.
Fifteen gallons a month sounds generous until you empty a garage that has been filling up since the nineties. Old paint on its own routinely goes past it, and because the limit resets monthly, a big clear-out becomes a schedule rather than a trip. That is before you have sorted which half goes to Sloughhouse and which half goes to North Highlands, and set aside the things neither site will take.
If it is one load, already sorted, properly covered, and you have a free morning — go. Sacramento County has made the simple version genuinely simple and I would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Call me when it is more than fits in one vehicle, when it is heavy or upstairs or needs two people, when it spans both facilities, or when you would rather not spend a Saturday sorting hazardous waste into two piles for two sites forty minutes apart. My minimum is $165, pricing is by the cubic yard, and you get a firm total before anything is loaded. I do the sorting, and each part goes to whichever facility actually accepts it.
Compiled 14 September 2026 from Sacramento County Waste Management and Recycling's own pages for Kiefer Landfill, the Kiefer ABOP and special waste drop-off, and the North Area Recovery Station household hazardous waste facility. Hours, fees and limits change, so call ahead rather than relying on this page alone. If you find something here that has gone out of date, tell me and I will correct it.
Send a photo and your location. I'll sort it, secure it, and take each part to the facility that actually accepts it.
