Chicago Dump Fees & Transfer Station Guide for Junk Removal Operators
Current 2026 tipping fees for Chicago-area transfer stations and landfills. MSW rates from $75–$150/ton with facility details, hours, and routing strategies.
Use the guidance with your local numbers.
Resource pages explain the planning model, but local disposal rates, labor costs, truck setup, service area, and customer demand still decide the final operating choice.
Typical disposal costs
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Facilities and transfer stations
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Restrictions and paperwork
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Cost-saving playbook
Chicago has the highest disposal costs of any major Midwest metro — $100/ton at SWANCC is nearly triple the national municipal average. This means dump fee tracking is not optional. An operator running 4 jobs/day at $100/ton who doesn't track per-job disposal costs will leak $200–$400 per week in unaccounted disposal overhead. ScaleYourJunk logs dump fees per job automatically so you can build accurate disposal costs into every quote and see which job types actually generate margin after disposal.
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Cook County has zero active landfill capacity — the last landfill (River Bend Prairie in Dolton) has closed. Every ton of waste must go through transfer stations first, then travel 60 to 120+ miles to landfills in Will, Livingston, Winnebago, or LaSalle counties, or across the border into Indiana. That transport cost is baked into gate rates, which is why Chicago transfer stations charge $75 to $110 per ton compared to a national average of $62 per ton. The Midwest regional average for direct landfill disposal is $57.24 per ton, but Chicago operators rarely have direct landfill access.
SWANCC in Glenview (technically Des Plaines) at $100 per ton for MSW is the only facility with fully published pricing and serves as the market benchmark. Private operators like LRS, Groot, and WM do not post rates publicly — you must call for a quote. Use SWANCC's published $100/ton rate as your negotiating baseline when calling private facilities. For landscape waste, SWANCC's $70/ton rate is a significant discount over their MSW pricing.
LRS Chicago Transfer Station at 3152 S. California Ave operates 24 hours Monday through Friday, with Saturday hours from midnight to 3:00 PM. It is the only facility in the Chicago metro offering overnight disposal access. Rates are not publicly posted — call (773) 579-1200 for a quote. This is particularly valuable for operators running evening cleanout jobs who need to dump before heading home, or for pre-dawn dump runs before starting the morning route.
SWANCC accepts C&D at the same $100/ton MSW rate. Land and Lakes Company's Willow Ranch facility near Romeoville accepts clean construction and demolition debris (CCDD) and may offer lower rates, but all loads require prior approval via ccdd@land-and-lakes.com. For full-truckload C&D runs, WM's Prairie View landfill in Wilmington (estimated $40 to $65/ton) is the cheapest option if you have a commercial account and can absorb the 60+ mile drive. Note that electronics are banned from all Illinois landfills.
Big Daddy Scrap in Chicago Heights offers the best published rates in Chicagoland and is open 7 days a week including Sundays. Current rates include bare bright copper at $4.67 per pound, #1 copper at $4.55 per pound, and yellow brass at $2.50 per pound — significantly higher than most other U.S. metros. BL Duke in Forest View and Joliet offers commercial-grade service with fixed-price contracts for operators running 20+ gross tons per month. Both accept ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
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Chicago Disposal Costs Can Break Your Margin — Track Every Load
ScaleYourJunk logs disposal costs per job, per facility, per truck so you can see which jobs are profitable after Chicago's $100+/ton transfer station rates.