Facility guide · Sacramento County · updated 2026-09-18
North Area Recovery Station (NARS), North Highlands: hours and fees
Open seven days until 6 p.m., takes cash. $89.90 a ton (effective 2026-01-01) weighed. What NARS charges, what rides free, and when Kiefer is cheaper.
At a glance
| Address | 4450 Roseville Rd, North Highlands 95660 |
|---|---|
| Hours | Monday through Friday 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Arrive 15 minutes before closing. |
| Closed | Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day |
| Who can use it | The public, businesses and private haulers. You do not have to live in Sacramento County. |
| Payment | Cash, credit card or check. Businesses can open a county account through CUBS, (916) 875-5555. |
| Weighed loads | $89.90 a ton (effective 2026-01-01), $50 minimum (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Load cover | Required by the Vehicle Code. An uncovered or unsecured load pays $25 extra (effective 2026-01-01). |
Flat fee by vehicle, or weighed
Cars, vans and pickups pay a flat fee. Vehicles with trailers, utility and box trucks, and any load with nine or more tires go on the scale instead.
| What you drive in | Posted fee |
|---|---|
| Car, station wagon or small SUV | $10 each (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Small van or large SUV | $20 each (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Pickup truck | $40 each (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Large van | $50 each (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Load piled above the cab or past the tail lights | $10 extra (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Trailer, box truck or larger, weighed | $89.90 a ton (effective 2026-01-01), $50 minimum (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Green waste, clean wood, stumps | $115.65 a ton (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Hard-to-handle: crates and spools with metal strapping, baled material, commercial refrigeration and AC | $202.85 a ton (effective 2026-01-01) |
| Special handling, including a mixed load you will not sort | $347.80 a ton (effective 2026-01-01) |
What rides free
The same no-fee list Sacramento County runs at Kiefer, with one higher line:
- Clean metal, 8 feet or less, tanks cut in half, batteries and fluids out of anything mechanical.
- Large appliances: the first two a day are free. From the third on, $40 each (effective 2026-01-01).
- Mattresses on a non-business load.
- Passenger and light-truck tires: one to four a day free, five to eight $10 each (effective 2026-01-01), nine or more weighed at $637.60 a ton (effective 2026-01-01). Commercial and semi tires are $30 each (effective 2026-01-01).
- TVs, monitors and other e-waste from residents.
If a weighed load has both, the county asks you to put the no-fee items at the tailgate or on top so they come off first.
Sort it before you go
Green waste and clean wood go in their own area, out of the bags, with painted or treated wood pulled out. That is state organics law. Mixing them into the trash is how a load gets charged special handling.
NARS does not take treated wood. Fence posts, railroad ties and piers go to Kiefer Landfill in Sloughhouse, the only Sacramento County gate that accepts them.
Paint, solvents, batteries and chemicals go to the household hazardous waste facility on site, which keeps its own days and hours. Residents can bring up to 15 gallons or 125 pounds a month at no fee; businesses need an appointment (916-876-9458). More in what we will not take and where it goes.
NARS or Kiefer
NARS is the gate for north Sacramento: Rio Linda, Antelope, North Highlands, Citrus Heights and Carmichael. It is also the more expensive one. It weighs at $89.90 a ton (effective 2026-01-01) against Kiefer's $61.35 a ton (effective 2026-01-01), and a pickup is $40 (effective 2026-01-01) here against $35 (effective 2026-01-01) at Kiefer. Its hard-to-handle rate is higher too.
What NARS has going for it is hours. It is open until 6 p.m. seven days a week, and Kiefer closes at 4:30. If you are loading after work, NARS is the gate you can still make. Every gate side by side is in every gate and every rate for 2026.
A busy site
The county reports that the public brought in an average of more than 1,200 tons a day at NARS in 2025, with about 690 vehicles a day. Expect a line at the scale, and give yourself the 15 minutes before closing the county asks for.
When it is cheaper to just go yourself
Here is the gate fee for three of our standard load sizes against what we charge to load and haul the same thing. The tonnage is an estimate for ordinary household junk, not a weighed job, and the gate column is North Area Recovery Station (NARS)'s posted rate of $89.90 a ton with its $50.00 minimum, effective 2026-01-01.
| Load | Gate fee if you haul it | We load and haul it |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter load about 3.5 cu yd, roughly 0.35 ton | $50.00 | $225 |
| Half load about 7 cu yd, roughly 0.7 ton | $62.93 | $375 |
| Full trailer about 14 cu yd, roughly 1.4 ton | $125.86 | $895 |
Go yourself if you have a pickup and it is one trip: a flat $40 (effective 2026-01-01), with the first two appliances, your mattresses and up to four tires free. NARS takes cash and is open until 6. For one pickup load in north Sacramento, that beats anything we charge.
The middle option is our trailer. We drop it, you load it on your own schedule, and we haul it to the gate: $275 for a day with the first ton of disposal included, delivery free within 25 minutes of our Lodi yard. Details on dump trailer rental.
Hire it out when the load is the problem, not the gate:
- You do not have the truck. A rental truck, fuel and the afternoon sit on top of every figure above.
- It is heavy or awkward. A fridge off a back porch, a sleeper sofa down a staircase, a hot tub. That is where people get hurt.
- It is more than one trip. A whole house or a packed garage turns into several runs, each one weighed and billed on its own.
- It will not fit in a pickup. A trailer or a box truck goes on the scale at the higher Sacramento County rate, and a whole house is several of those.
Our prices are on the full rate card, and the junk removal page has what we take.
Where our NARS loads come from
When we haul a job in these towns, this is the gate it goes to. Each page has local prices and drive times.
Related guides
Sources
Hours, rules and fees are the operator's own published figures on the dates shown. Gates change hours and rates without telling us; call the scale house before you load a truck around a number.