Guide · 6 min read · updated 2026-09-17

Tire disposal in San Joaquin and Sacramento counties: fees, limits and the ten-tire rule

What each gate charges per tire, how many a resident can drop off free, and why hauling ten or more tires at once needs a state registration.

The short answer

If you have four or fewer car tires, getting rid of them is usually free.

• North County Landfill, Lodi: San Joaquin County residents can bring up to 4 motorcycle, passenger or small truck tires per trip at no charge. Otherwise a passenger tire is $6.50 unmounted (effective 2026-01-01) or $7.50 on the rim (effective 2026-01-01).
• Kiefer Landfill and NARS, Sacramento County: passenger and light truck tires are no fee (effective 2026-01-01) for the first four per day, then $10 each (effective 2026-01-01) for five through eight.
• Nine or more at once in Sacramento County are charged by the ton, and ten or more in one vehicle means the hauler needs a state waste tire registration.

Most people with a pile of tires in the side yard have more than four. That is where the rules start to matter.

Why tires are regulated separately

Whole tires do not compact, they trap water and breed mosquitoes, and a tire pile fire can burn for weeks. California regulates who may haul them.

Public Resources Code §42951 requires anyone who transports waste or used tires to hold a valid waste and used tire hauler registration, and to deliver them only to a facility authorized to accept them. Section 42954 lists the exemptions. The one that matters to a homeowner: a person transporting fewer than 10 waste or used tires at any one time is exempt.

So you can take nine tires to the landfill in your own truck. Ten or more at once requires a registered hauler — or several trips.

What every gate charges

Figures are from each operator's posted sheet with the date the rate took effect. Mounted means still on the rim.

On the rim or off it

The San Joaquin County sheet charges a dollar more per passenger tire when it is still mounted. That is not worth a trip to a tire shop to have them broken down, but if the tires came off a car you are already working on, bring them bare.

The rim is scrap steel or aluminum. Sacramento County's gates take clean metal at no fee (effective 2026-01-01), so a pile of old wheels is worth separating from the rubber before you go. The appliance and scrap metal guide covers the clean-metal rules.

Where tires do not go

Not in your trash cart. Tires are not household garbage and the collection truck will leave them.

Not to the hazardous waste facility. The San Joaquin County Household Hazardous Waste Facility lists tires on its not-accepted list. Tires go to the landfill scale house.

Not mixed into a trailer load of trash if you can help it. Sacramento County's sheets let the site supervisor charge special handling on mixed loads that are not unloaded in the right area. Keep tires on top or in a separate pile so they can come off first.

Not on the side of a road. A dumped tire pile is an illegal-dumping case, and it is exactly what the hauler registration rules exist to stop.

Tire shops

When you buy new tires, the shop usually takes the old ones and charges a per-tire disposal fee on the invoice. That is almost always the easiest route for tires still on a car. It does nothing for the six bald spares behind the garage, which is where most tire calls come from.

What we charge, and when it is worth it

Our per-item line for a tire is $25 each, and rim-on is the same price. On garage cleanouts we take up to four tires per job at that rate. Tires in a rented dump trailer are handled separately from the rest of the load, at the same per-tire price.

For four passenger tires and a San Joaquin County address, drive them to Harney Lane yourself — they are free. Where we are worth it is when the tires are one part of a larger clear-out: a garage, a side yard, a rental that a tenant left full. Then the tires ride with everything else and the per-item line is published in advance on the pricing page.

A worked example: the side-yard pile

A typical call: six old passenger tires, four bare and two still on rims, stacked behind a garage in Lodi.

If you are a San Joaquin County resident hauling them yourself to North County Landfill, four ride free on the trip. The other two pay the per-tire line: $6.50 unmounted (effective 2026-01-01) or $7.50 mounted (effective 2026-01-01). Six tires is under the ten-tire line, so no hauler registration is involved.

If you live in Sacramento County and take them to Kiefer, the first four are free for the day and tires five and six are $10 each (effective 2026-01-01). Split the pile across two days and all six can go free.

If you have twelve, you are over the ten-at-once line. Either make two trips of six, or have a registered hauler move them.

If we pick them up, each tire is $25, rim-on or off, and they ride separately from the rest of the load.

Tires left at a rental or an estate

Abandoned tires are one of the most common things left behind at a rental turnover or found in an estate garage. Two practical points.

Resident versus business. The free tire counts on the county sheets are written for residents. If you are a landlord clearing a unit you own but do not live in, or a property manager clearing a unit for an owner, ask the scale house how they will treat the load before you unload. Business loads pay the posted per-tire rate from the first tire.

Count before you load. A trash-out often turns up more tires than anyone expected — under a tarp, in the shed, behind the fence. Count them before anyone loads a truck, because ten or more in one vehicle puts the load under the state hauler registration rule.

Tire piles also hold water, and standing water in a tire is mosquito habitat. On a vacant property that is the kind of thing that turns into a code-enforcement letter. If the tires are part of a larger clear-out, a rental cleanout or a junk pickup job takes them with everything else.

Which gate for which town

If you are hauling tires yourself, the county you live in decides the free limit. For reference, here is how the towns we serve route when we haul.

• North County Landfill, Lodi: Lodi, Stockton, Acampo, Lockeford, Woodbridge, Victor, Clements, Thornton, Linden and Morada.
• Kiefer Landfill, Sloughhouse: Galt, Elk Grove, Wilton, Herald, Rancho Murieta, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, Vineyard, Florin, Isleton, Courtland and Walnut Grove.
• North Area Recovery Station, Sacramento: Sacramento, Citrus Heights, Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Orangevale, Antelope, North Highlands, Rio Linda, Elverta and Arden-Arcade.

The per-tire rates for each are in the table above. Full hours and general per-ton rates for every gate are in the 2026 gate guide.

Quick answers

Do bicycle tires count? Sacramento County's sheet counts one passenger tire as equal to 50 bicycle tires, so a few bike tires are not a problem.

What about tractor or equipment tires? They are priced separately and much higher. North County lists farm tractor, loader and earth-moving tire rates on its sheet; call before you load one.

Does the free limit apply to businesses? No. The free counts on the county sheets are for residents. Business loads pay the listed rates.

Where are the gates and what are their hours? The full comparison is in where to dump in San Joaquin and Sacramento counties.

Related guides

Sources

Every fee above is read from the operator's own published sheet and shown with its effective date. Rates change; call the gate before you load a truck around a number.

• California Public Resources Code §42951 — waste and used tire hauler registration — read 2026-09-17
• California Public Resources Code §42954 — hauler registration exemptions (fewer than 10 tires) — read 2026-09-17
• San Joaquin County — North County Recycling Center & Sanitary Landfill price sheet, effective 2026-01-01 — read 2026-09-17
• Sacramento County — Kiefer Landfill fees, effective 2026-01-01 — read 2026-09-17
• Sacramento County — North Area Recovery Station fees, effective 2026-01-01 — read 2026-09-17
• San Joaquin County Household Hazardous Waste Facility — read 2026-09-17