Dumas runs one of the more generous municipal gates in the Panhandle, and the reason is that the city treats the landfill as an extension of the service its utility customers already pay for. A resident with proof of residency gets one free load a week, up to 1,000 pounds, of general Type 4 trash - wood, plastic, cardboard, shingles and the like. Anything past that first load, or over the weight cap, is billed at $40.00 per ton.

Three categories are free to residents with no weekly limit at all, provided the load is clean and single-material: concrete, tree limbs and metal. Mix trash into any of them and the exemption is gone. That "clean load" rule is the single thing most likely to cost you money here, so it is worth separating on the trailer before you set off rather than at the scale.

Contractors and businesses get no allowance whatsoever. Every ton of Type 4 trash, concrete, limbs or metal is $40.00. Refrigerators are $10 each for everyone and must be completely empty. Tires are priced per unit and are genuinely cheap - $1 a car tyre, $3 a pickup tyre, $7.50 semi, $10 tractor, $25 heavy equipment, all plus tax - but the city will not take tyres from a commercial business at any price.

The restriction that catches out-of-towners is geographic rather than financial. The City of Dumas Landfill only accepts waste generated within a seven-mile radius of the site, so a load hauled in from elsewhere in Moore County can be turned away regardless of what you are willing to pay. Fees are settled at the scale house after you unload, by cash or card. Liquids and hazardous waste are refused by law, which covers oil, antifreeze, pesticides and oil-based paint; lead-acid batteries, yard waste, scrap metal and freon appliances are accepted but routed separately for recycling.