Local Rules

The DPW Yard Rules, and Who They Shut Out

It is genuinely useful and genuinely free. It also turns away rental trucks, trailers and anything from a business — which catches people mid-project.

What the Yard is

The City of Dearborn runs a Department of Public Works yard at 2951 Greenfield Road, and it opens to residents for free bulk waste drop-off.

It is a good service and we say so plainly, because for a lot of small jobs it is the right answer and a container would be a waste of your money. If you have a few bulky items and a car or a small trailer-free pickup, this is cheaper than anything we can offer.

Two things make it work: it is free, and it takes the awkward bulky items that a cart was never designed to hold. Two things limit it hard, and both catch people out.

The third Saturday, and one visit a month

The Yard opens for free residential drop-off on the third Saturday of each month, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

That is a five-hour window, once a month. Miss it and the next one is four weeks away.

On top of that, residents are limited to one drop-off visit per month. So the practical capacity of this route is a single vehicle load, once every four weeks.

Other conditions worth knowing before you drive over:

• Proof of Dearborn residency is required. Bring it.
• The waste must be generated by a single-family household.
• You unload your own vehicle. Nobody does it for you, which matters if the item is heavy or awkward and you are on your own.

For a couch and a broken dryer, that is entirely reasonable. For a bathroom strip-out, it is not a plan.

⚠️ What was shut out in 2019

This is the part that surprises people mid-project, and it is worth stating precisely.

Read that list again, because it removes most of the ways a person would actually move renovation debris:

• Rented a truck for the weekend? Turned away.
• Borrowed a utility trailer? Turned away.
• Built up the sides of your pickup with planks to get it in one trip? Specifically named, and turned away.
• Landlord clearing an apartment? Not eligible — apartments are excluded.
• Contractor doing the work for you? Not eligible — commercial operations are excluded.

The logic is straightforward from the City's side: the Yard is a residential courtesy, not a free commercial transfer station, and it was being used as one. But the effect on a homeowner planning a renovation is that the free route quietly closes at exactly the point the job gets big enough to need it.

The form nobody expects

There is a second layer, and it is unusual enough to be worth flagging.

Residents may be required to complete a form stating the source of the bulk waste. That form is verified by Property Maintenance and Development Services against move-out and certificate-of-occupancy records, and against renovation permits where those are required.

In other words, the City can and does check whether the debris you are dropping off came from work that should have been permitted.

That is not a trap for honest people. If your work is permitted, it is a non-event. But it does mean the Yard is not a way to quietly dispose of the evidence of unpermitted work, and anyone treating it that way is taking a risk they may not have thought about.

What it will not take at all

Some materials are excluded from both the curb and the Yard, regardless of who you are:

• Construction materials — the big one for anyone renovating
• Hazardous materials
• Fuel
• Ammunition

Tires are accepted only on designated tire collection days, so the four in the corner of the garage need their own plan.

Household hazardous waste — paint, solvents, chemicals, batteries — goes to Wayne County rather than to the City. The county runs collection events for residents and a voucher program for drop-off at a contractor site. Check the county's current arrangements rather than a remembered address, because these details change.

Where that leaves a renovation

Put the pieces together and the picture is clear.

A bathroom strip-out produces tile, a vanity, a tub, drywall and subfloor. That is construction material, so the Yard will not take it. If you rent a truck to move it anyway, the truck is prohibited. If you hire a contractor, the contractor is a commercial operation and is excluded.

Same for a kitchen, a basement finish, a roof, a garage rebuild or a deck removal.

This is not us talking a service up. It is the arithmetic of the City's own published rules, and it explains why roll-off containers exist in a city with a perfectly good free drop-off: the free route is built for household bulk, and stops precisely where construction debris begins.

Using both routes properly

The cheapest way through most projects uses both.

• Bulk household items first. Furniture, mattresses, appliances — either the curb, within the bulk limits, or the third Saturday at the Yard.
• Then the container for the construction debris, which has nowhere else to go.
• Yard waste stays separate throughout — it has its own stream and its own rules.
• Chemicals and paint to Wayne County, never into either.
• Tires set aside for a collection day.

Doing it in that order means you are only paying us to haul the material that genuinely has no free route, which is usually a smaller container than people first assume.

We would rather size you correctly than sell you a 30 yard for a job that is really a 15 plus two trips to Greenfield Road.

A short checklist

• Check the date — the Yard is the third Saturday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Bring proof of Dearborn residency
• Remember it is one visit per month
• Do not arrive in a rental truck, commercial truck or trailer — you will be turned away
• Do not plank up a pickup to carry more; it is specifically prohibited
• Expect to unload the vehicle yourself
• Be ready to complete a source form if asked
• Keep construction material out of it entirely — it is not accepted
• Send paint, chemicals and batteries to Wayne County
• Hold tires for a designated collection day
• For anything permitted or contractor-run, plan a container from the start