Dump fees eliminated for Nye County residents
This week, the Nye County Commission officially approved a bill that waives all tipping fees for Nye County residents utilizing local landfills for their personal needs, effective immediately.
That means those who call Pahrump, Tonopah, Round Mountain or any other Nye County community home will once again be able to bring almost anything they wish to be rid of – from garbage to old furniture to appliances, tires, junk cars and more - to any county landfill and dispose of it, free of charge.
“This is basically cleaning up what we decided before, to get rid of these damn fees,” commission chair Ron Boskovich stated as the public hearing on Nye County Bill No. 2026-03 opened on Thursday, June 18.
“That is correct,” Nye County Public Works Engineering Tech Cody McKee confirmed, noting, “This does not apply to contractors or any types of businesses that conduct waste removal in Nye County.”
With no public comment and the board all on the same page, the bill quickly passed with a 5-0 vote.
The change comes as a result of public pushback over the landfill tipping fees, which were established for residential users for the very first time in July 2025.
Although it was clarified that household trash was still free to dump, and “Green Saturdays” were launched to allow free dumping of yard waste, residents were not pleased. After decades of being able to use the landfills without cost, the newly instated fees were widely criticized, with many people asserting their belief that they had led to an increase of illegal dumping in the desert and along little-used roadways. These concerns and the overall public sentiment toward the fees ultimately prompted Nye County Public Works to seek a way to easily waive them for anyone who lives in the county.
The solution came in the form of a simple swap of words - deleting the term “household” and replacing it with “solid” in Nye County Code Chapter 8.24.250 A. That code will now state, “Any resident (as verified by State of Nevada Identification Card), lessee or tenant of Nye County may dispose of solid waste generated at his or her own residence at any such sanitary landfill or transfer station operated by the county or its authorized contractor without charge…”
Under Nye County Code Chapter 8, solid waste is defined as, “Any putrescible and nonputrescible refuse in solid or semisolid form that has been discarded or abandoned by its owners, including, but not limited to, garbage, rubbish, junk vehicles and parts, ashes or incinerator residue, dead animals, construction or demolition debris, commercial and industrial waste, and hazardous waste, including explosives, pathological waste, chemical waste and herbicide or pesticide waste, refuse, and recyclables that are commingled solid waste.”
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
