Every East Tennessee contractor carries a disposal line item in their bids. It's easy to gloss over when you're putting a number together - until you notice it's chewing through your margin on every job.

Haul concrete to the Blount County landfill and you're paying around $60 per ton in tipping fees. That number has climbed for years, and landfills aren't getting cheaper.

So what if you could cut that cost and do something useful with the material at the same time? That's exactly what concrete recycling at Smoky Mountain Sand & Gravel does. The numbers are below.

The Landfill Cost Structure

Be clear about what you're paying for at the landfill. When you haul concrete there, you're paying them to bury it in the ground permanently. That's the deal. Perfectly good concrete gets dumped into a cell, compacted, and covered. It'll sit there for centuries.

What that costs you:

Tipping fee: ~$60 per ton at the Blount County landfill
Gate fees or minimum charges at some facilities
Wait time costs - your crew and truck sitting in the landfill queue is billable time you'll never bill for
Fuel costs - landfills aren't always close to your job site

The tipping fee is the number on the invoice, but the real cost of a landfill trip is always more than that.

The Concrete Recycling Cost Structure

When you bring concrete to SMSG, the math looks different. Our per-ton rate for concrete drop-off is well below the $60/ton landfill fee. Current rates are on our pricing page.

Beyond the per-ton rate:

Shorter wait times. We're a dedicated recycling yard, not a multi-use landfill juggling every type of waste. You get in and out faster.
Convenient location. We're centrally located in Blount County, which keeps drive times reasonable for contractors across the region.
No surprises. Pricing is straightforward. No hidden gate fees, no surcharges for "oversized pieces," no extra charges for concrete with rebar.

Head-to-Head: A Single Project

Take a real scenario. You're tearing out an old commercial parking lot and you've got 25 tons of broken concrete to deal with.

Landfill Route

| Line Item | Cost | |---|---| | Tipping fee (25 tons x $60) | $1,500 | | Fuel (estimate, round trip) | $80 | | Crew time at landfill (1 hour wait x 2 workers) | $90 | | Total | $1,670 |

SMSG Recycling Route

| Line Item | Cost | |---|---| | Drop-off fee (25 tons at SMSG rate) | Significantly less than $1,500 | | Fuel (estimate, round trip) | $60 | | Crew time at SMSG (15-20 min) | $30 | | Total | Hundreds less than the landfill option |

We keep exact rates off the blog - they're on our pricing page - but the savings on a 25-ton load are real. Hundreds of dollars on a single job.

Plug your actual tonnage into our savings calculator to see the exact difference.

The Annual Picture Is Where It Gets Serious

A few hundred bucks on one job is nice. But nobody does one job a year. Look at what the savings mean over 12 months.

Scenario: A mid-size demolition and sitework contractor

Average of 3 concrete disposal trips per month
Average load: 15 tons per trip
Annual tonnage: 540 tons

Annual Landfill Cost

540 tons x $60/ton = $32,400 per year in tipping fees alone

Annual SMSG Cost

540 tons at our recycling rate = Thousands less per year

That difference could buy a piece of equipment, fund a crew bonus, or just go to your bottom line. For heavy demolition contractors moving 100+ tons a month, the annual savings climb into five figures fast.

Hidden Costs of Landfill Disposal

The per-ton fee isn't the whole story at the landfill. Things contractors tend to overlook:

Increasing fees. Landfill tipping fees have trended up for years. Capacity shrinks, operating costs rise, fees keep climbing. Locking in a recycling relationship now protects you from future increases.
Environmental compliance risk. More municipalities and project owners are requiring waste diversion plans that show C&D materials are recycled rather than landfilled. If you're already recycling, you're ahead.
Lost material value. Concrete is a valuable raw material. Send it to the landfill and you're burying money. We turn it into recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) that goes back into the supply chain. You can even buy RCA from us at a lower cost than virgin aggregate.
Opportunity cost of time. Every hour your crew spends at the landfill is an hour they're not on a job site. Our faster unloading process means your trucks get back on the road sooner.

What About Mixed Loads?

If your demo job throws off concrete mixed with wood, drywall, and other debris, separating the concrete before you load out is almost always worth the trouble. Bring the clean concrete to SMSG at our lower rate and take only the non-recyclable material to the landfill. A few minutes of sorting on the job site saves real money. Our drop-off guide lays out exactly what we accept.

Making the Switch

Switching from landfill disposal to recycling at SMSG is simple:

Check our rates. Visit the pricing page or call us at (865) 999-0857.
Bring your next load. No appointment needed. Show up during business hours.
See the difference. Once you compare the invoice to what you were paying at the landfill, the decision makes itself.

If you're a contractor with regular disposal needs, we also offer contractor accounts with volume pricing and net payment terms that make the economics better still.

The Real Takeaway

Landfill disposal at $60 per ton is the expensive, wasteful way to get rid of concrete. Recycling at SMSG is the affordable, responsible alternative - and it's available right here in East Tennessee.

We're the only dedicated concrete recycling facility in the region. Nobody else does what we do, and nobody else can match the combination of low rates, fast service, and real material recycling.

Run your numbers. Use our savings calculator, check our pricing, or call us at (865) 999-0857. Once you see the math, the decision is easy.

Landfill vs Concrete Recycling - The Real Cost Comparison for East TN Contractors