Blount County Landfill vs SMSG: The Cheaper Alternative for Concrete + Asphalt

If you've been Googling Blount County landfill it's usually because you have a load of concrete, asphalt, or demo material to get rid of and you're trying to figure out where it's going. This guide compares the two options in Blount County, TN — the county-run landfill and the private recycling yard 8 miles away — with real dollar numbers on every truck size so you can make the right call before you fire up the truck.

Short version: for anything bigger than a small pickup load, SMSG in Maryville beats the Blount County Landfill on price by a wide margin, is open more days, and has a flat per-vehicle rate so you always know what you're paying before you show up.

Blount County Landfill: What It Costs, Where It Is, When It's Open

The Blount County Landfill is run by the Blount County Highway Department and sits on Ruth Lane in Maryville. It's the county's primary disposal facility for construction and demolition debris (C&D), household solid waste, and yard waste.

Location: Ruth Ln, Maryville, TN Concrete + Asphalt C&D rate (2026): ~$60/ton Hours: Weekdays only, roughly 7am-3pm. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Payment: Weighed on the scale. You pay by the ton after inbound + outbound weights are recorded. Minimums: Yes — a small load still hits a minimum charge, typically around $30-50.

Verify current hours and rates with the Blount County Highway Department by phone before you make a large-load trip; posted schedules do occasionally drift and the scale is closed on federal holidays.

Smoky Mountain Sand & Gravel: The Alternative

SMSG (Smoky Mountain Sand & Gravel) is a private concrete and asphalt recycling yard about 8 miles from the Blount County Landfill, at 245 Brookdale Rd in Maryville. Instead of weighing each load, SMSG charges a flat rate per vehicle type — a system you'll find at most commercial recycling yards but almost never at municipal landfills.

Location: 245 Brookdale Rd, Maryville, TN 37801 Hours: Mon-Fri 7am-5pm, Saturday 8am-12pm, closed Sunday. Payment: Flat per-vehicle rate. Cash, card, check, or on-account. What we take: Clean concrete, asphalt, brick, block, natural stone. No wood, drywall, roofing, or general trash.

The Numbers: Side-by-Side Per Truck Size

Assume clean concrete or asphalt in every case (the C&D rate at the landfill applies).

| Vehicle | Landfill (approx tons) | Landfill cost @ $60/ton | SMSG flat rate | Savings | |---|---|---|---|---| | Pickup (½-¾ ton) | 0.5-1 ton | $30-60 (minimum) | $40 | ~$0-20 | | Single-axle trailer | 2-4 tons | $120-240 | $80 | $40-160 | | 10-yd roll-off | 4-6 tons | $240-360 | $100 | $140-260 | | Tandem trailer | 4-6 tons | $240-360 | $120 | $120-240 | | Single-axle dump (10-14 yd) | 6-10 tons | $360-600 | $140 | $220-460 | | Tandem dump (14-18 yd) | 10-14 tons | $600-840 | $170 | $430-670 | | Tri-axle / end dump | 18-22 tons | $1,080-1,320 | $200 | $880-1,120 |

The break-even is somewhere around a light pickup load. Anything bigger, the flat rate wins. On a tri-axle, you save more than $1,000 per load compared to the landfill — enough to change the economics of an entire demo job.

Beyond Price: The Other Reasons Contractors Switch

Cost isn't the only difference. Here are the operational reasons SMSG customers made the switch:

No scale wait. At the landfill, you drive on the scale, wait to be weighed, dump, drive back on the scale for the tare weight, then settle at the office. On busy days that's 20-40 minutes per truck. At SMSG, you pull up to the pile, tip your load, pay the flat fee, and leave — usually under 10 minutes total.

Predictable pricing. You can bid a demo job knowing exactly what disposal will cost before the trucks roll. No "we'll see what the scale says" surprises for your customer or your margins.

Open Saturdays. The Blount County Landfill closes Friday afternoon and doesn't reopen until Monday. SMSG opens Saturday 8am-noon, which is the difference between a weekend cleanup crew being able to finish the job or having to leave a loaded truck at the yard until Monday morning.

Material actually gets recycled. SMSG runs the concrete through a crusher and sells it back as recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) for driveways and base courses. What goes to a landfill takes up airspace forever. What comes to SMSG becomes new material within weeks.

One phone call to open an account. Small demo contractors and roll-off operators can open a net-30 account and stop pulling cash every trip. Just call the office.

Which Loads Should Still Go to the Landfill

To be fair — the Blount County Landfill is the right answer in a few specific cases:

Mixed loads with drywall, wood, insulation, or general trash. SMSG can't take those; the landfill can.
Household waste and yard waste. Not a recycling yard's function.
Very small loads where the drive difference outweighs the $10-20 savings.
Roofing shingle disposal. Neither SMSG nor most recycling yards take shingles; they go to the landfill or a specialized shingle recycler.

For 90%+ of clean concrete, asphalt, brick, and block loads coming out of a demo job or a driveway tear-out, SMSG is cheaper and faster.

What Counts as "Clean" at SMSG

Clean means the load is majority concrete, asphalt, brick, block, or natural stone. A little dirt or a couple of pieces of rebar is fine — the crusher separates steel during processing. What we cannot take:

Wood, drywall, roofing shingles, insulation
Plastic, wire, general trash
Painted or sealed concrete in significant quantity (small amounts okay)
Anything hazardous — paint, solvents, fuel containers

If you're not sure whether a load qualifies, call (865) 999-0857 before you load. We'd rather answer a 30-second question than turn a truck away.

Getting to SMSG From the Blount County Landfill

If you're already on Ruth Ln at the landfill and realize you'd rather have flat pricing, SMSG is a 15-minute drive south. Head to 245 Brookdale Rd, Maryville. Both facilities are in Blount County; you're not adding significant fuel time.

Bottom Line

The Blount County Landfill works — but at $60/ton with weekday-only hours, it's built for a different generation of construction disposal. For clean concrete, asphalt, brick, and block, the private recycling yard 8 miles away flat-rates the same load for a fraction of the cost, opens Saturdays, and turns your rubble into aggregate that gets sold back into East Tennessee driveways.

Call SMSG at (865) 999-0857 for a rate quote on your next load, or just swing by the yard at 245 Brookdale Rd, Maryville. No appointment, no scale, no paperwork.