Appliance Removal
This is the one the dump will not take. Anything with Freon in it — refrigerators, freezers, window air conditioners — gets turned away at the gate, and that is not the gate being difficult.
Included
- Refrigerators and freezers
- Window air conditioning units
- Washers and dryers
- Ranges, dishwashers, microwaves
- Water heaters
Federal Clean Air Act §608 requires refrigerant to be recovered with certified equipment before an appliance can be scrapped. The Athens Community Collection Station on Aaron Street lists appliances containing Freon as prohibited outright, and the county precinct stations refuse them too.
So the fridge in the garage is the single most common thing in this county that a homeowner cannot legally solve by borrowing a truck. It is also heavy, awkward, and the reason people put the whole cleanout off for another year.
Washers, dryers, ranges, dishwashers, water heaters and microwaves come out the same trip. Clean metal is separated for scrap.

The county refuses exactly what you need gone.
The Athens Community Collection Station at 500 Aaron Street, Athens is open Saturdays only, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., excluding holiday weekends, to City of Athens residents only, and it wants a driver's licence and a current city water bill at the gate.
If you live anywhere else in this county — which is most of it — that station is not available to you at all. Federal Clean Air Act §608 requires refrigerant to be recovered with certified equipment before an appliance is scrapped. That is why the stations turn refrigerators away — it is not arbitrary.
Turned away at the gate
- Appliances containing Freon
- Hazardous waste
- Construction debris
- Waste oil and fluids
- Asphalt shingles
- Tires
- Dirt
- Batteries
Source: City of Athens published collection-station rules. Full disposal rules →
Appliance Removal across Henderson County and Cedar Creek Lake, from Athens out to the far side of the water.
Athens · Mabank · Gun Barrel City · Malakoff · Tool · Seven Points · Payne Springs · Eustace · Log Cabin · Trinidad · all areas →
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Text the pile to (903) 275-0638 and skip the walkthrough.