The Elizabethtown Dumpster Rental blog
Dumpster Rental Guides for Elizabethtown & the Lincoln Trail region
Real answers from 14 years of running containers around Elizabethtown and Hardin County — sizing and what a job actually costs, which of four governments answers your question and how to tell which side of the city line you are standing on, where a container can sit in limestone country, what the City’s own clean-up refuses to take, emptying a house against a June report date at Fort Knox, and why the Commonwealth’s building and fire codes read the opposite way to most of the country’s.
All articles
13 guides written by people who drive the trucks
No filler, no listicles. Every one of these answers a question that comes across the desk at our yard on North Dixie Highway most weeks, and the ordinances, section numbers and phone numbers in them are the City of Elizabethtown’s, Hardin County’s and the Commonwealth’s rather than somebody else’s. That matters more here than in most markets, because the answer genuinely depends on which side of a line you are standing on: inside the city, inside Radcliff or Vine Grove, out in the unincorporated county, or on federal ground at Fort Knox. Where a rule belongs to another city hall, we say so and tell you to ask there.
Sizing Guide
What Size Dumpster Do I Need in Elizabethtown, KY?
Two Hardin County customers need two different boxes, and the city line is part of the reason. How to size on material rather than on how big the pile looks.
Cost
What a Dumpster Really Costs in Elizabethtown, KY
No price range, no tipping fee, and a clear explanation of why. Instead: the eight things that actually move the number on a Hardin County container job.
How-To
What Can and Cannot Go in a Dumpster in Kentucky
A Kentucky list rather than a generic one, careful about the difference between a state law, a local program rule, and something that is simply a bad idea here.
Permits
Dumpster Permits and Placement Rules in Elizabethtown
Three questions wearing one coat, three different desks, and an honest account of the two answers we could not find in print. Every phone number included.
Local Guide
Which Side of the City Line Are You On?
One road, one ZIP code, three governments. The statute, the franchise, the lawsuit and the six things that change the moment you cross an Elizabethtown line.
Permits
Kentucky Building and Fire Code for Containers
There is no International Fire Code in Kentucky, and a single-family house needs no local permit unless the town set up a program. Elizabethtown set one up on purpose, and wrote the houses in.
Local Guide
Karst, Sinkholes and Where a Container Can Sit
Four things this page will not do, and then everything the Kentucky Geological Survey does say about the ground under Hardin County, quoted and left intact.
Sizing Guide
Roof Tear-Off Dumpster Sizing in Elizabethtown
Two in five Hardin County homes predate 1980 and the biggest single decade is the 1970s, which is the decade that layers. Count the layers before you order, because weight decides the size.
How-To
Driveway Protection on Kentucky Limestone
Elizabethtown is one of the karst cities the Kentucky Geological Survey names. Here is what that does and does not mean for where a container sits, and the four claims we will not make.
Local Guide
Elizabethtown City Clean-Up, Brush and Leaf Collection
The City will take your washing machine and not your drywall, and it says so in writing. All three programs, every exclusion quoted, every phone number given.
Local Guide
Fort Knox PCS Move-Out Cleanouts in Hardin County
A family with orders and a hard report date, and the family that just bought their house sight unseen. Both halves of the Fort Knox move cycle, and the one Hardin County disposal problem that runs on an annual calendar.
How-To
Estate Cleanout Checklist for Elizabethtown
Clean out a house in March and the county's household hazardous waste event may not come around until September. Inventory the liquids on day one, then work in this order.
Local Guide
Storm and Ice Debris Cleanup in Hardin County
NWS Louisville publishes a tornado climatology for this county: 24 events since 1890. The verified record, what a container solves after a storm, and what the City's brush truck will not take.
Helpful Local Resources
Every office below answers something we cannot — a code edition, a permit, a disposal rule, a locate. A good half of what people ask us on the phone is really a question for one of these desks, so here they are with the reason you would ring each one.
- City of ElizabethtownPublic Works on (270) 737-7890, the Fire Department, and the City’s own clean-up, brush and leaf schedules. Note the .org — the .gov does not serve a site.
- Elizabethtown Code of OrdinancesChapter 92 on garbage, debris and rubbish; § 150.01 adopting the Kentucky Building Code and establishing the city’s inspection program; § 150.16 on fees.
- Hardin CountySolid Waste and Recycling on (270) 360-9207 — the seven drop-offs, and the annual household hazardous waste and electronics events.
- Hardin County Planning & Development CommissionThe permit desk for all of unincorporated Hardin County, on (270) 769-5479.
- City of RadcliffHardin County’s second-largest city runs its own hall on Lincoln Trail Blvd. Different city, different answers.
- City of Vine GroveIts own mayor, council and permit system on West Main Street. Note the .org.
- KY Energy and Environment CabinetThe Division of Waste Management permits Kentucky landfills by class, and the Division for Air Quality runs asbestos notification.
- KY Housing, Buildings and ConstructionThe department that promulgates the mandatory Uniform State Building Code under KRS 198B.050.
- Kentucky State Fire MarshalThe Kentucky Standards of Safety adopt NFPA 1 rather than the model fire code most other states use — and they exempt one- and two-family dwellings.
- KY Transportation CabinetNorth Dixie Highway is US 31W, a state primary route. Encroachments there are a Cabinet matter — District 4, (270) 766-5146.
- Kentucky statutes and regulationsKRS 224.43-315 on universal collection, 401 KAR 49:080 on collector registration, and 401 KAR 47:005 on what counts as construction debris.
- Kentucky Geological SurveyThe people who name Elizabethtown a karst city, and who publish the homeowner checklist we quote rather than a risk map.
- Kentucky 811Two full working days before you dig, a ticket good for twenty-one days, and an eighteen-inch tolerance zone.
- National Weather ServiceHardin County is the Louisville forecast office, not Paducah — ice storms, severe storms and the county tornado record.
- US EPAWhere a pre-1978 lead renovation certification is actually issued, because Kentucky never took the RRP program over.
- US Census QuickFactsPopulation, housing age and tenure for Elizabethtown and Hardin County.
Services
Or skip the reading and pick a container
Residential Dumpster Rental
Two in five Hardin County houses predate 1980, and their attics and garages show it.
Learn more →Commercial Dumpster Rental
Businesses inside the limits, where Fire Prevention on (270) 765-2121 will look at the box.
Learn more →Construction Dumpster Rental
Mixed build waste in one box, swapped next day, from the city line out to the county roads.
Learn more →Roofing Dumpster Rental
Squares and layers, never roof area — and never a 30 or a 40, whatever the roofer asks for.
Learn more →Roll-Off Dumpster Rental
Five box sizes, out of the North Dixie Highway yard every working day of the week.
Learn more →Same-Day Dumpster Rental
Call before nine and the afternoon board usually still has a slot on it.
Learn more →Talk to a real person
Need a dumpster in Elizabethtown today?
Give us the street address rather than the mailing town, say what is going in, and you will have the size, one flat figure and a day before you hang up. Nothing on this site to fill in, and nothing waiting in an inbox overnight.
Elizabethtown, the rest of Hardin County, and seventeen more places across seven counties · Mon–Fri 6:30am–5pm, Sat 7am–1pm