We would rather tell you how to do this yourself than sell you a trailer you do not need. A pickup load of clean cardboard is a free trip to a recycling centre. Paying somebody to drive that is paying for a driver, not a service.
What follows is the county's own information, which is worth knowing whether you call us or not.
The main site: Baseline
Marion County's landfill and transfer station is at 5601 SE 66th St, Ocala. The landfill side runs Monday to Saturday, 7am to 5pm, and is closed Sunday.
The recycling centre at the same address keeps different hours, which catches people out: Monday to Thursday and Saturday 7am to 5pm, Friday until 7pm, and Sunday 9am to 5pm. So Sunday is a recycling day but not a landfill day.
There are eighteen recycling centres, not one
The county runs eighteen of them, and they do not all take the same materials. The one nearest you may not accept the thing you are carrying, which is a wasted trip nobody tells you about in advance.
Before loading a car, it is worth a call to Marion County Solid Waste on (352) 671-8465 to confirm the site you are heading to takes what you have.
Household chemicals have their own door
Paint, gasoline, pesticides and cleaning chemicals go to the Household Hazardous Waste area at Baseline. Not the kerb, not a recycling centre, and not the back of our trailer — we cannot take them either, and no legitimate hauler can.
Electronics are accepted at the Baseline recycling centre. Old televisions and monitors are the ones people assume are refused, and they are not.
Eight things the county will not take at all
Solid Waste no longer accepts asbestos, boats, concrete, contaminated soil, dirt, rocks and sod, power poles, RVs or mobile homes.
This is the list that surprises people mid-project. If you are tearing out a concrete slab or clearing a lot, the disposal route is a private facility and the cost is materially different from a normal cleanout. Worth knowing before the demolition starts rather than after.
When it is worth paying somebody
Three cases, honestly. When the volume is more than your vehicle can do in two trips. When the item is heavy enough to need two people and a strap — a piano, a treadmill, a full fridge down a stair. And when your time on a Saturday is worth more than the fee.
Everything else, you can do yourself, and we would rather you knew that.
County hours and accepted-material lists change. The times above were correct when this was written; marionfl.org has the current version, and the phone number above reaches a person who will tell you in ten seconds.