Any counter that sells tires takes old ones the day you buy new — $3-8 a tire, handed over while the car is on the lift. Show up without a purchase and that same counter often says no, or wants $10-25 each. County programs take a few per year. Curbside pickup, no purchase needed, is $89.
If you're buying new tires anyway, the counter solves this
The $3-8 a tire that shops add to a new-tire invoice is the easiest legal exit an old tire gets. The old set comes off while the car is up, and if you carry in a couple of strays from the garage while you are a paying customer, plenty of counters will take those too. Ask when you book the install; it varies by store.
No purchase coming? Two routes are still worth a call. Some auto parts stores take a few tires — store by store, so phone before you load the car. And many counties run collection days or year-round drop-off, with rules attached: commonly four to eight tires per household per year, off the rims, with proof you live there. If your stack clears those rules, that is your answer.
| Route | Per tire | The condition |
|---|---|---|
| Tire counter, buying new | $3-8 | A purchase — the old set trades in at the counter |
| Same counter, no purchase | $10-25, or refused | The store's call on the day you show up |
| County program | Often free | Caps of 4-8 a year, rims off, proof of residency |
| Auto parts store | Varies | Some take a few — call the specific store first |
| Dropcurb, at the curb | $89 first, $15 each after | None — rims on, no purchase, no cap |
The stack in the garage, with no purchase attached
Walk up to that same counter with no purchase and the math flips. Standalone drop-off is refused outright at many shops, and where walk-in tires are taken, $10-25 each is normal. The yes is decided by whoever is working that day, partly by how full the scrap rack already is. A policy page does not bind the store, so you can load the trunk, drive over, and drive home with the same tires.
County programs gate differently. A cap of four to eight a year covers one car's worth, not the pile from two cars and a trailer. Most want rims off, which means paying a shop to break them down before the free route will touch them. And most states ban whole tires from landfills, so the transfer-station gate turns them away too.
Every no-purchase route hangs on something you may not have: a yes the counter can withhold, a cap your stack fits under, rims already off, a truck. That is how tires survive in a garage for years.
A curbside tire pickup is $89 for the first tire and $15 for each one after it — no purchase attached, no yearly cap, rims on or off. The price is fixed when you book. Roll the stack to the curb and a local hauler takes all of it. 5.0 on Google, 150+ reviews · 4.9 on Trustpilot, 125+ reviews.
Tires, $89Never heard of Dropcurb?
Fair question for a flat $89. One Google reviewer wrote: "I was concerned this wasn't a legit company, but they absolutely are." Tyler Bond's couch was gone 45 minutes after he booked. We hold 5.0 on Google across 150+ reviews and 4.9 on Trustpilot across 125+, and haulers on the network move more than 1,000 items a month. Tires are among the easiest of them: no stairs, no doorways, nothing that breaks.
Do the rims have to come off?
For a pickup, no — a tire on a rim and a bare tire are the same $89-then-$15 item. Where rims matter is the free routes. Most county programs take bare tires only, and getting a tire off a rim at home is a machine's job, not a pry bar's, so shops charge per tire to break them down. If your plan was the county collection day, the rims rule is usually the detail that quietly kills it: you would pay a shop to dismount five tires to qualify for a free drop-off. Run that math before you load anything. If the stack is already bare and fits under your county's cap, the county is genuinely the better answer.
What happens after you book
Book first, then stage the tires — the price locks at booking, so rolling them out later changes nothing. Stack them at the curb or the end of the driveway, anywhere a hauler can reach without going inside. Haulers head out between 8 and 10 in the morning; almost half of pickups are finished by noon and about three quarters by 2 PM. You get a text with the ETA before yours arrives, and photos once the stack is gone, so you do not need to be home. Book by 2 PM and it goes today where same-day pickup is running, seven days a week.