I'm in the same process as you, but on a smaller scale by the looks of it.  Yup, trash bin is full and I could fill it up again.  Might just have to bite the bullet and take stuff directly to the dump.  Of course, this isn't just my layout, this is a lot of stuff (mostly drywall) that I saved from past projects that I know I will not use on the next layout.

  My trash service provide a 60-70 gallon trash container and pick it up every week.    Most of the time, it gets about 3-4 13 gallon 'Hefty' tall kitchen bags of trash through the week.  The cardboard and other recycle stuff goes in another large container that is picked up every other week.  During yard work in the summer and layout construction - I wind up with more trash than I can stuff in that big container.  I made a deal with both of my neighbors - Before the trash truck arrives at 7 AM, it there is still space in their containers - I add 'fill tonnage' in their containers to get rid of my extra trash.

  Our local county 'Waste to Energy' facility is about a 10 minute drive, and they will take all beverage bottles, plastic bags, magazines, grass clippings and batteries for no charge.  They normally charge 35 cents/lb for old electronics, but laptops are free because they have a large battery in them.

  The amount of trash you can accumulate with building a model railroad can be immense.  I have an old blade for my circle saw and cut up scrap lumber/plywood/sheet rock and bag it up as well.  It becomes 'fill tonnage' as well.  So far the every spring & fall tree trim project results in one or two 'back of the SUV' loads that I have to pay $5 each for.

Jim

After having to scrap my first indoor layout (long before recycling) I went modular (or at least separable). Since then I have had five moves, and although I have left some modules behind, I have not had to scrap anything. But try as I can it has been difficult to move my garden layouts. The moving crews just do not want to deal with several hundred plants, mounds of real dirt and five to ten tons of rock. Do you know what miniature cedars or a pallet of nice rock costs these days? $$$ And the water features do present certain moving issues, like do I eat the carp (you know large gold fish), or just leave them to the new home owners (usually the latter although they usually are dead by the time the new owners catch on that they have pets). So for those dealing with disassembling or moving even fairly large indoor layouts - Big Deal!!!

Thanks for the tip, Jim; despite our city $5 per bag pickup system, I have a recycle outlet in the next community where the model railroad club exists. My comments were echoing yours as even with being only "half finished," I was surprised at the amount of material that goes into a reasonable modest layout.

The key for me is not so much the trash as being able to carefully reuse some of the materials etc. as is possible. Of course, even though I am able to "rescue" some items, they may not fit with the overall scheme of the new plan and will end up as parts for kitbashing. Looking at a recent series of videos on the building of layouts, I have picked up more than a few tips on individual scenes and dry fitting completed components. Of particular note were thin bases that neatly were blended into the surrounding scene. I plan on using some of these techniques for the new railroad.