Dumpster Price Index Dataset

The full Index as a machine-readable file: every median we publish, by size and by state, with the sample size behind each one. Free to download, free to reuse, and free to quote with attribution.

Edition 2026-08-18. 3,536 published prices from 1,395 independently owned companies across 37 states.

Download

• price-index.csv, for spreadsheets and analysis
• price-index.json, for anything programmatic

Both carry the same figures: national medians by container size, state medians by size, the 25th and 75th percentiles, and the number of companies behind every row. Where a cell is empty it is because fewer than 8 companies in that state publish a price at that size, and we would rather show nothing than a median built on three observations.

Licence

Use it for anything, including commercially. The only ask is attribution: name the Dumpster Price Index and link back where the medium allows a link. You do not need permission and you do not need to tell us.

How to cite it

Dumpster Price Index (2026). Median published roll-off dumpster rental prices, United States. Edition 2026-08-18. https://dumpsterpriceindex.com/data/

What is in it, and what is not

Every figure is a price a company published on its own website, collected by crawler and recorded against a named container size. We do not call for quotes, we do not accept prices from brokers or national carriers, and we never estimate a missing value. A company that does not publish a price contributes nothing rather than being filled in from its neighbors.

That makes the dataset a record of published prices rather than of transacted ones. Published rates are a starting point: they exclude weight over the allowance, extra days, permits and surcharges, all of which move the final bill. The full method is here.

Updates

The corpus is re-crawled on a rolling basis and the file is rebuilt with the site, so the copy at these URLs is always the current edition. The edition date above is the date the underlying prices were last checked. Earlier editions are not archived yet; if you need a fixed snapshot for a citation, take a copy at the time you cite it.

Using the dataset

Can I use this data commercially?

Yes. Use it for anything, including commercial work, under CC BY 4.0. The only condition is attribution: name the Dumpster Price Index and link back where the medium allows a link. No permission needed and no need to tell us.

How current is the file?

It is rebuilt with the site, so the copy at these URLs is always the current edition. The present one is dated by edition, which is when the underlying prices were last checked. Earlier editions are not archived, so take a copy at the time you cite it if you need a fixed snapshot.

Why are some cells empty?

Because fewer than 8 companies in that state publish a price at that size. Below that threshold we publish nothing rather than a median resting on two or three observations. An empty cell is a real statement about coverage, not a gap to be filled in.

Are these the prices people really pay?

These are published prices, which is a different thing and the distinction matters. They are the starting rate a company advertises, before weight over the allowance, extra days, permits or item surcharges. Treat them as the floor of a real invoice rather than the total.

Questions about the data, or want a cut of it we do not publish? hello@dumpsterpriceindex.com.