How Much Does a Dumpster Rental Cost?

A 20-yard dumpster, the most common size, has a median published price of $419, with most companies listing between $350 and $490. The spread is the interesting part.

What you're paying for

A dumpster rental is four costs bundled into one number: delivering the container, renting it for a fixed period, hauling it away, and dumping what's inside. Only the last one varies much between companies, and it varies a lot.

Haulers pay a landfill or transfer station by the ton. That gate rate, the tipping fee, swings from under $30 a ton in parts of the Midwest to well over $100 in the Northeast and on the West Coast. It is the single biggest reason the same container costs twice as much in one state than another.

Why two quotes in the same town differ

Same size, same week, forty dollars apart. Usually one of three things:

Different included weight. One company includes two tons, the other one. The cheaper listing is only cheaper if you stay under the limit.

Different rental period. Seven days is the most common, but three-day and fourteen-day rentals are both widespread. A short period with a daily extension fee can end up costing more than the longer quote.

Different distance to the dump. A hauler whose yard sits near a transfer station spends less of the day driving than one forty miles out.

The number that matters

Ask for the all-in figure: base price, included tonnage, overage rate per ton, rental period, and any fee for extra days. Overage runs a median of $76 a ton, and it's where most surprise invoices come from. A quote without those five numbers isn't comparable to anything.

What the listed price leaves out

Almost every price you see advertised is a base rate, and there are five things that routinely sit outside it. Weight over the included allowance, billed per ton. Extra days past the rental period. A trip charge if the truck arrives and cannot place the container, which is usually the full delivery fee for nothing. Surcharges on items the yard has to handle separately, like mattresses, tires and appliances with refrigerant. And a permit, if the container goes in the street.

None of those are hidden in any dishonest sense. They are just quoted on request rather than advertised, so two companies can look far apart on the headline number and land within a few dollars of each other on the invoice.

Comparing two quotes properly

Put both on the same five lines: base price, included tons, cost per ton over, rental days, cost per extra day. Then price your actual job through both. A company $40 cheaper on the base rate but including half a ton less is more expensive the moment you go over, and heavy jobs go over almost every time.

The other half of comparing is knowing the local number rather than the national one. Tipping fees are set county by county, so what matters is what haulers around you are charging, not the US median. Median prices by state gets you closer, and the methodology page shows the sample behind each figure so you can see how much weight to give it.

See median prices by size and state →

Common questions

Figures on this page come from the Dumpster Price Index. How the data is collected.