Updated November 2026 US, UK, Canada and Australia Free calculator
Nobody builds a bin cleaning business on one-off jobs. The price of a single clean is small, so the money comes from a round: hundreds of households on a recurring plan, cleaned street by street on collection day, with payments taken automatically. Get the price per stop and the density of the route right and it is steady, repeatable income. Get either wrong and you are driving a tank of dirty water around town for very little.
For $24–$35 a visit you can clean two household bins on a monthly plan in the US and be priced like established operators. In the UK, where wheelie bin rounds have run for decades, two bins every four weeks cost £8–£16. In Canada the same stop runs C$25–C$35 and in Australia A$26–A$35. One-off cleans cost about twice as much per visit, and the calculator below covers both.
Set the job details to get a price to quote, then check what that price leaves you per hour once driving, supplies and tax are counted.
bins
Carts cleaned at one address on the same visit. Most homes have two: trash and recycling.Wheelie bins cleaned at one address on the same visit. Most homes have two or three.Carts cleaned at one address on the same visit. Most homes have two or three: garbage, recycling and organics.Wheelie bins cleaned at one address on the same visit. Most homes have two or three.
We only publish going rates for the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Enter the price you plan to charge and the calculator shows what it pays you per hour, and the lowest price you should accept.
Charge about
$30
per visit, for 2 bins
Budget$24Typical$30Premium$35
$
per visit, in your own currency
What you really keep
$42an hour in your pocket at the typical price
Adjust the numbers above to match your job.
The price is built as a base fee plus a rate for the size of the job, then adjusted for the options you pick. Time is an estimate for one person working alone; change it if you know your own pace.
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Price list
Trash Bin Cleaning prices by job size
Job
United States (USD)
United Kingdom (GBP)
Canada (CAD)
Australia (AUD)
One bin
$19–$25trash cart only
£5–£9general waste bin only
$18–$24garbage cart only
$17–$22general waste bin only
Two bins
$24–$35trash and recycling
£8–£16general waste and recycling
$25–$35garbage and recycling
$26–$35general waste and recycling
Three bins
$30–$50trash, recycling and yard waste
£11–£23general, recycling and garden waste
$30–$50garbage, recycling and organics
$35–$50general, recycling and green waste
Four bins
$35–$60a large household or duplex
£14–£30a large household or two flats
$40–$65a large household or duplex
$45–$65a large household or duplex
Hourly rate
$50–$130what working pros bill
£20–£55what working pros bill
$50–$130what working pros bill
$50–$120what working pros bill
Minimum charge
$18smallest job worth the trip
£5smallest job worth the trip
$18smallest job worth the trip
$17smallest job worth the trip
Prices are per visit in local currency, from a fair budget price to an established operator in a higher-cost area.
United States: This is a newer trade here, usually run with a trailer or truck rig that lifts the cart, blasts it with hot high-pressure water and captures the runoff. Monthly plans for a two-bin household run $25 to $37 a visit and a one-time clean $45 to $99. Subdivisions and homeowner associations, where every house has the same carts and the same collection day, are the best ground.
United Kingdom: Wheelie bin cleaning is a long-established round trade. A van-mounted machine follows the refuse lorry on collection day and each bin is cleaned every four weeks. Regular prices run about £4 to £8 a bin, with £5 the most common figure, and one-off cleans £10 to £15. Most rounds charge less for a second and third bin at the same house.
Canada: The trade is small and prices are thinly published. One British Columbia operator lists C$20 to C$35 per clean depending on cart size, and an Edmonton service adds a monthly clean to its plan for C$20 a month. Expect a spring-to-fall season in most of the country, because wash water and frozen carts do not mix.
Australia: Heat makes this an easier sale here: bins smell and breed maggots fast in summer. One Darwin operator publishes A$19 a bin monthly and A$39 for a single clean, or A$30 and A$64 for two bins. Some operators clean the recycling bin at half price when it is done with the general waste bin.
Method
Ways to price trash bin cleaning
01Recurring plan, per bin per clean
The core of the business. The customer signs up for a clean every four or eight weeks, or every quarter, and pays automatically. The price per clean falls as the visits get more frequent, because a bin cleaned every month takes a fraction of the time of one left for a year.
02Household price for two or three bins
A first-bin price and a lower price for each extra bin at the same stop. Extra bins add a few minutes but no driving, so they are your best-paid work. Price them low enough that most customers add every bin they own.
03One-off clean
A single visit at roughly double the recurring price per bin. Use it as a paid trial. Quote the one-off price and the plan price together and offer to credit part of the one-off if the customer signs up within a week.
04Commercial bins, priced by volume
Restaurants, apartment blocks and strata buildings have many bins or large ones, and want an invoice, not a card payment. Price per bin on a sliding scale by quantity, with a higher rate for 660 and 1,100 L containers. One Australian operator lists 240 L commercial bins at A$11 to A$14 each and 1,100 L bins at A$24 to A$34, before tax.
Price factors
What changes the price
01Route density
This matters more than your price per bin. A stop takes a few minutes. The drive to the next one can take longer than the clean. Twenty customers on four streets earn more per hour than fifty spread across a town, so sell hard in the streets you already work and turn down or surcharge the outliers.
02How often you clean
A bin cleaned every four weeks needs a rinse and a deodorize. A bin cleaned once a year needs scraping. That is why the price per visit rises as the gap gets longer, and why a one-off clean should cost about double a plan visit.
03Bins per stop
The first bin carries the cost of getting there. Each extra bin adds three or four minutes and nothing else. In the US an extra bin on a plan adds about $5 to $15 a visit. Price extra bins to be an easy yes.
04Collection day
You can only clean an empty bin, so your route follows the collection truck. Each area has one or two working days in every cycle, and a customer who forgets to put the bin out, or a missed collection, breaks the route. Decide in advance whether a missed bin is charged, skipped or caught up.
05Bin size and commercial work
A 360 L household bin takes a little longer than a 240. A 1,100 L commercial container is a different job, worth two to three times the price, and often needs a rig that can tip it. Commercial customers pay on invoice and expect a quantity discount.
06Condition on the first visit
The first clean of any bin is the worst one. Maggots, set-in food waste and years of residue can double the time. One UK operator quotes from £20 for a very dirty bin and from £25 for a maggot clean, against £15 for a normal one-off. Charge a first-clean or heavy-soil fee and say so before you start.
07Your equipment
A pressure washer and a water tank on a small trailer will clean a bin, slowly. A purpose-built rig lifts, washes inside and out with hot water and captures the runoff in a fraction of the time. Faster equipment only pays for itself on a route dense enough to keep it working.
Worked examples
Real quotes, step by step
United States
Two carts every eight weeks in a subdivision
A household in a 300-home subdivision signs up to have the trash and recycling carts cleaned every eight weeks, on collection day. Twelve neighbors are already customers.
One stop is small money. Thirteen stops on the same streets before lunch is a business. Offer the whole subdivision a group rate through the homeowner association and fill the gaps.
Base price, 2 bins
$30
Every 8 weeks
× 1.15
Quote, rounded
$35
Going range
$28–$45
Time, with 15 min driving
0.5 hours
Supplies and fuel
− $3
Set aside 25% for tax and overheads
− $8
You keep
$48 an hour
United Kingdom
Three bins on a four-weekly round
A semi-detached house with general waste, recycling and garden waste bins, cleaned every four weeks by a van-mounted machine that follows the refuse collection.
The third bin costs the customer little and takes you about three minutes. Households with three bins at the same stop are the best-paying customers on the round.
Base price, 3 bins
£16
Quote, rounded
£16
Going range
£11–£23
Time, with 15 min driving
0.5 hours
Supplies and fuel
− £1.50
Set aside 25% for tax and overheads
− £4
You keep
£22 an hour
Australia
One-off clean of two maggot-infested bins
A family back from a summer holiday to two bins crawling with maggots. They want both cleaned today, as a one-off.
This is the call that sells plans. Charge the full one-off and heavy-soil price, do the job properly, and leave a price for monthly cleaning so it never happens again.
Base price, 2 bins
$30
One-off clean
× 2.2
Maggots, heavy build-up or first clean in years
× 1.5
Quote, rounded
$100
Going range
$85–$120
Time, with 15 min driving
0.75 hours
Supplies and fuel
− $8
Set aside 25% for tax and overheads
− $23
You keep
$92 an hour
Canada
Large garbage cart, quarterly
A household with one large 360 L garbage cart that wants it cleaned four times a year, from spring to fall.
Quarterly customers pay more per visit and still cost you more per dollar earned, because each clean is heavier. Take them, but steer new customers toward the four or eight week plan.
Base price, 1 bin
$21
Quarterly
× 1.55
Large household bin, 360 L (96 gal)
× 1.25
Quote, rounded
$40
Going range
$35–$45
Time, with 15 min driving
0.5 hours
Supplies and fuel
− $4
Set aside 25% for tax and overheads
− $9
You keep
$54 an hour
Your costs
What it costs you to do the work
Equipment is the big decision. You can prove there is demand with a pressure washer and a tank, but a full round needs a machine that lifts, cleans and captures water quickly, and that is a serious purchase.
Item
USA (USD)
UK (GBP)
Canada (CAD)
Australia (AUD)
Budget setup: pressure washer, water tank and basic water captureEnough to test a few streets. Slow, and hard on your back.
$2,000–$5,000
£1,500–£4,000
$2,700–$7,000
$3,000–$7,500
Purpose-built trailer or van-mounted bin wash machineIn the UK, an entry-level van machine for single 240 L bins starts at about £4,400 plus VAT. US trailer rigs with hot water and lifts cost far more.
$28,000–$43,000
£4,400–£20,000
$38,000–$60,000
$40,000–$65,000
Fuel, water, detergent and deodorizer, per month
$150–$500
£100–£350
$200–$650
$220–$700
Liability and vehicle insurance, per year
$1,500–$4,000
£600–£1,800
$2,000–$5,000
$2,000–$5,000
Avoid these
Pricing mistakes that cost beginners money
Taking customers anywhere
A customer fifteen minutes off your route costs more to serve than they pay. Start with two or three neighborhoods, market only there, and add an area when the first ones are dense.
Buying the big rig first
A purpose-built US trailer costs as much as a new truck, and total startup with a tow vehicle can reach $35,000 to $80,000. Sign up your first hundred customers with modest equipment or a deposit list before you commit.
Chasing small payments
Collecting a few dollars or pounds per bin by hand, door to door or by bank transfer, takes longer than the cleaning. Take a card or direct debit at sign-up and bill automatically every cycle.
Cheap one-off cleans
A one-off is a filthy bin, a special trip and no repeat income. Charge about double the plan price per bin, and use it to sell the plan.
Letting dirty water run into the street
Bin wash water is contaminated. Storm drains usually lead straight to rivers, and discharging into them is an offence in many places. Capture the water, dispose of it the way your local water authority allows, and tell customers you do. It is also a selling point against a neighbor with a hose.
No rule for bins that are not out
If the bin is still full or locked behind a gate, you have made the trip for nothing. State in your terms that a bin not available on the day is charged, or charged at half, and remind customers by text the night before.
Questions
Common questions about trash bin cleaning prices
How much should I charge to clean trash bins?
For two household bins on a four-weekly plan, charge $24–$35 per visit in the US, £8–£16 in the UK, C$25–C$35 in Canada and A$26–A$35 in Australia. Charge more per visit for less frequent plans and about double for a one-off clean.
How much should I charge per bin?
On a monthly plan, US operators charge about $18 to $25 for the first bin and $4 to $10 for each extra one. UK rounds charge about £4 to £8 a bin every four weeks, and one Australian operator publishes A$19 a bin monthly. Use a first-bin price and a lower extra-bin price, not one flat rate.
How much should I charge for a one-off bin clean?
About twice your plan price. In the US a one-time clean runs $35 to $60 for one bin or $45 to $99 for two. In the UK it is £10 to £15 a bin, and around £25 for two at the same house.
How much can a bin cleaning route earn per hour?
On a dense route, about $50–$130 an hour in the US, £20–£55 in the UK, C$50–C$130 in Canada and A$50–A$120 in Australia before equipment costs. That depends entirely on having stops close together. Operators commonly target a gross margin of 50% to 70% after fuel, water and supplies, and only reach it on tight routes.
How many customers do I need?
One published estimate puts monthly revenue at about $3,500 for 100 US customers, $7,000 for 200 and $10,500 for 300. Treat seller projections with care: figures from equipment makers often assume full days at maximum density, which takes most operators a year or more to build.
What equipment do I need to start?
At minimum, a pressure washer, a water tank, a way to capture dirty water and a vehicle or trailer to carry them. A budget US setup costs about $2,000 to $5,000. A purpose-built trailer costs $28,000 to $43,000 and a truck-mounted hot-water system $55,000 to $90,000.
How often should bins be cleaned?
Every four weeks is the standard plan in the UK and a common one in the US, with every eight weeks and quarterly as cheaper options. In hot climates customers often want general waste bins done more often in summer.
Is bin cleaning a good add-on to another business?
Yes, if you already own a pressure washer and work the same streets regularly. Window cleaners, pressure washers and lawn care operators can offer it to existing customers on the day the bins are emptied, with no extra travel.
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Where these numbers come from
The rates on this page were set in November 2026 from the published price guides below, then checked so that the calculator, the price list and the examples all agree. How we work out prices.