Bags, a roll-off or a demolition haul-off
The right answer depends on three things about the site: how much room there is, how fast the debris comes out, and how heavy it is. Here is how the three options compare on Eco Waste's published prices.
| Dumpster bags | Roll-off dumpster | Demolition crew | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room it needs | A 7 × 4 ft spot per bag; our crane truck lifts it out | 8 ft wide and 14 to 20 ft long, plus the truck's approach | Whatever the demolition needs, plus a bag or bin for the debris |
| What it holds | 4 yd³ or 1 ton a bag | 12 to 40 yd³; 3 tons included (5 on the 40) | Priced by the job |
| Price | $308 for one bag, $516 for two and $724 for three on one pickup | $650 for 12 to 25 yd, $825 for the 40, two weeks | Labor $65/hr basic, $95/hr foreman, 4-hour minimum |
| Time on site | Fill at your own pace; pickup when you book it | 14 days included, then $15 a day | Quoted case by case |
| Best for | Kitchens, baths, flooring, re-roofs of a few squares, steady debris on long jobs | Whole-house tear-outs, big roofs, concrete and dirt to a fill line | Tear-outs you'd rather not staff yourself |
Prices from our rate sheet (revised 07/01/2026) and our bag prices. One pickup takes up to 3 bags; a 4th starts another pickup at $279. Compare your own load with the bag vs dumpster calculator.
The money difference is simple. The cheapest roll-off is $650. One or two bags cost less than that ($308 and $516); at three bags' worth of light debris ($724) the 12-yard is cheaper if the site has room for it. What changes the answer on a real job is room, time and weight.
Tight lots, HOA streets and hillside driveways
A roll-off needs more than its own footprint. The published truck figures we use (from other cities' service standards, not our own truck, which we haven't published) put a roll-off truck at 8.5 ft wide and 10.1 ft mirror to mirror, ask for a 12-ft-wide approach, and list 18 ft of overhead clearance. The City of Olympia wants a drop box on a surface with no more than 0.5% slope, with roll-away protection above that. Measure your site with the driveway fit checker.
A bag needs a 7 × 4 ft spot. Our crane truck lifts it out, so no bin has to be rolled onto the client's driveway. How far the crane reaches from the truck depends on the site, so text us the address and where the bag will sit before you order.
The street. A bin in the street is in the public right-of-way, and Orange County cities handle it differently. San Juan Capistrano charges a $505 general encroachment permit for up to two days. San Clemente's dumpster encroachment fee is $91. Laguna Niguel's dumpster permit is $75, can take up to 10 business days, and asks for a certificate of insurance naming the city as additional insured. Yorba Linda generally keeps large construction bins out of the right-of-way. State law adds its own rule: a bin placed on a roadway or curb needs reflective markings and the owner's name and phone number (California Health and Safety Code §26275).
HOAs and private streets. In unincorporated Ladera Ranch, Rancho Mission Viejo and Trabuco Canyon, a private, association-maintained street isn't County right-of-way, so the association decides. Ladera Ranch's community guidelines set times for trash containers but don't mention roll-off dumpsters, so ask the association before a bin goes out.
Check the street before the first delivery
The dumpster permit checker lists who issues a street permit in each city we serve, with the source. Whether a bag in the street needs one is a question for the city and for us: ask before you place it there.
Tile, concrete and dirt: plan by weight
A bag stops at 4 cubic yards or 1 ton, whichever comes first, and heavy material reaches the ton long before the bag looks full. At 2,400 lb per loose cubic yard of broken concrete (City of San Diego's figure), one bag holds about 0.8 cubic yards. Ceramic tile weighs about 3.5 lb per square foot, so 100 sq ft is about 350 lb and one bag takes roughly 570 sq ft of it. Over the ton, pickup adds $135 a ton from the on-site scale reading.
In a roll-off, heavy loads are priced to a fill line instead of by the ton: clean concrete or clean dirt is $775 to the 10-cubic-yard line, a mixed dirt-and-concrete load is $950, and clean brick is $950 flat. Keep them clean. From our rate sheet: "Any debris/trash combined in a dumpster with dirt, concrete, brick or green waste will be weighed and billed at debris/trash rates."
Keeping heavy material separate also helps the recycling report, because diversion is counted in tons. The concrete & dirt calculator sizes a slab or a dig, and the debris weight calculator converts cubic yards of anything else to tons.
Paperwork: invoices, tickets and the C&D report
- Invoices by job address. Every Eco Waste invoice is issued under the project's job address, so each job's hauling lands on its own paperwork.
- A scale weight on every pickup ticket. Each bag pickup has a ticket that shows the job address and the bag's weight on the scale.
- A license you can check. Eco Waste Inc. is CSLB #947447, C-21 Building Moving / Demolition, active since 2010. The CSLB record also lists the license bond and workers' compensation coverage.
- Terms. Invoices are due on receipt unless other arrangements have been made. Ask us about account arrangements for ongoing work.
On a permitted job the city adds its own paperwork. CALGreen sets 65% diversion statewide; Dana Point and Mission Viejo require 75%. Fountain Valley's weight tickets must show the facility, the tonnage, Fountain Valley as the origin and a C&D code. Laguna Beach, Lake Forest and Tustin track projects in Green Halo. The CALGreen guide for Orange County contractors goes city by city.
Ask before the first load
Cities decide what documentation they accept, and some want the receiving facility's own weight tag rather than a hauler's ticket. Tell us the city before the job starts and ask what we can provide for its report.
When demolition is part of the job
Eco Waste holds a C-21 Building Moving/Demolition license, so the demolition and the haul-off can come from one contractor. Labor is $65 an hour basic and $95 an hour foreman with a 4-hour minimum; demolition is quoted case by case. See demolition.
Before any demolition in Orange County, South Coast AQMD Rule 1403 requires an asbestos survey and a notification to the District 10 working days before work starts, even when no asbestos is found, and that includes single-family homes. The demolition notice checker applies the rule to your job, and the demolition planning guide puts it in order with permits and utilities.
Scheduling hauling across several jobs
Bag pickups get cheaper per bag the more you put on one pickup (up to 3), and each job site is its own pickup. So the habit that saves the most is holding each site's full bags for one pickup a week. Two sites each filling 2 bags a week, picked up together at each site, come to about 17.3 bags and $4,472 a month; one bag per pickup would cost $2,400 more over 12 weeks.
A roll-off kept on site the whole job looks cheaper per yard, but it adds $15 a day after 14 days, and every time it fills it has to be swapped. Our rate sheet doesn't publish a swap price, so ask. The job-site hauling cost tool shows the break-even swap price for your jobs, and the remodel debris budget calculator writes the debris line for a bid.