Most of what comes out of a house or a job site is fine to throw in a dumpster. The questions people actually have are about the exceptions: the heavy stuff, and the short list of things that can't go in at all. Here's the straight version.
What goes in any can
Furniture, household junk, wood, drywall, yard brush, and general remodeling debris are all fine. A garage cleanout, a room's worth of demo, a yard full of limbs, an old couch and a pile of boxes, that's exactly what these cans are for.
It helps to picture it by project. A kitchen remodel is cabinets, countertop, flooring, and the drywall behind it. A garage cleanout is boxes, old furniture, bikes, scrap lumber, and whatever has been in the corner for ten years. A yard job is limbs, brush, fencing, and pulled shrubs. All of that is standard, and none of it needs a special conversation.
How to load it
Two things make a load go smoothly. Put the heavy pieces in first, along the floor of the can, then fill in around them. Breaking down bulky items helps more than people expect. A dresser that gets taken apart takes up a third of the space it does whole.
The one rule to respect is the fill line. Debris needs to sit level with the top rail, not heaped above it. The driver has to tarp the load before it goes down the road, and a pile mounded over the top can't be tarped or hauled safely. If you're getting close to the top and still have more, call us and we'll swap the can rather than leaving you stuck.
Heavy material goes in the 7-yard
This is the one rule worth remembering. Concrete, dirt, rock, sod, brick, and roofing or shingles are dense enough that they hit the weight limit long before they fill a big container. So they go in the 7-yard, which is built low and rated for it.
There's an upside to keeping that load clean. When a 7-yard has nothing but concrete and dirt in it, that material goes to the recycle plant instead of the landfill. Mix in wood or household junk and the whole load has to go to the landfill, so it's worth keeping the heavy stuff on its own. If your project has both, rent a 7 for the heavy debris and a 13 for everything else. Two cans sounds like more trouble than it is, and it usually works out better than trying to make one can do both jobs.
What we can't take
A few things can't go in any of our containers: batteries, chemicals, and electronics. Those have to be handled separately through the proper channels. Certain liquids and oils have rules too, and those are spelled out in the terms you agree to when you book. Paint counts here as well, since wet paint is a liquid.
If you've got a wet or sludge-type load, don't guess. Call first and we'll tell you straight whether a container works for it, or whether one of our sludge containers is the better fit.
The ones worth asking about first
Some items aren't automatic yes or no, and it's easier to sort out before the can shows up than after it's loaded. Appliances with refrigerant, meaning refrigerators, freezers, and window air conditioners, have their own handling rules. Tires and mattresses are worth flagging too, because disposal rules on those vary. None of that is a problem, it just needs a heads up so nothing surprises either of us on pickup day.
Where the load actually goes
Clean heavy loads get recycled, as covered above. Everything else goes to the appropriate facility for the material. If that part matters to you, our waste management page walks through how a load is handled after it leaves your driveway.
When in doubt, ask
We ask what kind of project you've got when you book, partly so we can flag anything that needs to go a different way. You don't have to memorize a list. Tell us what you're clearing and we'll sort it out. That conversation takes about a minute and it's the reason most of our rentals go start to finish without a single question.
For the full rundown, see what goes in the dumpster. Still not sure which size fits the job? Our size guide matches common projects to a can. Not sure about a specific item? Call or text Tony at (843) 800-0689 and describe it.
Need a dumpster in Charleston? Call or text Tony at (843) 800-0689, or order online.
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