Free tool

What does your debris weigh?

Your disposal bill turns on what the load weighs, not on how big the bin looks. Here is what each material weighs per cubic yard, every figure sourced, and a calculator that applies it to your job.

How much does a cubic yard of construction debris weigh?

A cubic yard of broken concrete weighs roughly 0.39 to 0.84 tonnes, asphalt 0.35 to 0.63, soil 0.42 to 0.93 and mixed renovation debris 0.15 to 0.38 — figures published by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and two Californian county and city authorities, all named and linked below. The ranges are wide because a cubic yard of loosely tipped rubble is not a cubic yard of tightly loaded slab. Big Bin publishes this table because disposal is billed by the tonne, so weight decides the bill.

What will your load weigh?

No address, no email, no sign-up. It runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.

Work out what your load weighs

What is it?

How are you measuring it?

By its size in feetIn cubic yards

Length, feet

Width, feet

Thickness, feet

Four inches of concrete is 0.33 feet thick. Measure the space the debris will fill, not the slab it came from — broken concrete does not stack the way it was poured.

3.9 cubic yards of broken concrete

1.5 – 3.3 t

This is an estimate, not a measurement. Published densities disagree, and real material varies with moisture, how tightly it is packed, and what else is mixed into it.

That volume fits a 14 yard bin.

Heavy material

This is a weight problem before it is a space problem. A bin can be inside its volume and still be too heavy to leave your driveway legally, so the size above is the room it needs — not a promise that it can be hauled full.

Not published yet: How high a heavy bin can legally be filled — call and ask.

What a cubic yard of each material weighs

Weight per cubic yard as the material sits loose in a bin. Where two agencies publish different figures, both are here — the disagreement is real and it is worth understanding, because it is the difference between rubble tipped loose into a mixed load and a bin packed with one material.

Weight per cubic yard of construction and demolition materials, with the source of every figure
Material	Pounds per cubic yard	Tonnes per cubic yard	Published by
Broken concreteSlab, footing and foundation concrete, with or without reinforcing bar. The low figure is concrete as it turns up in a mixed waste stream; the high figure is a bin loaded with concrete and nothing else, which is what a driveway tear-out actually produces.	860 – 1,855	0.39 – 0.84	United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, April 2016 · City of Woodland, California, no publication date printed; retrieved 2026-08-11
Concrete mixed with soilMeasured, not estimated: the middle half of 75 real truckloads of concrete-and-dirt weighed at a disposal facility. The closest published figure to what a heavy bin on a driveway job actually weighs.	987.3 – 1,814	0.45 – 0.82	Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, September 2021 · Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, September 2021
Broken asphaltDriveway and road surface, broken out. Lighter than concrete for the same volume because it is stone chippings held together, not one solid mass.	773 – 1,380	0.35 – 0.63	United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, April 2016 · City of Woodland, California, no publication date printed; retrieved 2026-08-11
BrickWhole brick. The heaviest thing per cubic yard on this page, and the figure most likely to catch somebody out: half a cubic yard of brick weighs more than a whole cubic yard of most other debris. Only one public figure could be sourced for it, and that document carries no publication date — treat it as the weakest row here.	3,024	1.37	City of Woodland, California, no publication date printed; retrieved 2026-08-11
Soil, dirt and clean fillExcavated earth. Moisture moves this figure more than any other on the page — the same soil after three days of rain can be a third heavier, and nothing on a website can tell you which you have.	929 – 2,052	0.42 – 0.93	United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, April 2016 · City of Woodland, California, no publication date printed; retrieved 2026-08-11
Rock and gravelStone, gravel and rubble aggregate.	999 – 2,570	0.45 – 1.17	United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, April 2016 · City of Woodland, California, no publication date printed; retrieved 2026-08-11
Mixed renovation debrisThe ordinary contents of a renovation bin: wood, drywall, cabinets, flooring, packaging. Measured across 556 weighed truckloads, and two other agencies land inside this range — 417 lbs per cubic yard from the EPA and 484 from a Florida study of 171 weighed loads.	323 – 838.2	0.15 – 0.38	Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, September 2021 · Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, September 2021
Demolition debrisWhole-structure demolition rather than a renovation strip-out. Measured across 289 weighed truckloads.	332 – 676.8	0.15 – 0.31	Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, September 2021 · Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, September 2021
Drywall and gypsum boardClean or painted gypsum board. Worth knowing on its own account: a single sheet of it in a clean concrete load reclassifies the whole bin as garbage at the gate.	467	0.21	United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, April 2016
Clean lumberDimensional lumber, offcuts and framing. The lightest common debris, which is why a bin of it almost never runs into a weight problem.	169	0.08	United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, April 2016
Asphalt roof shinglesTear-off shingles. Heavier than most renovation debris and easy to underestimate, because a roof looks like a surface rather than a volume.	731	0.33	United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, April 2016

One tonne is 2,204.62 pounds. These are third-party figures reproduced with their sources, not Big Bin measurements. If you know of a Canadian federal or Ontario source that publishes the same thing, tell us and it goes on this page — Canadian agencies publish a great deal about waste diversion and almost nothing about what a cubic yard of it weighs.

What a full bin of each material weighs

The table above is per cubic yard, which is how the agencies publish it. Here it is multiplied out against the three sizes Big Bin runs. “What does a bin of this weigh” is the question people actually have. A range means the sources disagree, and both ends are theirs.

Estimated tonnes for a full bin of each material, by bin size, derived from the published density figures above
Material	14 yard bin	30 yard bin	40 yard bin
Broken concrete	5.5 – 11.8 t	11.7 – 25.2 t	15.6 – 33.7 t
Concrete mixed with soil	6.3 – 11.5 t	13.4 – 24.7 t	17.9 – 32.9 t
Broken asphalt	4.9 – 8.8 t	10.5 – 18.8 t	14 – 25 t
Brick	19.2 t	41.1 t	54.9 t
Soil, dirt and clean fill	5.9 – 13 t	12.6 – 27.9 t	16.9 – 37.2 t
Rock and gravel	6.3 – 16.3 t	13.6 – 35 t	18.1 – 46.6 t
Mixed renovation debris	2.1 – 5.3 t	4.4 – 11.4 t	5.9 – 15.2 t
Demolition debris	2.1 – 4.3 t	4.5 – 9.2 t	6 – 12.3 t
Drywall and gypsum board	3 t	6.4 t	8.5 t
Clean lumber	1.1 t	2.3 t	3.1 t
Asphalt roof shingles	4.6 t	9.9 t	13.3 t

Filled level and loose, which is not how a real bin gets loaded. Treat these as the shape of the answer rather than a measurement. Several combinations here weigh more than a truck may legally carry on an Ontario road. That ceiling belongs to the loaded vehicle rather than the container, and where a load falls against it depends on the truck’s axle configuration and its own empty weight. For what Big Binwill load, and how high, call 416-458-4324 and ask: Not published yet: How high a heavy bin can legally be filled — call and ask..

Why weight decides the bill

A disposal facility weighs the truck when it arrives, weighs it again after it tips, and bills the difference by the tonne. That is the one cost in a bin rental nobody can predict in advance, because the customer decides it after the price has been quoted.

It is also why the same steel box costs wildly different amounts to empty. A 14 yard bin of mixed renovation debris weighs somewhere around 2 to 5 tonnes. The same bin filled with broken concrete is 5 to 12. Nothing about the bin changed.

So knowing what your debris weighs before you fill the bin is what stops the final invoice being a surprise. It is also how you tell whether the size that fits the volume is the size to order.

The limit that is not about the bin

There is a point where a load stops being a question of what fits and becomes a question of what a truck may legally carry. Ontario sets weight limits by axle configuration under the Highway Traffic Act and O. Reg. 413/05, and the Ministry of Transportation requires a permit above them.

For heavy material that ceiling arrives long before the bin is full. Run the numbers on this page: 14 cubic yards of broken concrete is somewhere between 5 and 12 tonnes, and a roll-off truck is carrying its own considerable weight before any of that goes on. That is why heavy material goes in a small bin: it is the axle limit on the loaded truck doing the deciding, not the size of the container.

O. Reg. 413/05: Vehicle Weights and Dimensions — For Safe, Productive and Infrastructure-Friendly Vehicles — Government of Ontario, no publication date printed; retrieved 2026-08-11
Guide to oversize/overweight vehicles and loads — Ontario Ministry of Transportation, 2 July 2025

Sources

Every figure above, and where it came from. Two of these are primary measurements — trucks put on a scale — and the rest are agency conversion tables. Where a document carries no publication date, this page says so rather than passing off the date we retrieved it as the date it was written.

Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery — April 2016
A revision of the conversion factors in the EPA’s 1997 report “Measuring Recycling: A Guide for State and Local Governments”, drawing on state agency and academic studies rather than new measurement. Its construction-and-demolition figures come from a 2006 California Integrated Waste Management Board characterisation study and a Florida study scaled by the University of Florida.
Volume-to-Weight Conversions (document w-sw2-08)
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency — September 2021
Primary measurement. Loaded trucks were weighed on the scale as they arrived at a construction and demolition facility between February and May 2021, and each load was categorised by its main material: 556 mixed construction and demolition loads, 75 concrete-and-dirt loads, and 289 demolition loads. The figures below are that study’s quartiles, so they describe the middle half of real loads rather than an average that hides the spread.
C&D Debris Conversion Chart
City of Woodland, California — no publication date printed; retrieved 2026-08-11
A conversion chart published by the city for contractors calculating a project’s diversion rate. The document names no source for its figures and carries no publication date, which is why it is used here only alongside a dated source and never on its own.

Quote any of these figures freely — cite the agency named on the row rather than this page, because the figures are theirs.

Reviewed August 2026Not published yet: Who reviewed this page — call and ask.

Common questions

How much does a cubic yard of broken concrete weigh?

Published figures from public agencies run from 860 pounds per cubic yard to about 1,855 pounds per cubic yard — roughly 0.39 to 0.84 tonnes. The spread is real, not sloppiness: a cubic yard of loosely tipped rubble in a mixed load weighs far less than a cubic yard of tightly loaded slab pieces. Both ends of that range are named and linked on this page.

Why does the weight of a load matter more than its size?

Because disposal facilities charge by the tonne, not by the cubic yard. Two identical bins, one full of renovation debris and one full of broken concrete, can differ by five times in weight and therefore in disposal cost. Weight is also what decides whether a truck can legally carry the load on an Ontario road.

Is this estimator a quote?

No. It estimates a weight from published density figures, and densities move with moisture, compaction and contamination. It does not price a job, it does not book anything, and it does not commit Big Bin to accepting a load. Use it to work out roughly what you are dealing with, then call.

Do I have to give an email address to use it?

No. The estimator is on the page, it runs in your browser, and it asks for nothing. There is no email gate, no address and no sign-up.

How much does a cubic yard of soil or dirt weigh?

Published figures run from 929 pounds per cubic yard to 2,052 — roughly 0.42 to 0.93 tonnes. The lower figure is the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s. The higher one comes from a Californian city conversion chart. Both are named and linked in the table above. Moisture moves this row further than any other material on the page: the same soil after three days of rain can be a third heavier. Nothing on a website can tell you which of the two you have.

How much does a cubic yard of gravel weigh?

Rock and gravel run from 999 pounds per cubic yard to 2,570 — roughly 0.45 to 1.17 tonnes. The spread is real rather than sloppiness. Loose gravel tipped into a bin does not pack like graded stone, and the two agencies were measuring material in different states. Both ends are in the table above, with the agency that published each one.

How many tonnes does a 40 yard bin of concrete hold?

On the published figures, 40 cubic yards of broken concrete is roughly 15.6 to 33.7 tonnes. The by-bin-size table on this page works the same arithmetic out for every material. That is well past the point where the loaded truck’s weight becomes the binding limit rather than the container’s volume. Where exactly it falls depends on the truck’s axle configuration and its own empty weight. It is the reason the size that fits the volume is not always the size that can be hauled.

What is the heaviest material that goes in a bin?

Whole brick, at 3,024 pounds per cubic yard — about 1.37 tonnes for one cubic yard, heavier than any other row in the table above. It is also the row to treat with most caution. Only one public figure could be sourced for it, and that document carries no publication date. The practical consequence catches people out: half a cubic yard of brick weighs more than a whole cubic yard of most other debris.

Why are the weight figures on this page from American agencies?

Because we could not find a Canadian equivalent. Searching on 2026-08-18 across ontario.ca, canada.ca, Statistics Canada and municipal publications turned up no Canadian federal or provincial source for it. A cubic yard of concrete does not weigh less in Ontario than in Minnesota, so the figures transfer. What does not transfer is the law: the Ontario weight rules linked further down this page are what governs a truck here. If you know of a Canadian source, tell us and it goes on the page.

Does rain make a load heavier?

Yes, and soil is where it shows most. The figures in the table above are for material as it sits loose in a bin. Moisture moves the soil row further than any other: the same soil after three days of rain can be a third heavier. It matters because disposal is billed by the tonne. A load that sat open through a wet week costs more to tip than the same volume did dry.