What does your debris 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.