Commercial waste billing explained: pickup charges, per-yard and per-100-lb rates

Two ways to price a service

A flat monthly price. One number covers the container, the pickups and the disposal. “4-yard, twice a week, $360 a month.” It is easy to quote and easy to read. The weakness is that the price hides what it is made of. When disposal costs rise, or the customer adds a pickup, you have to guess how much to change it.

A pickup charge plus a volume charge. The pickup charge pays for the stop: the drive, the lift, the driver’s time. The volume charge pays for what goes in the truck: the space and the disposal. Every stop costs about the same to make, but a bigger container costs more to dump.

EPA describes the same two-part idea for municipal trash programs: a flat base fee that covers fixed costs, plus a second charge based on how much is thrown away (EPA).

Both methods can land on the same monthly total. The two-part price just shows the work.

Per cubic yard or per 100 pounds

Volume can be counted two ways.

Per cubic yard. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet (NIST). Containers are sold in yards: 2, 4, 6, 8. Per-yard billing charges for the container’s size on every pickup, full or not. Nothing needs to be weighed.

Per 100 pounds. One hundred pounds is a hundredweight, written cwt (NIST). Per-100-lb billing charges for what the waste actually weighs, so it needs a weight for each pickup.

Yards are easy to count. Pounds follow the load. If your disposal site charges you by weight, a per-yard price is a bet on how heavy each customer’s waste will be.

If you haul in New York City, the zones set maximum rates: see NYC commercial waste zone maximum rates.

Converting between them

To convert, you need a pounds-per-yard factor: what one yard of this customer’s waste weighs.

The factor varies a lot. EPA’s volume-to-weight table lists uncompacted commercial waste at about 138 pounds per cubic yard, compacted mixed waste at 400 to 700, restaurant food waste at 396, and flattened cardboard at 106 (EPA). A factor that fits one customer will not fit the next.

Here is the arithmetic, with made-up numbers. A customer has a 4-yard container picked up twice a week. Your price is $12.00 per pickup and $7.50 per yard.

Quoted as a flat price, that service is $363.72 a month.

Now bill the same volume per 100 pounds. Say this customer’s waste runs 150 pounds per yard:

• 34.64 yards × 150 lb = 5,196 lb, or 51.96 hundredweight.
• To charge the same $259.80, the rate is $259.80 ÷ 51.96 = $5.00 per 100 lb.

The short form works both ways:

• Per-100-lb rate = per-yard rate ÷ (pounds per yard ÷ 100). Here, $7.50 ÷ 1.5 = $5.00.
• Per-yard rate = per-100-lb rate × (pounds per yard ÷ 100). Here, $5.00 × 1.5 = $7.50.

The factor carries the whole conversion. If this customer’s waste really runs 200 pounds per yard, the same 34.64 yards weigh 6,928 lb. At $5.00 per 100 lb, the volume charge is $346.40, not $259.80. Same container, same pickups, $86.60 a month apart.

One note on 4.33: it is rounded. 4.33 × 12 = 51.96 weeks, not 52. A weekly $100 billed as $433 a month comes to $5,196 a year instead of $5,200. Pick one rule and use it on every account.

Recycling and organics are their own streams

Trash, recycling and organics are separate services. Each has its own container, schedule and price, and each gets its own line on the bill.

They also weigh differently. In EPA’s table, commercial recyclables run about 58 to 155 pounds per yard, depending on what is mixed in. Commercial organics run from about 135 to 1,000, depending on how cleanly they are separated. One factor for every stream will be wrong for most of them.

Some places require businesses to separate streams. In California, a business that generates 2 cubic yards or more of commercial solid waste a week, counting trash, recycling and organics together, must arrange organics recycling (CalRecycle). A rule like that can add a stream to an account that never had one.

Extras and rentals

Not everything on a bill is a scheduled pickup.

• Extra pickups. A pickup off the schedule, at the customer’s request. Price it as one pickup plus its volume, so it matches the regular rate.
• Overages. Bags beside the container, or a lid that will not close. Charge by the yard or by the bag, and keep a note or a photo.
• Container rental. A monthly charge for the container itself, apart from the service.
• Fees. Fuel surcharge, delivery, swap-outs, relocations, locks.

Keep each one on its own line. A customer who reads “Extra pickup, 4 yd, June 12” rarely calls. A customer whose total is $40 higher than last month, with no reason shown, usually does.

Check billed volume against weigh-ins

A per-yard bill counts every pickup as a full container. Weigh-ins show what was really in it.

Take the 4-yard customer above. At 150 pounds per yard, a full pickup should weigh about 600 lb. If that service’s weigh-ins keep coming in near 300 lb, one of three things is true:

• The container goes out half full. The customer is paying for air and may be better served by a smaller container or fewer pickups.
• The factor is wrong for this customer.
• The weights were keyed wrong.

Heavy readings matter too. A 4-yard container that weighs 1,200 lb is packed or overfilled. If you bill per yard, that is disposal cost you are not charging for.

Compare by service, not by account, and over weeks, not one day. One light pickup is noise. A month of them is a pattern.

Sales tax goes on the line, not the total

Whether waste service is taxed, and how, depends on your state. Two examples:

• Texas lists garbage and other waste collection or removal among its taxable services (Texas Comptroller).
• Washington charges a separate solid waste collection tax of 3.6%, collected from the customer (Washington DOR). It does not apply to materials collected for recycling or salvage. Container charges listed apart from collection are subject to retail sales tax instead (Washington DOR).

So one invoice can carry three tax treatments: trash collection one way, recycling another, the container rental a third. That only works when tax is figured line by line. One rate applied to the invoice total will be wrong whenever the lines are taxed differently.

This is general information, not tax advice. Rules change, and cities and counties can add their own. Ask your state’s revenue department or a tax professional about your services.

Pricing and billing in RouteNow

RouteNow splits this work across three Nows. PriceNow holds rate cards and suggested pricing, so every quote and every service starts from the right number. InvoiceNow sets up what an account is billed before any invoice exists: one arrangement holds the services, the rentals and the cadence, and every invoice after it is built from that. BillNow turns each account’s arrangement into a draft invoice when it comes due, with the fuel surcharge and the extras already on it. You read the whole book as drafts, then issue it when you are ready.