Roll off dumpster rental across all five boroughs of New York City, Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond counties. Home to 8,804,190 people at the 2020 Census, the city is the biggest dumpster market in New York State, and the one where correct permit guidance matters most.
New York City is the biggest dumpster rental market in the state by a wide margin, and it is also the hardest one to serve well. With a 2020 Census population of 8,804,190 spread across five boroughs and five counties, Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond, the city produces more renovation debris, construction waste, and cleanout junk than anywhere else in New York. The housing stock is old, with the median home built in 1952 and about 79 percent of homes predating 1980, so plaster and lath, worn kitchens, aging roofs, and basements full of decades of stuff are part of everyday life here. At the same time, new construction is booming: the city completed 38,682 homes in 2025, the most since 1965, and more than 43,000 multifamily units were under construction in early 2026. Every one of those projects, old or new, needs a place to put its debris.
What makes New York City different from the rest of the state is space, or the lack of it. Only about 9 percent of homes in the city are detached houses, so the suburban driveway placement that works everywhere else is the exception here, not the rule. Most containers go on the street, and street placement in New York City runs through a permit system that many websites describe incorrectly. Container permits are issued by the New York City Department of Transportation, NYC DOT, not by the Department of Sanitation. Getting that detail right matters, because it decides who applies, how long the permit lasts, and what your block actually allows. Call (833) 748-4153 and tell us your address and your project, and we will walk you through what your borough and your block need before you book.
The five boroughs behave like five separate markets, and a company that treats them as one will steer you wrong. A brownstone gut renovation in Brooklyn, a garden apartment cleanout in Queens, a co-op turnover in the Bronx, a commercial fit out in Manhattan, and a whole house renovation on Staten Island each have different placement options, different street rules, and different sensible sizes. The sections below break the city down borough by borough, then cover sizes, permits, and delivery in detail.
Manhattan is the most container-hostile part of the city, and honest guidance starts by saying so. Most residential streets, and nearly all of Midtown, are difficult or impossible to permit for a street container, and many buildings prohibit containers outright. What Manhattan does have is gut renovations, apartment combinations, office fit outs, and retail turnovers, all of which produce serious debris. For many Manhattan jobs the practical answer is a small container placed where the building allows it, a short permit window timed to the work, or crew-and-truck removal instead of a container at all. If your building has a loading dock, a rear yard, or a service alley, mention it when you call, because private placement changes everything. If your co-op or condo board needs to approve the work, get that approval first and call us with the dates, so the container arrives when the board says it can.
Brooklyn is where the volume is. Brownstone renovations in Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, and Fort Greene, multifamily construction across the borough, and steady turnover in a borough of renters keep demand high all year. Brooklyn and Queens together added more than 18,000 multifamily units in 2025, and the renovation of the borough's older housing runs alongside that new building. Rowhouse blocks often mean narrow streets and tight parking, so a 10 or 20 yard container is usually the right call for a residential job, with larger containers reserved for construction sites that can actually fit them. Rear yards and shared driveways are worth asking about, because a container on private property avoids the street permit entirely. When the container must go on the street, the NYC DOT permit rules below apply, and timing the delivery around alternate side parking days makes the driver's life, and yours, much easier.
Queens is the most varied borough for dumpster work. Eastern Queens neighborhoods have single family homes with real driveways, which makes placement as easy as anywhere in the suburbs. Western Queens has garden apartment complexes, co-op buildings, and dense commercial strips where street placement and building rules decide the plan. Queens completed thousands of new homes in 2025, and its older housing keeps producing kitchen and bathroom remodels, roofing tear offs, and full cleanouts. If you have a driveway, use it. If you do not, call us with your street and your cross streets and we will talk through the permit and the placement before you commit to a size.
The Bronx mixes rowhouses, multifamily buildings, and co-op complexes, with steady renovation and turnover work across the borough. Many Bronx properties have rear yards, alleys, or small lots that can take a container, and a surprising number of jobs that look like street placements turn out to have a private option once someone walks the property. For larger buildings, the super or the managing agent is the person to talk to first: they know where trucks can reach, where a container can sit without blocking a fire lane or a garage, and what the building's rules allow. Tell us what the building allows when you call, and we will match the size and the schedule to it.
Staten Island is the most suburban borough and the easiest place in the city to rent a dumpster. Detached houses with driveways are the norm, lots are larger, and streets are wider, so most Staten Island jobs are straightforward driveway placements with no permit needed. Whole house renovations, roofing tear offs, estate cleanouts, and yard cleanups are the common jobs, and a 20 or 30 yard container fits most of them. If your project is on Staten Island, you are in the best position of any New Yorker: call (833) 748-4153, pick a size, and the container goes in the driveway.
Size choice in New York City is about street space as much as it is about debris volume. A 40 yard container holds the most, but it also needs the most room to drop and the most room to sit, and many city blocks simply cannot take one. A 10 yard container fits in a single parking space lengthwise and works for most apartment cleanouts and small remodels. A 20 yard container is the workhorse for whole room remodels, roofing tear offs, and full apartment cleanouts, and it is the largest size that still fits comfortably on most residential streets. The 30 and 40 yard sizes belong on construction sites, commercial jobs, and Staten Island driveways, where the space exists to use them.
| Size | Typical dimensions | Capacity | Included weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 yard | About 14 ft long, 7.5 ft wide, 3.5 ft high | About 3 pickup loads | 1 to 2 tons |
| 15 yard | About 16 ft long, 7.5 ft wide, 4.5 ft high | 4 to 5 pickup loads | About 2 tons |
| 20 yard | About 22 ft long, 7.5 ft wide, 4.5 ft high | 6 to 8 pickup loads | 2 to 4 tons |
| 30 yard | About 22 ft long, 7.5 ft wide, 6 ft high | 9 to 12 pickup loads | 3 to 5 tons |
| 40 yard | About 22 ft long, 7.5 ft wide, 8 ft high | About 12 pickup loads | 4 to 5 tons |
Heavy debris changes the calculation everywhere, and it matters most in the city, where an overweight container cannot be hauled. Concrete, brick, dirt, plaster, and roofing shingles are heavy. A 10 yard container is the right box for a concrete or dirt load, and a 20 yard is the sensible ceiling for a roofing tear off. If your project mixes heavy debris with light junk, tell us when you call, because loading heavy material first and keeping it to the fill line keeps your pickup on schedule. And remember that the city's Commercial Refuse Container permit covers one container at a time, so a swap out, one full container picked up and an empty one dropped, is often smarter than trying to fit a second container on the same block.
Here is the fact that many websites get wrong: container permits in New York City are issued by NYC DOT, the Department of Transportation, not by DSNY, the Department of Sanitation. DSNY handles household trash collection. It does not issue container permits. The permit system works like this.
The standard permit is the Commercial Refuse Container permit, known as the CRC. It covers one container for up to 5 consecutive days, and it is obtained by the carting company, not by the property owner. It carries no parking privileges, which means it does not reserve the parking spaces around the container, and it is governed by the NYC Highway Rules, section 2-14(f). Most residential and small commercial jobs in the city run on a CRC permit. If your project needs the container longer than 5 days, plan for a renewal or a swap, and talk to us about the schedule before you book.
Longer jobs have a different permit. The Construction Debris Container permit runs 30 to 90 days and is for worksites that hold a Department of Buildings or DOT construction permit. It is issued only to DOT-registered carting companies or registered general contractors, and it is typically used with 20 or 40 yard containers on active construction sites. A third permit, the Bulk Item Refuse Container permit, covers homeowners and businesses disposing of bulk items only, with no perishables and no construction material from a permitted worksite, for up to 5 consecutive days.
A few more rules worth knowing. Sidewalk enclosures for containers require a separate DOT Revocable Consent. Storage containers, the portable moving and storage boxes sometimes called pods, are not permitted on city streets at all. DSNY collects only small amounts of do-it-yourself construction debris from the curb, so contractor-produced debris must go through a private hauler. And any hauler working construction debris in the city must be registered with the Business Integrity Commission, BIC, with the registration number displayed on its trucks. If a hauler cannot show you a BIC registration, that is a reason to pause. Call us and we will confirm what your address needs, because the rules are genuinely confusing and the cost of guessing wrong is a container that cannot be placed.
Most of the debris a project produces can go straight in the box. Household junk, furniture, mattresses, carpet and padding, drywall, plaster and lath, wood, siding, roofing shingles, concrete, brick, block, dirt, and yard waste are all fine. If it came out of a house or a job site and it is not on the banned list below, it almost certainly belongs in the dumpster.
New York law keeps some things out of landfills entirely, and some things are simply unsafe to haul in an open container. Do not load any of these:
Not sure about an item? Call (833) 748-4153 before you load it. A two minute call beats a rejected load or a return trip.
The driver needs about 60 feet of clear space to drop the container and roughly 23 to 25 feet of vertical clearance. In New York City, that means thinking about the street, not just the spot. Parked cars, double parked delivery trucks, low wires, low tree branches, fire hydrants, bus stops, and tight turns on one way streets can all get in the way. Alternate side parking days matter too: a container dropped on the wrong day can block the street sweeper and draw attention you do not want. When you book, tell us the street, the cross streets, the direction of traffic, and whether the block has alternate side parking, and we will plan the drop around it.
For apartment buildings and co-ops, the building comes first. Check with the super, the managing agent, or the board about where a container may sit, what hours work may happen, and whether the building requires a certificate of insurance from the hauler. Some buildings want the container in a rear yard or a loading area rather than on the street. Some want it gone by a certain day. Knowing those rules before delivery day saves a wasted trip. For houses with driveways, the usual advice applies: clear the driveway, move cars, and make sure the driver can approach straight on. Plywood or boards under the container protect pavers and fresh asphalt, and it is worth asking about driveway protection when you call.
Timing is the last piece. The standard rental period is 7 days, and longer rentals are available, but in the city the permit clock and the rental clock are two different things. A CRC permit runs up to 5 consecutive days, so a 7 day rental on the street may need a permit renewal partway through. Talk through the dates with us when you book, and if you need the container quickly, call and ask about availability rather than assuming a date. Load the container evenly, keep debris below the fill line, and call us when it is full or you are finished, and we will pick it up and handle disposal.
If the dumpster sits entirely on private property, such as a driveway or a rear yard, you generally do not need a permit. If it sits on a public street, you need a container permit from NYC DOT, not DSNY. The standard Commercial Refuse Container permit covers one container for up to 5 consecutive days and is obtained by the carting company.
NYC DOT issues container permits. DSNY handles household trash collection and does not issue container permits. Many websites get this wrong, so if a source tells you to apply to DSNY for a dumpster permit, that source is mistaken.
The standard Commercial Refuse Container permit covers up to 5 consecutive days. Construction sites with a Department of Buildings or DOT construction permit can use a Construction Debris Container permit that runs 30 to 90 days. Call us to plan the schedule for your project.
Sometimes, but Manhattan is the hardest borough to permit. Most residential streets and nearly all of Midtown are difficult or impossible to permit, and many buildings prohibit containers outright. Call us with your address and your building rules and we will tell you honestly what is possible.
A 10 yard container fits most apartment cleanouts and small remodels and fits in a single parking space lengthwise. A 20 yard is the workhorse for whole room remodels and roofing tear offs. The 30 and 40 yard sizes belong on construction sites and Staten Island driveways where the space exists to use them.
Yes. We serve Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Staten Island is the easiest borough for placement because most homes have driveways, while Manhattan needs the most planning because of street and building rules.
The driver needs about 60 feet of clear space to drop the container and roughly 23 to 25 feet of vertical clearance. Parked cars, low wires, low branches, and tight turns can all get in the way, so tell us about your street when you book.
Hazardous waste, wet paint, tires, batteries, propane tanks, asbestos containing material, medical waste, and electronics are not allowed. Electronics are banned from New York landfills under the Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act. Call (833) 748-4153 before loading anything you are unsure about.
