Junk Removal Cost in Orlando: How the Price Is Measured

Junk removal in Orlando with our crew runs from $145 for a single item to $795 for a full truck, and the price is set by how much of the truck your load fills, not by the hour and not by a formula. Behind that number sits a second one you never see: the landfill charges by the ton. Orange County bills $54.20 a ton for garbage and $41.10 a ton for furniture and debris. Seminole County bills $41.63 a ton, and double if the load is not covered. Your price is the translation between those two units, plus the work of carrying the thing from where it is to the truck.

That translation is what this guide explains, because it answers every question people ask about junk removal prices. Why there is a minimum. Why “half a truck” means something different at every company. Why a truck of sofas costs less to dump than a trailer of concrete. And why a hot tub lands high on the ladder when its dump fee is under twenty dollars.

Two different units decide your price

At the scale house, everything is weight. Orange County’s rate sheet, effective October 1, 2025, charges $54.20 a ton for Class I garbage, $41.10 a ton for Class III, a category whose own definition names furniture along with wood, concrete and clean fill, $46.80 a ton for yard waste at the landfill and $2.00 for each of up to eight passenger tires, with a $9.00 minimum charge. An uncovered load pays double and a mixed load pays the higher rate. Seminole County charges $41.63 a ton covered and $83.25 uncovered, with a $5.00 minimum per transaction, and its administrative code says something worth reading twice: loads are weighed, and cubic yard rates apply only if the scale is out of service.

So Seminole County only measures space when its scale breaks, and Orange County’s rate sheet has no cubic yard rate at all. A hauler, on the other hand, measures space all the time, because space is the one thing you can estimate by looking at a pile before anyone lifts it. There is no scale in your garage. That is the whole reason our junk removal prices, like those of the national chains that publish how they price, are quoted by the fraction of the truck.

Why there is a minimum charge

The first question on this topic is always the minimum, and ours is $145. It covers the trip out, sizing up the job, taking the first item and disposing of it properly, which is why it is also the price of a single mattress, sofa or appliance. The truck and the crew cost the same for one chair as for ten, the dump ticket has a floor either way, and even the county has a minimum: $9.00 in Orange, $5.00 in Seminole, before a single pound is weighed.

A lower advertised starting price is not dishonest. It is usually the price of the smallest job that company does, an easy item from the curb or the garage, and the way to compare it with ours is to ask what it includes. Ours includes the labor, the loading, the hauling and the disposal for that item, and we confirm the price before the job, never on the invoice.

What “half a truck” actually means

Here is the part the price lists leave out. The companies that price by the truck each publish a different truck. One national chain publishes a full truckload of 10 by 8 by 5 feet, about fifteen cubic yards. Another publishes 440 cubic feet, about sixteen. Neither is the truck at your curb. So a half truck price from one hauler and a half truck price from another are two prices for two different amounts of stuff, and the reader has no way to know it.

That is why the price ladder we publish is written in pickup loads, which anyone can picture, instead of in cubic yards you cannot see.

Each step includes the same things: the crew, the loading, the hauling, the disposal and the sorting afterwards. A full garage cleanout is usually the half truck, the step our own price sheet marks as the popular one.

When weight takes over from space

Volume pricing works because most household junk is light. The EPA estimates uncompacted mixed municipal waste at 250 to 300 pounds per cubic yard, so a truck full of furniture, boxes and bagged junk runs out of space long before it runs out of weight. Debris goes the other way. Broken concrete, tile, dirt and roofing fill the scale long before they fill the truck, which is why heavy material gets priced separately across this business, and why our published exceptions include overweight loads. What your load really weighs has the numbers by material.

The tarp matters too, and it is one of the few costs in this business that both counties publish. An uncovered load pays double at the scale in Orange and in Seminole. A crew that tarps every load is not being fussy. It is halving the biggest line on its dump ticket.

The items that carry a cost of their own

A mattress is the classic example. The county charges nothing extra for it; it goes across the scale by weight like everything else. What makes it expensive is everything before the scale. The EPA’s own guide on bulky items says mattresses do not compress well, take a lot of space and get heavy if they absorb water, and that up to three quarters of one is recyclable but the challenge is finding a recycler. Florida has no statewide mattress recycling program; the industry’s programs run in California, Oregon, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

A refrigerator carries a legal step. Under the EPA’s Section 608 rules, whoever finally disposes of it is responsible for making sure the refrigerant was recovered first, and if someone else recovered it, a signed statement has to say who and when. Orange County will not take a fridge at the curb; residents can bring one to the county landfill for the $9.00 minimum. That is why appliances with refrigerant are on our list of items that may need special handling, and why they do not just go in the dumpster.

Televisions and electronics are free to drop off at the county sites if you are a resident bringing your own. Orange County says an item is electronic waste if it has a circuit board, and that a rear projection set cannot be recycled and goes out as a large item. Orange County adds the line that matters here: no commercial waste is accepted. Seminole’s program is free for county residents. A hauler’s truck is commercial, so the free resident program is yours, not ours.

Then there are the heavy singles. A five seat hot tub weighs about 680 pounds empty by the maker’s own specification, and an upright piano anywhere from under 400 pounds for a small console to 650 for a full upright. At Orange County’s rates the dump fee for either comes to under twenty dollars, our arithmetic, with the county deciding the class. Everything else a hauler charges for a hot tub or a piano is labor, access and equipment. NIOSH’s guideline puts the most a person should lift with two hands, under ideal conditions, at 51 pounds, and its six adjustments for frequency, twisting, height, reach, carry distance and grip describe a piano on a staircase exactly. OSHA has no legal weight limit, and nobody is claiming one. A 500 pound object simply is not ten 50 pound objects. It is a different job, with more people, more time and dollies, straps and ramps.

What is not in the price

Our pricing page says it, and we would rather repeat it than paraphrase it. Sites outside our regular service area may include a delivery or fuel surcharge. Paint, tires, batteries, chemicals, appliances with refrigerant and overweight loads may require additional charges or special handling. Estate, foreclosure and commercial cleanouts are quoted after we look at them, because they usually involve sorting, donation runs and special disposal. And we explain those costs before the job begins, not after.

Paint and chemicals are the clearest example of that line: they need separate handling, and the free county drop off for them belongs to the resident who takes them, not to a hauler’s truck.

How to get a number you can trust

Three things make a quote firm. A photo of the whole room or pile taken from the doorway, so the crew can see the volume instead of guessing from a list. The access: stairs, an elevator, how far the truck can park from the door. And the heavy items named up front, the fridge, the piano, the spa, the safe, so nobody discovers them at the door. With those, we can tell you the step on the ladder over the phone, and we confirm it before the job starts, so you hear the number then and not on the invoice.

And if you would rather load it yourself, our 14 yard dumpster starts at $295 for a day. We wrote a guide on renting a dumpster instead, and the honest answer is that for a garage full of boxes and a free Saturday, the dumpster is cheaper.

Ready for a price? Call (407) 904-5577 or send us a photo, and we will tell you the step on the ladder, the time and what is not included, before the truck comes.

Sources consulted

• Orange County Government, Landfill and Transfer Stations, fee schedule, Household Hazardous Waste and Green Clean curbside collection
• Seminole County Government, Solid Waste Management, Rates and Fees and Administrative Code Section 20.40 (PDF)
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors (PDF), Tribal Transfer Station Quick Start Guide: Bulky Items (PDF), Stationary Refrigeration Safe Disposal Requirements and Appliance Disposal; Mattress Recycling Council, Recycling Programs in California, Connecticut, Oregon, and Rhode Island
• NIOSH, Ergonomic Guidelines for Manual Material Handling (PDF) and OSHA, OSHA procedures for safe weight limits when manually lifting, June 4, 2013

Eco Haul Services hauls junk and rents dumpsters in Winter Park, Orlando and 22 other Central Florida communities. Our prices are the ones on our pricing page. The county rates above are theirs, checked in September 2026 and subject to change; confirm on the linked pages before you drive.

Questions we get about this

What is the minimum charge for junk removal in Orlando?

Ours is $145, and it is the price of a single item: a mattress, a sofa or one appliance. It covers the trip out, sizing up the job, taking the first item and disposing of it properly. Almost every hauler has some minimum, because the truck and the crew cost the same whether you have one chair or ten and the dump ticket has a floor either way, and even the county landfill has a $9.00 minimum charge.

What is included in a low advertised starting price?

Usually the smallest job the company does, one item that is easy to reach, and the way to compare it with any other price is to ask what it includes. The trip, the labor, the disposal fee and whether the item has to come from upstairs or from the curb. Our $145 covers the trip out, sizing up the job, taking the first item and disposing of it properly, and if the access changes anything we say so before the job. The truck load prices include labor, loading, hauling and disposal for everything on the truck.

Do junk removal prices include the dump fees?

Ours do. Orange County charges $54.20 a ton for garbage and $41.10 a ton for furniture and debris at its landfill, and Seminole County charges $41.63 a ton, and disposal is inside the price we quote you, not added afterwards. What can be added, and we say so before the job starts, is a delivery or fuel surcharge outside our service area and special handling for things like paint, tires, batteries, appliances with refrigerant and overweight loads.

How much does it cost to get rid of a mattress in Orlando?

With our crew a single mattress is the $145 minimum, and if it goes with the rest of a bedroom it is simply part of the truck load. The county charges by weight, not by the mattress, so what makes a mattress expensive is not the dump fee. It is that it does not compress, it takes a whole person to carry, and there is no state recycling program for it in Florida.

Is it worth paying when Orange County picks up large items for free?

For a chair and a broken table, use the curb: unincorporated Orange County collects large items on garbage day, up to three cubic yards per household per week, and it is already billed with your property taxes. The curb will not take a refrigerator or freezer, you carry everything out yourself, and three cubic yards is what the county calls about the size of three stoves, so a garage or a whole house takes weeks of collection days. That gap is what the crew is for.