Best Kitchen Trash Cans

Find the Best Recycling Bin for Your Kitchen

Your kitchen is the main area at home or in the office where most of your trash and recycling appears. Think about food scraps, fruit peels, waste from plastic packaging, and metal cans. All this waste needs to go somewhere and to prevent that your recyclables end up in landfills, we recommend using the right recycling bin. A kitchen trash can is a tool that helps you to sort, separate, and organize all of your kitchen waste conveniently.

Top 10 Kitchen Waste Bins

• Check Top 10 at Amazon

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Top 10 Best Kitchen Trash & Recycling Bins

What are the best recycling containers to use in your kitchen? It depends on how many waste streams you want to sort and collect with your trash can. We recommend a multi-compartment recycling bin for most households, such as a dual trash can or triple trash can. These space-efficient bins are used to sort multiple waste streams in your kitchen. But you can also use a tilt-out or pull-out trash can to hide your bin and trash out of sight.

Our top 10 contains a list of the most popular types of kitchen waste bins. Such as stainless steel trash cans, dual compartment recycling bins, and touchless waste bins. Check our guide for more information.

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#1 | SONGMICS Dual Step Trash Can

Best Dual Compartment Recycling Bin

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#2 | Organize It All Triple Step Trash Can

Best 3 Compartment Recycling Bin

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#3 | GLAD GLD-74507 Large Step Trash Can

Best Single Compartment Recycling Bin

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#4 | iTouchless DZT13 Automatic Trash Can

Best Touchless & Hands-Free Recycling Bin

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#5 | Rev-A-Shelf RV-18KD-18C S Pull Out Trash Can

Best Dual Pull-Out Recycling Bin

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#6 | Pine Tilt Out Trash Bin

Best Tilt-Out Trash Cabinet

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#7 | Simplehuman 13 Gallon Step Trash Can

Best Plastic Bin with Slide Lock

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#8 | Simplehuman Recycler with Liner Pocket

Best Simplehuman Step Can Recycler

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#9 | OXO Good Grips

Best Compost Bin for Kitchen Counter

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#10 | iTouchless SoftStep AbsorbX

Best 13 Gallon with Odor Control

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Why use a recycling bin?

The kitchen is the main area where you sort and separate recyclables from landfill. To reduce your waste it is recommended to use a convenient and durable recycling bin that helps you and your family to recycle more.

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Kitchen Trash Can Guide

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What to look for?

A kitchen trash can is used multiple times a day, so it needs to sturdy and large enough to collect all the waste in your kitchen. The right size waste bin depends, of course, on the amount of waste you generate daily and the size of your household.

But the capacity of the trash can isn’t the only thing that matters. A container also needs to be convenient to use for you and your family to make recycling more fun to do.

Do you have children? Then you want a bin that is also easy for them to use, so you can teach your children the necessity and importance of sorting recyclables for a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

When you have a dog or cat, then you want to look for a container with a lid that stays closed when your pet sticks his or her curious nose in the bin. There are dog-proof and cat-proof trash cans available. These bins are equipped with a lockable lid so your nosy dog can’t treat himself with a ‘snack.’

Trash can inspiration

A trash can isn’t the first thing you think of when you considering nice accessories for your kitchen. But there are many elegant and stylish looking trash cans available that can really complement or even enhance the decor of your kitchen. Let’s take a look at some examples for your inspiration.

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What is the best size for a kitchen trash can?

Most people use a standard-sized trash can or recycling bin in their kitchen with a capacity of around 13 gallons (approximately 50 liters). This capacity is ideal for average-sized households of around four to five persons.

In a 13 gallons kitchen trash bin, you can put standard-sized kitchen garbage bags. Please note that this does not apply to 13-gallon trash cans that contain two or more compartments for trash and recycling.

What capacity suits your family? How many trash bags or recycling bags do you throw away each week or each month? If you have one full 13 gallons liner a week, then a 10 to 14 gallons trash can is perfect.

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Where do you put your kitchen trash can?

Generally, people put their trash can on the floor in the kitchen. There are multiple options to choose from, such as dual trash cans and built-in trash cans.

Dual trash can: A recycle bin combo for recycling

For saving up floor space, we recommend using a multi-compartment trash can, like a dual trash can, because these waste bins require less space in comparison to separate single compartment waste bins. So when you have a small-sized kitchen with not much room for a large trash can, we suggest looking into these recycling bins.

When you want to separate trash and recycling in your kitchen, a multi-compartment recycling bin is a great solution. These dual trash cans contain two compartments and can hold your recyclables (paper, plastics, metal, or fruit waste) and other kitchen trash. You can also look for a recycling bin with three compartments, although these bins are less common.

So these waste bins combine recycling and waste into one convenient single bin. A dual kitchen recycling bin takes up less space than two separate single containers. This can be useful when there is not much floor space in your kitchen.

Pull-out trash can: Hide your trash

Don’t you want a trash can insight? Then a built-in trash can might interest you. You install these slide-out, tilt-out, or pull-out trash cans out of sight in a cabinet.

These pull-out trash cans or tilt-out waste cabinets are installed and mounted inside one of your kitchen cabinets. These waste bins are mostly installed inside the cabinet under the sink, but there are also kitchen waste cabinets that look like an ordinary cabinet that hides a trash can behind a tilt-out cabinet door.

The main advantage here is that these recycling bins don’t require any floor space, and they also keep your trash out of sight.

These trash cans come in one bucket or multi-compartment variants. So you can sort recycle and trash in these cabinet bins too.

The advantage of these bins is that the capacity is generally not enough for larger families, and you need to give up one cabinet for trash instead of for storage of kitchen tools.

It is also good to know that trash cans come in different forms. You can get a slim but tall trash can, which is perfect for squeezing in a tight spot in your kitchen. Or get a wide but less tall waste bin when you want to place the bin somewhere underneath.

Do you want to place it against a wall?

When you want to place a step trash can in the kitchen, you generally want to fit it tightly and flush against the wall.

The thing you don’t want is a waste bin that slams the lid against the wall every time you open it. To prevent this from happening, you need a bin where the rear hinge is installed inside the trash can so the lid won’t hit the wall when it is opened.

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Stainless steel or plastic trash can?

Generally, you can choose between stainless steel or a plastic trash can. Which one is best for you?

A plastic trash can is lightweight, relatively cheap, and easy to clean. The lightweight disadvantage is that the bin can scoot around your kitchen floor when you open the lid, especially when you get a bin with a foot pedal. Another thing to keep in mind is that plastic is less durable than metal, and the material can absorb odors over time.

A metal or stainless steel kitchen trash can weighs more than a plastic bin. A metal trash can stands more solid on the ground, which prevents the bin from sliding on the floor when you open the lid.

Another advantage is that stainless steel looks nice and will complement the design of your kitchen. It is also hygienic and easy to clean. A disadvantage is that stainless steel bins are more pricey and are prone to dents and finger smudges.

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What type of lid mechanism?

Most people get a step-on trash can for their kitchen. The reason is that it is hygienic and convenient to use. Imagine you have your hands full with trash you want to dispose of.

A foot pedal becomes pretty handy in these situations. You have your hands free, and you keep your trash can clean in these situations.

Besides step-on trash cans, there are also bins with a motion sensor lid, manual lid, a swing lid, or no lid at all. The swing lid and no lid ones we don’t recommend for your kitchen.

The swing lid will get messy when you scrape off your cutting board. And a trash can without a lid doesn’t contain odors, so that you will smell your trash after a while. If you want a kitchen trash can without the lid, we recommend looking for a tilt-out, slide-out, or pull-out trash can to install in a kitchen cabinet.

A motion sensor trash can is a great alternative for a step-on trash can. With these trash cans, you just wave your hands over the sensor, and the lid opens automatically.

It depends on the brand and type of automatic trash can how quickly and silently the lid opens. Another thing to keep in mind is that the motor requires power, most of the time via batteries.

So it would be best if you changed them every once in a while. And note that when the motor breaks, the trash can becomes pretty much useless.

A manual lid trash can is also great for your kitchen. The downside is that you need to use your hands, elbow, or hip to open the trash can. This might be less hygienic for kitchen use.

But a manual trash bin is still a great option to consider. We also recommend a trash can with a soft closing lid. This reduces the noise the trash can makes when opening and closing the lid. One last thing is to look for a trash can where the lid can stay open without you’re holding it.

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How to clean a stainless steel trash can?

How to keep your high-quality stainless steel trash can clean? Most of the stainless bins come with a fingerprint-proof coating. This layer keeps smudges to a minimum. But the coating won’t prevent the stainless steel from becoming dirty over a while of use. How to clean a stainless steel trash can without making scratches and damaging the bin?

Simplehuman recommends the use of the Simplehuman microfiber mitt to keep your stainless steel spotless. The only thing you need is the mitt and some water.

Chemicals are not necessary. To clean the stainless steel bin, you dampen one side of the microfiber mitt with water. With this side, you clean the whole bin. When you’re finished, you use the mitt’s dry side to buff and polish the stainless steel. The microfiber mitt is machine washable.

A trash can will be used a lot in your household. So it needs to be durable, hygienic and easy to clean. So, how do you clean a kitchen garbage can?

Fingerprints and smudges

Stainless steel recycling bins will get fingerprints and smudges on and around the lid over time. If you want to prevent this from happening as much as possible, look for bins with a fingerprint-proof coating. This coating prevents most fingerprints and smudges.

Replacing trash bags and liners

How easy is it to replace a full recycling bag? That is quite an important thing to look out for when buying a kitchen trash can. Because replacing a liner is something you will do every week or so.

Some trash cans make it quite a hassle to replace a trash bag. Other bins make changing a trash bag a breeze. We recommend looking at customer reviews of trash cans you are interested in because most people will talk about how easy it is to replace a garbage bag with a particular container.

Cleaning buckets

Are the inner compartments removable? If not, then it is more difficult to clean the bin from the inside. Removable buckets are recommended when you use them for recycling and do not want to use a trash bag or liner.

The bin will become dirty over time, so thorough cleaning is needed to keep the bin clean and prevent it from absorbing waste odors. A removable container can be cleaned far more easily than non-removable buckets.