The best Glad trash cans

Buy the Glad 13 Gallon Stainless Steel Step Trash Can (GLD-74525). It is the one model in the line with the two features that are actually Glad's idea rather than every other brand's — a bag-roll compartment molded into the back of the can, and a stay-open lid for bag changes — and it takes the ordinary 13-gallon liners you already buy. Go to the 20 Gallon (GLD-74507) only if your bag is tied off before dinner is cleared, and to the plastic step can for a garage or a rental, where a brushed finish is money you will not get back.

#	Product	Best for	Price
01	Glad 13 Gallon Stainless Steel Step Trash Can with Clorox Odor Protection (GLD-74525)The Glad can to buy if you only buy one: a 13-gallon brushed stainless step can with the odor treatment on the lid and a rear compartment that stores the bag roll.	Best Glad overall	$79.99 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
02	Glad 20 Gallon Extra Capacity Stainless Steel Step Trash Can (GLD-74507)The most normal-looking way to put 20 gallons in a kitchen: a soft-close stainless step can that gets its volume from height rather than width.	Best 20 gallon overall	$99.99 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
03	Glad 13 Gallon Plastic Step Trash Can with Clorox Odor ProtectionThe same lid treatment and bag rings in a plastic body, for the rooms where a fingerprint-resistant finish is not worth paying for.	Best cheap Glad	$37.99 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
04	Glad 13 Gallon Trash Can with Clorox Odor Protection, 2 PackThe two-can version of the plastic step can — the cheapest honest way to run trash and recycling side by side without a dual-compartment can.	Best for trash plus recycling	$59.98 · View on Amazon $72.99 · 18% off · Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
05	Glad ForceFlexPlus Tall Kitchen Drawstring Trash Bags, 13 GallonThe 13-gallon bag to buy if yours keep splitting: two layers of stretch film, double side seams and a reinforced bottom.	Best overall bag	$35.99 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

The thing to be clear about before you spend anything: Glad's cans are not Glad's bags. The bags are the business — ForceFlex, the drawstrings, the scents — and they are genuinely differentiated. The cans are a conventional stainless-and-plastic line carrying the brand and a licensed Clorox antimicrobial on the lid. That is not a criticism, it is a buying instruction: judge them on pedal, lid, rings and footprint like any other can, and treat the odor claim as one feature among several rather than the reason to buy.

Every Glad can is sold on the same line: Clorox odor protection, built into the lid. It is worth knowing precisely what that means, because it is easy to read it as something it is not.

• It is a treatment in the plastic, not a filter. Glad's wording is that the lid and the lid frame inhibit the growth of odor-causing bacteria. It works on the surfaces, not on the air.
• It is not a carbon cartridge. A carbon filter adsorbs odor molecules out of the air leaving the can, and it is a consumable you replace. There is nothing to replace here, and nothing is being filtered.
• It targets the right surfaces. The underside of a lid and the frame it seats on are where the film that genuinely smells collects - drips, condensation, aerosolized trash. Treating those two parts is a sensible place to spend the feature.
• It does not replace cleaning. An antimicrobial slows growth on the plastic; it does not remove the residue already there. A can with this lid still needs washing out on a schedule.

So the honest summary is: a useful, permanent, low-maintenance feature on the surfaces that matter, and not a substitute for a sealed lid or a carbon filter. If smell is the main thing you are shopping for, read the best trash cans for odor control first and come back - the top of that list is built differently. If you want the filter, trash can carbon filters explains which cans take one.

We have not run a lab test on these cans. What we did was work out which models Glad currently sells, confirm each one against a live retail listing on 2026-10-13, and then compare them on the five things that decide whether a can is still in use in three years: the pedal and its linkage, whether the lid is damped, whether the liner is a size you already buy, the real footprint, and what the warranty says. Where the retailers disagree with each other - and on the 20-gallon they do, by two inches in both directions - we record the manufacturer's own figure and say so. Methodology, disclosure.

Ranking logic in one line each. The 13-gallon stainless wins because the bag compartment and the stay-open lid are real conveniences on an otherwise ordinary can, and because 13 gallons is the liner size in everyone's cupboard. The 20-gallon is second because it solves a real problem - a household that outgrows 13 gallons - without looking like a commercial drum. The plastic step can is third on value, not on quality. The two-pack is fourth because two whole cans beat a split can for a household that recycles seriously. The ForceFlexPlus bags are listed last and are not ranked against the cans; they are there because the bag is the half of this system Glad is actually best at.

The line is effectively two sizes, and the decision between them is not about how much trash you make - it is about whether you are willing to change the bag you buy.

13 gallons: the default, for a reason

Thirteen gallons is the American kitchen standard, which means the liner is on every shelf in every store, in every brand, at every price. Both the stainless GLD-74525 and the plastic step can take it. If you are replacing a can that works and only want a better one, stay here - the best 13-gallon trash cans puts this one in context against the rest of the category.

20 gallons: more volume, different bag

The GLD-74507 holds 20 gallons, which is roughly a 50% jump, and that is genuinely useful for a family of five or a household that cannot get to the curb more than once a week. The catch is the liner: a 13-gallon bag will not reach, so you are buying 20-gallon or larger bags from now on, and those cost more per bag and sell in smaller boxes. Work that out before you commit - 13 vs 20 gallon trash cans does the arithmetic, and the best 20 and 21 gallon trash cans shows what else exists at that size.

Glad sits in the middle of this market, and the middle is a perfectly good place to buy a trash can. It is the right answer when you want a stainless step can with a couple of genuinely thoughtful touches, do not want to spend what a premium brand charges, and are not trying to solve an unusual problem.

It is the wrong answer in three specific cases. If you need a lid a dog cannot nose open, you want a latch, and the best dog-proof trash cans covers that. If you need hands-free with no pedal at all, you want a sensor can - the best touchless trash cans. And if what you actually care about is a pedal that is still working in ten years with a published cycle rating and a replaceable lid, that is a premium purchase and is simplehuman worth it? is the page that argues it out.

The two things most people are actually here for: the bags, and a cheap matching pair for trash plus recycling.

Best overall bag

Glad ForceFlexPlus Tall Kitchen Drawstring Trash Bags, 13 Gallon

The 13-gallon bag to buy if yours keep splitting: two layers of stretch film, double side seams and a reinforced bottom.

$35.99 · View on Amazon

Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

Best for trash plus recycling

Glad 13 Gallon Trash Can with Clorox Odor Protection, 2 Pack

The two-can version of the plastic step can — the cheapest honest way to run trash and recycling side by side without a dual-compartment can.

$59.98 · View on Amazon

$72.99 · 18% off · Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

The two things that fail on a can in this class are the pedal linkage and the lid hinge, and the thing to know up front is that Glad does not run a consumer spare-parts store the way simplehuman and Rubbermaid do. If a lid cracks, the practical options are a retailer return inside the window, a warranty claim through the listing you bought from, or a replacement can - not a $12 part in the post.

That is worth factoring in rather than panicking about: it is normal for the mid-market, and it is the single clearest argument for the premium brands if you intend to keep one can for a decade. Trash can lid replacement, brand by brand lists who actually sells parts, and trash can pedal not working covers the repairs you can do yourself before you give up on a can.

One cheap habit extends the life of any of these: do not stand on the pedal while you scrape a plate. The linkage is designed for a step and a release, and a loaded standing foot is what bends the rod.