Stainless steel vs plastic trash cans

Buy stainless if the can lives in a kitchen you look at, if anything strongly smelling goes in it, and if you will pay for a fingerprint-resistant finish. Buy plastic if the can lives in a garage, a utility room, a rental or a bathroom, if there is a dog or a toddler who will knock it over, or if the budget is under the point where stainless is real steel rather than a thin skin over the same plastic mechanism.

#	Product	Best for	Price
01	Kohler 13-Gallon Stainless Steel Step Trash Can (K-20940)The premium-feeling stainless can that does not lock you into proprietary liners — it is built around the standard 13-gallon bag.	Best value stainless	$160.99 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
02	Hefty 12 Gallon Step Trash Can with Lockable LidA plastic 12-gallon step can whose lid actually locks to the body — the cheapest honest answer to a dog or a toddler in the trash.	Best cheap locking can	$36.99 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
03	EKO Madison 13.2 Gallon Step Trash CanThe stainless step can that competes on the one spec that actually predicts lifespan — pedal cycles — without the premium-brand markup.	Best budget stainless	$89.99 · View on Amazon Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money
04	Sterilite 11.9 Gallon Large StepOn Wastebasket (4-Pack)The plain plastic step can that does the job: a pedal, a hinged lid, and room for an ordinary 13-gallon bag.	Best cheapest step can	$67.51 · View on Amazon $78.05 · 14% off · Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

The two steel cans and the two plastic ones above are representative rather than the only options. What this comparison is about is the material, not the model — and the honest headline is that material is the third or fourth most important thing about a kitchen can.

Plastic is porous at a scale you cannot see, and over years it takes up the odor compounds that waste produces. This is why a five-year-old plastic can can smell faintly even when it is empty and freshly washed, and why diaper pails are increasingly sold in steel. Steel does not do this. Wash a steel can and it is actually clean rather than merely emptied.

The effect is slow, and it is not a reason to replace a plastic can you already own. It is a reason to buy steel for the can that takes food waste and plastic for the can that takes packaging. If your current can smells after washing, read why a trash can still smells after cleaning before you conclude the material is the problem - residue in the base explains it far more often than the plastic does.

Steel also wins on stability, which matters more than it sounds. A heavy can does not travel across the kitchen when the lid opens, and it is harder for a dog to tip. That said, a plastic can with a lid that locks to the base beats a heavy can with a loose lid every time. Dog-proof cans, ranked.

It survives being knocked over

A tipped plastic can is a mess on the floor. A tipped steel can is a mess on the floor and a permanent dent in the can, and a dented steel can never looks right again. If the can shares a room with a dog, a toddler, a bicycle or a laundry basket, that difference is the whole decision.

It cleans properly

A plastic can goes outside and gets hosed. A steel can gets wiped, and a wiped steel can shows every streak until it dries. For a can in a garage or a utility room, where what goes in it is genuinely messy, washability beats appearance. How to clean a trash can.

And a third: cheap stainless is not really the point

Below a certain price, a stainless can is a thin steel skin wrapped around the same molded plastic pedal mechanism as the budget plastic cans. You are paying for the finish rather than for durability, and you inherit the fingerprints as well. If the budget is tight, a good plastic can beats a cheap steel one. What fifty dollars actually buys.

Fingerprints are the single most common complaint about stainless cans, and they are worst on a plain mirror-brushed finish in a kitchen with children. Two things help. The first is a fingerprint-resistant or smudge-resistant coating, which most mid-price and premium cans now have — Kohler and EKO both list one, and it genuinely reduces the problem rather than eliminating it. The second is buying a non-steel colorway: black, white and dark bronze finishes show far less than brushed silver.

What does not help is the folk remedy of polishing with oil. It works for a day and then collects dust. Wipe with a damp microfiber cloth in the direction of the grain, dry it, and accept that a steel can in a working kitchen will never look like a showroom.

1. The pedal mechanism. A steel pedal on a steel linkage outlasts a molded plastic lever on a plastic pin, and that is independent of what the body is made of. A brand that publishes a cycle rating expects it to last.
2. The lid damper. An undamped lid closes with a crack every time. In an open-plan kitchen it is the most common reason a working can gets replaced early.
3. Whether the bag fits. Nominal gallon figures are not dimensions, which is why a 13-gallon bag overhangs a 13-gallon can. The whole bag-fit problem.
4. Whether the inner bucket comes out. A removable bucket is the difference between a two-minute clean and a twenty-minute one.
5. The footprint. The can has to fit where you want it, and shape does more for that than material. Where to put a can in a small kitchen.

Decide those five first. Then pick the material, because by that point it is mostly a question of which room the can lives in and what you want to look at. The full kitchen roundup ranks cans in both materials together, which is the honest way to compare them. If you land on the plastic side, the best Sterilite trash cans, size by size is the brand that owns that end of the market.