64 vs 96 gallon trash cans

Take the 64 unless you are currently putting a second can or loose bags at the curb every week. Take the 96 if you are, and only if your path to the curb is flat and wide. Almost everyone who regrets their choice regrets going bigger, and the reason is never capacity — it is the slope of the driveway.

#	Product	Best for	Price
01	Toter Heavy Duty Two-Wheel Trash Cart, 64 GallonThe cart most municipalities issue, sold retail: rotationally molded, ten-year warranty, and a lid hinged to the body.	Best outdoor cart overall	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
02	Toter Heavy Duty Two-Wheel Trash Cart, 96 GallonThe 96-gallon cart: the biggest size most automated collection trucks will lift, for households that fill a 64 every week.	Best large capacity	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money

Both sizes are standard, both are lifted by the same automated truck arm, and both are the same product in the same material with the same warranty. The 96 is not a better cart. It is a taller one.

Weight is the whole problem

A cart is a lever on two wheels. Tilting it takes a fraction of the load, but controlling it on a slope takes all of it, and a full 96-gallon cart is half as heavy again as a full 64. On a flat, wide drive that does not matter. On a sloped one, or a gravel one, or a set of steps, it is the difference between a chore and an incident.

It does not fit where the old can went

The 96 is both wider and taller, and the usual storage spot — a side return, a gate gap, the space between the house and a fence — is often sized for something smaller. Measure the gap and the gate before you order, not after.

Your hauler may not take it

Plenty of municipalities issue a specific cart and will only lift that one, and some cap the size they will service. If your collection is contracted rather than municipal, check the size rules first — a cart your hauler will not lift is a very large planter.

A fuller cart is a smellier cart

Odor is driven by time and temperature rather than volume, so a bigger cart that sits a full week in July smells worse than a smaller one that is full by Thursday. If you go to 96, plan on a deodorizer and an occasional rinse.

Three cases, and they are specific.

You are already putting out two cans. One 96 costs less than two 64s, takes less driveway, and is emptied in one truck lift rather than two. If your second can is a permanent fixture rather than a Christmas-week event, this is the straightforward case for upsizing.

You have a yard and no green-waste collection. Grass clippings and leaves are bulky and light, which is exactly the load a big cart handles well — you are filling volume rather than adding weight, so the steering problem never appears.

Collection is fortnightly. Two weeks of a four-person household's waste does not fit in a 64, and the overflow ends up in bags beside the cart, which is how raccoons get involved. If that is already happening, read this first.

Also three, and they cover most households.

Your driveway slopes, is gravel, or has a step. This overrides every capacity argument on the page. A cart you cannot control when it is full is a cart you will come to hate, and you will be moving it fifty-two times a year.

You recycle and compost. Taking packaging and food waste out of the landfill stream typically halves what goes in the cart, and a 64 then sits half empty. Sizing by what is actually left.

Storage is tight. The 64 fits gaps the 96 does not, and a cart that lives out front because it will not fit down the side is a cart you will look at every day.

Whichever you choose, a strap over the lid costs a fraction of the cart and solves the single most common outdoor failure. The lid locks and straps we would buy.