The best 13-gallon trash bags

Glad ForceFlexPlus if your bags split, Hefty Ultra Strong if your can smells, and a simplehuman coded liner if your can uses the code system and the overhang is what bothers you.

#	Product	Best for	Price
01	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	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
02	Hefty Ultra Strong Tall Kitchen Trash Bags, 13 GallonThe main alternative to Glad, with odor control worked into the film rather than added as a scent strip.	Best for odor	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
03	Glad ForceFlex Tall Kitchen Trash Bags, 13 GallonThe standard ForceFlex: single-layer stretch film with a grip band that keeps the bag from sliding down the inside of the can.	Best everyday bag	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
04	simplehuman Code Q Custom Fit Liners, OdorsorbThe liner that actually fits a 50-65 liter simplehuman can, with carbon worked into the film instead of a fragrance.	Best fitted liner	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
05	simplehuman Code J Custom Fit Liners, OdorsorbThe Code J liner, sized for 30-45 liter cans — one of the most common simplehuman sizes in American kitchens.	Best for 30-45 L cans	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
06	simplehuman Code G Custom Fit Drawstring Trash BagsThe liner sized for simplehuman's under-counter pull-out buckets, where overhang is not just untidy but jams the drawer.	Best for under-counter cans	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money

Those three answers map onto three genuinely different problems, and it is worth knowing which one you have before buying. A stronger bag will not fix a smell, and a scented bag will not fix a split.

Bags are a category where we are especially careful about what we claim. We have not run tear tests, so we compared published construction and specifications rather than asserting a durability ranking we cannot support.

• Construction features that address the real failure points — double side seams and reinforced bottoms, because bags fail at a seam or a bottom corner under a wet load, not in the middle of the film.
• Published thickness in mil, where the manufacturer states it, and treated as a hint rather than a strength specification.
• Measured dimensions, because a four-inch difference in length between brands is the difference between a bag that fits your can and one that slips.
• Bag retention — whether there is a grip band or the bag relies on friction alone.
• Whether a fragrance-free option exists, which matters more to people than manufacturers seem to think.

Our methodology in full · how the site is funded.

This is the table nobody publishes and it is the most useful thing on the page. All four of these are sold as 13 gallons.

The widths are consistent at 23.75 to 24 inches, which is why almost any 13-gallon bag will wrap almost any 13-gallon can. The lengths are not: 27 to 31 inches is a four-inch spread, and that is precisely the difference between a bag that sits neatly and one that drowns the can or barely reaches. If your bag does not fit, try a different brand before you blame the can. The arithmetic.

Match the bag to what you actually throw away

Scented or fragrance-free

Worth a deliberate decision rather than a default. Scented bags mask odor with fragrance, and plenty of people find the combination of trash smell and artificial lemon worse than the trash smell alone. If that is you, both Glad and Hefty sell fragrance-free lines, and odor control built into the film — as opposed to a fragrance — is the more useful feature. If odor is the main problem, though, the bag is the wrong place to fix it: start with the can itself.

Buy the count, not the box

Bag boxes are priced in a deliberately confusing way — the same brand and size comes in 40, 68, 90, 110 and 140-count boxes at prices that do not scale. Work out cost per bag before comparing, because the largest box is not reliably the best value and a “value” box of thin bags you use two of at a time is not value at all.