Roll-off containers for
the City of Chicago
10 to 30 yard containers in the alley, on the driveway or on the public way — Logan Square to Beverly, Rogers Park to South Shore. We hold the city dumpster permit, so that part is ours to sort out, not yours.
(619) 658-9555Alley placement is what we do- City permit held by us, not you
- Alley-width problems solved first
- C&D recycling documented
- Chicago only — all 50 wards
The thing nobody tells you about Chicago
In almost every other town in Illinois, if a container has to sit on the street you go and get the permit yourself. Chicago does not work that way, and it is the single most useful thing on this page.
Under the municipal code, the company providing a container that occupies the public way is the party required to hold the dumpster permit. Not the homeowner. Not the general contractor. The hauler. That has been the arrangement since 2001, and it is why a legitimate city operator will ask you a set of questions on the phone that a suburban yard never would — we are the ones whose name goes on it.
Two practical consequences. First, you do not have a morning of phone calls ahead of you. Second, if a container company tells you to go and sort the permit out yourself for a Chicago street or alley placement, something is wrong with that conversation.
What the code actually says
Section 10-28-799 of the Municipal Code of Chicago requires companies providing dumpsters that occupy the public way to obtain a dumpster permit. Permits are administered by the Chicago Department of Transportation's Public Way Permits Division and applied for through the city's online permit portal.
Permit class follows container size: Class A covers containers of 30 cubic yards or less, Class B anything larger. Placement in the Central Business District is treated separately from the rest of the city.
Chicago Municipal Code 10-28-799 · CDOT Public Way PermitsA container entirely on your own property — a bungalow driveway, a side drive, a private parking pad — needs no public way permit at all. That covers a great deal of the Bungalow Belt and almost everything in Beverly and Norwood Park. It covers very little in Rogers Park or Hyde Park. The full permit and placement picture →
Chicago is an alley city, and alleys have a width
Most of Chicago was platted with a service alley behind every residential block, which is why the rear of a Chicago property does the work that a front driveway does elsewhere. Your garage opens onto it, your bins live on it, and it is where your container will most likely go.
What decides whether that works is width, and it varies more than people expect. A standard alley gives a roll-off truck enough room to set a container along one side and still let a car past. A narrow one — and Bridgeport, Lincoln Park and parts of Pilsen have plenty — does not, which turns placement into a conversation with your neighbours about when their garage needs to be reachable.
Then there is what is in the alley already. Utility poles, transformer pads, dumpster corrals, the city's own bins, and the sag of overhead lines across the span. A container needs roughly 23 feet of vertical clearance to come off the truck, and an alley strung with cable is where that becomes a real question rather than a formality.
And some blocks simply have no alley. Stretches of Rogers Park, Hyde Park and the lakefront were built without one, and there the answer is the street with a permit, or nothing.
We handle
- Gut rehabs, deconversions and unit turnovers
- Bungalow attic build-outs, dormers and basements
- Whole-unit and estate clearances
- Flat roof tear-offs, including tar and gravel
- Concrete walks, pads and garage slabs in clean loads
- Commercial fit-outs and storefront turnovers
Illinois law says no
- Landscape waste — grass, leaves, brush
- Electronics — TVs, monitors, computers, printers
- Whole tyres
- Lead-acid batteries
- Used motor oil and other bulk liquids
- Appliances with their components still in them
Which container fits, and which one fits the alley
Dimensions are approximate. In this city the limiting factor is as often the space as the material.
One room, a bathroom, a bungalow driveway strip, or anything heavy — plaster, concrete, soil.
A unit turnover, a basement, a flat roof tear-off. The most common alley container.
Whole-unit clearance, kitchen gut, a two-flat remodel. Fits a standard alley, tight in a narrow one.
Full gut rehab or deconversion. Still Class A on the permit, but it will not fit most alleys.
Four steps, one phone call
- Tell us the address and the block It tells us the alley, the housing type and whether the public way is even in play. Chicago work is decided block by block, not by neighbourhood.
- We sort the permit if one is needed Public way placement is our application under the city code. Private property needs nothing. You will know which within a minute of describing the spot.
- Delivery Boards down on a driveway, careful positioning in an alley. Tell us which way you want the barn doors facing — turning a loaded container in an alley is not a thing that happens.
- Call when you are done Load level with the top rail; a heaped container cannot legally travel. If the job is permitted construction, keep your recycling paperwork — the city asks for it after the fact.
Containers around the city
Alley placements, driveway placements and the public way, across the north, west and south sides.
Where we deliver
The City of Chicago, and only the City of Chicago. Every block inside the city limits is a block we know how to get a truck down, which is not something a company covering six counties can say.
What people ask when they call
Do I need to get a dumpster permit myself?
Not in Chicago. The city code puts the dumpster permit on the company providing the container when it occupies the public way, so that is ours to obtain. On your own driveway or private pad, no public way permit is needed at all.
Will a container fit in my alley?
Usually, and the size is the variable. A 10, 15 or 20 yard will go in a standard Chicago alley. A 30 yard will not fit most of them. Tell us the cross streets and we will know the alley.
My block has no alley. What then?
Street placement with a permit, which we apply for. Parts of Rogers Park, Hyde Park and the lakefront were built without alleys, and street placement is the normal answer there rather than the exception.
Can electronics go in?
No. Illinois has banned covered electronic devices from landfill since 2012 — televisions, monitors, computers, printers and a longer list besides. They need a separate recycling route.
What is the 50 percent recycling thing?
Chicago requires recyclable construction and demolition debris to be recycled at 50 percent, and the permit holder for the work documents it after the project. It applies to permitted construction, not to clearing out your basement.
How long can I keep it?
About a week as standard, and longer if you say so in advance. On a public way placement the permit period has to cover the whole time it sits there, which is another reason to tell us the real duration up front.
Tell us the block
Cross streets, what you are clearing and where it should sit. Two minutes settles the size, the alley and the permit.
(619) 658-9555Mon–Sat 6am–6pm