Bagster vs roll-off: when the bag on the driveway is enough

This is the clerk sheet for when a WM Bagster — the “Dumpster in a Bag” — is enough, and when you still need a metal roll-off. It is not a quote form. It is not a WM advertisement. It will not sell you the bag. It will tell you the one size, the two prices, the two clocks, the private-property rule, and the jobs that will leave you with a bag WM will not pick up.

The bag lives on your driveway or pad. That is the whole product. If you do not have a private pad the crane can reach, stop reading and rent a box. Street, curb, alley, and parkway are the roll-off’s world — and the city’s.

What the bag is — one size only

WM sells one Bagster. There is no 10-yard bag and no 20-yard bag. Official product page and FAQ, fetched 29 August 2026:

Setup, from the FAQ: lay it flat with the yellow straps on the outside. Step in. Fold the sides down and out from a corner so it stands. Put large, flat, or heavy pieces in first, even. Roll the sides up as you fill. You may fill to the top if the yellow lifting straps can still connect above the load. If they cannot, WM treats that as overloaded. Extra fees if they roll and cannot collect.

Do not drag it after you start filling. WM is explicit: never move the bag once it has load in it. Dragging weakens it. A damaged bag may not get collected, and you can still owe the trip.

Two prices — the bag is not the haul

Two bills. People mash them into one number and then argue with the invoice.

1. The bag. Official price on the thebagster.com product page, 29 August 2026: $29.95 each + shipping and handling (USA). Canada listed $39.95 + S&H on the same page. Home-improvement retailers set their own shelf price; that $29.95 is WM’s own product page, not a store circular.
2. The collection. Separate. Paid to WM when you schedule, not when you buy the bag. Priced by ZIP on thebagster.com (Find It & Price It / collection-service form). Call 877-789-BAGS (2247). Service is not in every market. Major credit cards; FAQ also mentions ACH in the United States and Canada. You do not have to be home for the pickup.

BinClerk does not print a Chicago or Aurora collection fee. WM will not publish one number for the metro. The official tool is a ZIP box. A GET with zip=60614 on 29 August 2026 returned the form, not a dollar. Aggregator copy that says “typically $100–$300” is not official WM and is not used as a figure on this page. Look up your ZIP on thebagster.com/products/find_price.aspx or collection_service.aspx before you buy a bag you cannot afford to have hauled.

If they come and cannot collect — overloaded, banned items, bag on the public way, no payment, no driveway waiver when they needed one — additional fees may apply. That is WM’s language, not a scare line invented here.

Two clocks — do not flatten them

WM prints two pickup clocks on the same FAQ page. This sheet prints both. It does not pick a winner.

Treat five business days as the number you plan around, and treat three as a second clock WM has not explained on that page. Ask when you schedule which window they are actually running for your ZIP. Do not tell a contractor “they come in three days” because one paragraph said so.

Pickup days: Monday through Friday. Hours disagree on official pages. FAQ: collections 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Collection-service page: 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Confirm. Cancel: WM wants notice within one business day of the scheduled collection, by phone.

A metal roll-off is a different machine: you usually get a sitting box for about seven days (Chicago-area haulers; see chicago-il.html). The bag is fill-then-call. If you need a week of open mouth in the alley, that is the box, not the bag.

Driveway, alley, crane — print WM’s own contradictions

WM picks the bag with a truck-mounted overhead crane, not a roll-off rail. Official placement, FAQ and contractor page, 29 August 2026:

• On your property only.
• At least 5 feet from structures, fences, trees, vehicles, or anything the crane can hit or that can block the lift. Also printed as “5 ft away from any structure or vehicle.”
• Clear of overhead wires, trees, and structures. The truck needs about 18 feet of vertical clearance.
• Crane reach: about 16 feet (two bag lengths) from the edge of the street, alley, or driveway. The center of the bag must be no farther than that 16 feet.
• Fence: the crane can reach over a 5-foot fence, not a privacy fence. The fence must be within 5 feet of the street, alley, or driveway. Drivers still need gate access to the bag.
• HOA: check first, before you fill.

If the truck stays on the street

Center of the bag on your property, no farther than 16 feet from the edge of the street.

If the truck drives onto your driveway

A signed damage waiver is required. FAQ: sign the waiver that comes with the bag, seal it in a plastic bag, attach it to the outside. Contractor page: electronic waiver during scheduling. Do what the scheduler tells you; the paper-on-the-bag version is the one the FAQ and the damage-waiver PDF describe. No waiver, they may leave. Extra fees possible.

Driveway width: WM’s FAQ contradicts itself on the same page. One placement paragraph says the driveway must be at least 12 feet wide. Another says 10 feet. The damage-waiver PDF and the contractor page say 12 feet. This sheet prints both. Confirm with 877-789-BAGS before you promise a 10-foot Chicago driveway to a truck that wants 12.

Center of the bag: still no farther than 16 feet from any point on that driveway.

If the truck works from the alley

Center of the bag on your property, no farther than 16 feet from the alley. The truck cannot turn from the alley into the driveway. The bag has to be reachable from the alley. A bag behind a garage the crane cannot see from the alley is not a collection.

That alley rule is about the crane standing in the alley and lifting a bag that is still on your lot. It is not permission to leave the bag in the alley. In the alley is public way. WM says they will not collect there. The city may treat it as occupancy. Two problems, one bad idea.

What actually fits — WM’s own analogs

WM publishes fill analogs on wm.com/us/en/home/bagster and thebagster.com/products/products_services.aspx. They say approximate. They also say that in some markets, tile, roofing shingles, and drywall count as heavy debris — which would put those loads under the one-cubic-yard heavy cap, not under these sheet counts. Check the ZIP.

WM’s acceptable-materials list is the usual light remodel pile: drywall, plywood, doors, trim, cabinets, flooring, carpet, insulation, a bathtub, a toilet, a sink, household junk, wooden or metal furniture, a grill without the propane tank, exercise gear with the electronics pulled. That is “a closet, a small bath, a few sheets,” not a kitchen gut.

Three cubic yards is not a 10-yard. It is not half a 10-yard in any useful sense once the heavy cap and the banned list are on the table. If you will fill a 10-yard, you want the 10-yard. Deep size sheet: 10 vs 20 vs 30 vs 40 yard: what actually fits.

The one-cubic-yard heavy cap

You can put at most one cubic yard of dirt, brick, rock, sod, concrete, sand, asphalt, plaster, or stucco in the bag. WM will not collect more. They say so twice on the FAQ. Extra fees if they roll and cannot collect.

Put the heavy material in the bottom. You may stack lighter debris on top, up to the rim, if the straps still meet above the load. One cubic yard of slab plus a mountain of drywall is still a bag. Two cubic yards of patio brick is a refusal.

A cubic yard of concrete is already in the 2-ton neighborhood as a solid. The bag’s 3,300 lb ceiling and the 1-cy heavy rule are the same warning in two units: this is not a driveway tear-out tool. See concrete.

Banned items — and do not assume yard waste

If banned items are in the bag, WM says they will not collect it. You dispose of the mess. Extra fees may apply. Restricted materials also vary by area. Official “not limited to” list (FAQ) plus the services-page unacceptable list, fetched 29 August 2026:

• Paint, oil, fuel, liquids, chemicals, pesticides, anything toxic or hazardous
• Batteries
• Fluorescent bulbs and ballasts
• Appliances (services page also names water heaters and water softeners)
• Electronics
• Food waste
• Railroad ties
• Tires
• Medical waste
• Asbestos, propane, hot materials (services page)
• Large stumps (product overview)

Yard waste is not accepted in all areas. WM says so on the FAQ, the product page, and the services page (brush, shrubs, clippings, leaves, mulch, dirt, sod are in the location-specific block). Enter the ZIP on thebagster.com.

Illinois has landfilled-banned landscape waste since 1 July 1990. Do not assume Chicago or Aurora yard waste is acceptable in a Bagster because a WM marketing line listed “landscaping.” Check the ZIP. If the ZIP says no, it is no — and the state landfill ban is a second reason not to bury leaves under drywall and hope.

Chicago household hazardous waste and covered electronics: HCCRF, 1150 N. North Branch St. Hours and what they take are on the Chicago rental page. Same idea in Aurora: the bag is not the HHW drop.

Labor versus a box — if the problem is furniture you cannot lift, not volume you cannot store — is a different sheet: dumpster vs junk hauling in Chicago.

Bag vs roll-off

The bag is a 3-yard, 3,300 lb, private-property, weekday-crane product. The roll-off is a 10- to 40-yard steel box that can sit in an alley with a permit on the hauler. They are not the same service in a cheaper skin.

Multiple bags — do the arithmetic without inventing the fee

WM allows more than one bag at the same address. Collection trucks can take several in one trip. Discounts may apply for multiple bags collected together. WM does not print the discount on the FAQ. Do not invent one.

The volume math is not mysterious:

• One bag = 3 cubic yards.
• Two bags = 6 cubic yards.
• A 10-yard roll-off = 10 cubic yards, and on the Chicago market compiled 29 August 2026 it runs about $300–$500 for a typical 7-day box (same range as chicago-il.html; not a bid).

Cost math, without a fake collection number:

(about $30 × N bags) + (ZIP collection fee × N bags) − (any multi-bag discount WM actually quotes you) versus one 10-yard quote.

The $30 is the official $29.95 bag, plus S&H or the retailer’s shelf price. The ZIP collection is the number this page will not invent. Look it up. If that ZIP fee is large, two bags can cost as much as a small steel box and still hold less, still refuse a second yard of brick, and still refuse the alley. Three bags is 9 cubic yards — almost a 10-yard in air, never a 10-yard in masonry, and three collection fees.

Do the multiplication on paper with the ZIP fee in front of you. Then ask a hauler for one 10-yard on the driveway. The cheaper honest total wins. Do not use an internet “average pickup.”

Concrete: the bag is the wrong tool

A driveway tear-out is not a Bagster job. One cubic yard of concrete, dirt, or brick is the cap. A driveway is many cubic yards. The bag will be overweight or over the heavy rule before the saw is cool.

What to rent instead, from the size sheet and the Chicago haulers who publish it:

• A 10-yard heavy / low-boy — the usual dedicated home for concrete, dirt, brick, and tile, loaded partway, not to the rail. See sizes.html.
• An 8-yard concrete-only where a hauler runs one. D & D Dumpsters advertises that box (broken concrete, pavers, bricks; no dirt, wood, or trash).

Do not “just get two bags” for a driveway. Two bags is still two cubic yards of allowed masonry if you max the heavy cap on each, and it is still a crane product on a private pad. The slab wants a small steel box and a truck that expects the weight.

Where to buy, how to schedule

WM’s language: bags are sold at home improvement retailers and on thebagster.com. This draft names Home Depot, Lowe’s, and thebagster.com as places people actually find the bag. No store tracking URLs. No amazon.com link. Confirm the SKU on the shelf and that collection serves the ZIP before you pay for a bag you cannot have hauled.

• Official site: thebagster.com. Product: products_detail.aspx ($29.95 + S&H USA on 29 Aug 2026).
• ZIP collection fee and service area: find_price.aspx and collection_service.aspx.
• FAQ (placement, clocks, banned list): questions_answers.aspx.
• WM overview and fill analogs: wm.com/us/en/home/bagster.
• Schedule: thebagster.com or 877-789-BAGS (2247). They want address, where the bag sits on the property, contents, payment, and the damage waiver if the truck will be on the driveway.
• FAQ also lists bagster@wm.com.

This page does not take a cut. When an Amazon Associates account is live, Bagster-class bag links on this page would be disclosed. They are not live. There is no “buy” button here.

Citations and fetch dates: SOURCES.md.