If you have started calling around for junk removal prices, you have probably noticed that most companies will not give you a straight number over the phone, and the ones that do give you a number so low you know it is not real. I want to just put ours on the page, explain why Massachusetts costs what it costs, and tell you honestly when you would be better off not hiring us at all.
The short answer
Junk removal here is priced by volume, meaning how much room your stuff takes up in the truck rather than how many pieces there are. There are only two numbers:
- The minimum is $120. That covers a small pickup of one or two items, like a loveseat or a few bags. For a very small job close to our Salem base we can sometimes bring the minimum down to $80 to $100, so it is worth asking.
- Above that it is about $70 to $100 per cubic yard. If the load is light and we can walk straight to it, the rate drops toward $70 a yard. A long or awkward carry pushes it the other way, and heavy material like tile or concrete is priced by weight. For scale, our truck holds 20 cubic yards, which is about 8 pickup truck beds.
Labor, hauling, dump fees, fuel and donation drop-offs are all inside those numbers. The final price is set in person before we start, and once we give you that number it does not move.
I used to publish quarter, half and full load prices and I stopped, because they were not honest enough. Two jobs that both fill half a truck can be hundreds of dollars apart depending on what is in them and how far it has to be carried, so a single number for "half load" was always going to be wrong for somebody. The rate per yard is what we actually work from.
Why those numbers look high next to what you read online
This is the part almost nobody explains, and it is the thing I get asked about most.
If you search for junk removal prices you will find national guides quoting lower numbers than ours. I could not trace their figures to a source I would stand behind, so I am not repeating them here. What I can tell you is what pushes the price up in Massachusetts, and it comes down to two things.
The first is what it costs to get rid of anything here. Disposal is priced per ton at the facility, and every truckload we bring in gets weighed. Depending on which facility we are at and what is in the load, we pay between $185 and $300 a ton. That is what we actually pay, not a published average, and it means a full load of somebody's basement can carry several hundred dollars of disposal cost before anybody has been paid for the work. For a published figure to set beside ours, Marblehead's 2026 tipping fee notice sets $320 a ton for furniture, rugs, cleanouts and construction material weighed at the town transfer station, effective January 1, 2026 (I read it in October 2026).
The second is that the state is short on room. MassDEP's 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan sets a goal of cutting disposal from 5.7 million tons in 2018 to 4 million tons in 2030 (I read it in October 2026). Until then a lot of what gets thrown away here leaves the state. MassDEP's 2024 Solid Waste Data Update, published in January 2026 and read in October 2026, says Massachusetts sent 3,110,000 tons out of state for disposal in 2024, and the states that took the most of it were Ohio, New York, New Hampshire and Alabama. It also projects that in 2030 the state will still be a net exporter of between about 470,000 and 2.7 million tons, depending on how close it gets to that goal. Trucking trash that far costs money, and I expect that is part of what shows up in the tipping fee here.
So when a national guide gives you a lower number for a full truck than a Massachusetts company quotes you, the company is not necessarily gouging you. Ask what their disposal cost per ton is. Anybody actually paying it will know the number.
What moves your price up or down
- Weight, not just volume. Concrete, tile, dirt, books and roofing take up very little room and weigh a tremendous amount. A small pile of concrete can be a full load in practice, so heavy material gets priced by weight instead. The concrete footing under a basketball hoop is priced the same way, and so is the sand in a portable base.
- Access. A third-floor walk-up with a turn in the staircase is a different job from a garage ten feet from where the truck parks. It is the same junk and a very different amount of labor. The gap is widest on a heavy piece like a piano, a slate pool table or a home gym, where weight and access both count.
- Distance. We are based in Salem, and every town on our service-area page is on the same price list. The minimum can be higher for a job well outside our normal routes.
- What is in the pile. Some items cost us more to get rid of than the rest of the load put together, which brings us to the next part.
The items that get priced separately, and the reason why
Massachusetts bans a list of materials from ordinary trash disposal, and two of the most common household items went on that list on November 1, 2022: mattresses and box springs, and textiles, meaning clothing, shoes, linens and curtains. They join things that were already banned, including old tube (CRT) TVs and monitors, whole tires, appliances containing refrigerant, yard waste and most construction debris.
Banned does not mean we cannot take it. It means it has to go to the right facility. Mattresses, box springs, TVs, monitors and appliances holding refrigerant go to a recycler that charges for them, so they carry their own fee instead of being folded into the load price. Paint, chemicals, motor oil, tires, car batteries and propane tanks are quoted separately too, because they need special handling, and concrete is priced by weight. We tell you those numbers before we start, not after.
One thing worth knowing, because it scares people unnecessarily: MassDEP's FAQ on the mattress ban, which I read in October 2026, says it generally does not issue waste ban enforcement to individuals, and typically issues it to businesses, institutions including towns, and waste haulers. Your own town's rules for setting trash out are separate from the state ban, so check them before a mattress goes to the curb. The reason it costs more is that the recycler charges us, not that you broke a law.
How to get an estimate without waiting for a site visit
Text photos of the pile to 978-915-3399. A photo tells us most of what we need, and we can usually come back with a solid estimate quickly. Stand back far enough to get the whole pile in frame, and if it is in a basement or a third floor, say so, because access is the thing photos hide.
The in person number is the one that counts, and it gets confirmed before anybody touches anything. If there turns out to be more or less than the photos suggested, the price moves up or down to match. Once you agree to it, it does not go up.
Five ways to pay less
I would rather tell you these than have you overpay and feel bad about it afterwards.
- Check your town's bulk pickup first, if you can carry the item out. With one couch and no deadline, your city will almost certainly beat us on price. In Salem it is $20 an item through Waste Management, and we wrote up exactly how that works. The catch is that it is curbside only, meaning they collect what is already at the curb and will not come inside for it, so if the item is upstairs or in a basement and you cannot safely move it, the fee does not buy you anything. Use the town pickup when it fits the job, and call us when it does not.
- Separate the heavy stuff. If you have concrete or tile mixed into a general pile, tell us up front. Priced as its own load it is often cheaper than dragging the whole job into a weight-based rate.
- Get it to the curb or the garage if you can do it safely. Most of what you pay for is labor and access. Junk that is already outside is a smaller job. Do not hurt yourself doing this, and do not do it with anything heavy or awkward, but bags you can lift easily are worth carrying out yourself.
- Sell or donate the good things first. Furniture and appliances in usable shape are worth something to somebody, and everything you move out that way is volume you are not paying to haul. Anything still usable that ends up on our truck goes for donation anyway, mostly to Big Blue Bargains in Swampscott, More Than Words in Boston and The Salvation Army, but you may as well get the value yourself. If a parent is moving somewhere smaller, the same goes for the furniture that is not making the move, and on a senior downsizing cleanout we clear it at the pace the family sets.
- Do it in one trip. Two trips cost more than one, every time, because the minimum and the drive get paid for twice. If you know the garage is next, do the garage now, and here is what a garage cleanout runs on its own, since the paint and the propane out there are priced apart from the load.
Things to be careful of when you are getting quotes
- A price with no site visit and no photos. Nobody can price a basement they have not seen. That number is going to change.
- "Starting at" pricing. Find out what the job actually costs before anyone is in your driveway.
- No written confirmation of what is included. Dump fees and labor should be in the number, not added later.
- Nobody asking about access or heavy material. A company that does not ask about those cannot give you a firm number, so expect its price to change on the day.
- No proof of insurance. Ask. We are licensed and insured and will show you the policy limits without being asked twice.
If you want us to look at it
Call or text 978-915-3399 and a real person on our team picks up, never an AI and never a call center. We will tell you honestly whether your job is a city pickup job or a truck job, and there is nothing attached to asking.