October 19, 2026
This page sets out how content on Solid Waste Guide is researched, verified, and corrected. It is published so that readers can judge the material rather than take it on trust.
The Source Hierarchy
Sources are used in this order, and a lower tier is never used where a higher one exists.
- Federal regulation. The Code of Federal Regulations, cited by part and section.
- Federal agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency and comparable bodies, for guidance, conversion factors, and program data.
- State environmental agencies, for rules that are set at state level.
- Municipal and county collection programs that publish their own specifications. These are the backbone of the container pages, because cities publish real measurements for the carts and bins they actually distribute.
- Consensus standards, such as the ANSI Z245 series on waste container compatibility.
- Manufacturers' and operators' published specification sheets, used last and only for specifications.
How Commercial Sources Are Handled
A specification sheet from a company that sells or rents containers can be a legitimate source for a dimension. It is not a legitimate source for a recommendation, and naming the company in the text would amount to free promotion.
So commercial documents are used for figures only, the text attributes them generically — "published specification sheets" — and the company is recorded in the page's own source list rather than in the text. Non-commercial sources are named openly: a federal regulation, a state agency, a named city program, a standards body.
When a Company Is the Subject
There is a difference between borrowing a company's authority and reporting on what a company has published about itself.
A company is never named as the source of a specification, for the reason given above. But some questions readers ask are about a named company's own program: whether a particular chain accepts a particular item, and on what terms. That question cannot be answered without the name, and refusing to answer it serves no one.
Where a page does this, three conditions apply. Every statement about the company comes from that company's own published page, quoted and dated. The page does not recommend the company, rank it against others, or link to it. And the answer is reported as found, including when the answer is no.
Nothing else in this policy changes. No mention is for sale, and a company named in this way has no more standing here than one that is not.
When a Figure Does Not Exist
If a dimension or a limit is not published by any credible source, the page says so in those words. It does not offer an estimate, a typical value, or an average invented for the occasion.
This is why tables on this site sometimes read "not published by the programs consulted" instead of a number. A visible gap is more useful than a figure you cannot check.
Verification Before Publication
Every page goes through the same checks before it is published:
- Every figure is traced to a named source, recorded with the page.
- Comparative claims are calculated, not estimated. If one container holds a third more than another, that is arithmetic, not an impression.
- Single-source claims are not generalized. If one city publishes a rule, the page says that city publishes it, not that programs generally do.
- Streams are kept separate. Weight limits for refuse, recycling and yard waste differ within the same city, and a figure from one is never presented as applying to another.
- An independent review pass checks the finished text against the sources, carried out separately from the writing.
How Pages Are Produced
Research, drafting and verification on this site are done with the help of AI tools, under human direction. That assistance works the way a research assistant and a copy editor work: it gathers sources and prepares text, and it decides nothing.
What gets published is judged by someone qualified to judge it. The author's professional background in environmental sanitation — solid waste and wastewater alike — is what makes that review meaningful: it is the competence required to recognize a container specification, a storage rule or a disposal procedure as sound, or to reject it as wrong, before it reaches this site. Every figure is checked against its primary source, every page is edited by a person, and the author takes full responsibility for what appears here.
What This Site Will Not Publish
- Recommendations of haulers, rental firms, manufacturers or products.
- Prices presented as quotes. Cost factors are explained; figures are sourced averages.
- Content paid for, sponsored, or supplied by a company. Nothing on this site is for sale, including a mention.
- Guidance on handling hazardous materials that goes beyond what a cited authority publishes.
Advertising and Independence
Advertising, where it appears, is supplied by third-party networks and selected by them, not by us. No advertiser sees content before publication, and no advertiser has any influence over what is written. An advertisement is not a recommendation from this site.
Corrections
Errors are inevitable and corrections are welcome. If you find one, write to [email protected] with the page and, if you have it, the source that contradicts it.
What happens then:
- A factual error is corrected as soon as it is confirmed.
- A correction that changes the substance of a page is noted on the page with its date.
- A typographical or wording fix is made without a note.
- If we cannot confirm a correction either way, the disputed figure is removed rather than left standing.
Review and Updating
Pages that depend on third-party specifications are reviewed when a cited source changes its published figures, and periodically in any case. Collection programs replace their fleets and revise their rules, and a page that was accurate when written can quietly stop being so.
Contact
Questions about any source or figure: [email protected]