The Best Kitchen Trash Cans for Keeping Your Kitchen Clean and Gross Smells at Bay

Unless you’re one of those zero-waste people who keeps all their waste inside a small mason jar, there’s a good chance that you have one or several garbage bins around the house—and the kitchen trash can is perhaps the most essential.

And sure, a household item that basically serves as purgatory for food scraps, crumpled-up paper towels, unrecyclable packaging, and whatever else you need to inevitably transport to the garbage can in the garage doesn’t seem like the most exciting purchase you will make for the home. But a high-quality trash can—especially if you have a small kitchen where that trash can can’t hide—is a good investment that will last you a long time.

• The best kitchen trash can overall: Kohler 13-Gallon Step Can, $140 at Amazon → Read more
• Another great kitchen trash can: Simplehuman 50 Liter Rectangular Step Trash Can, $160 $140 at Amazon → Read more

Below you’ll find out top pick for the best kitchen trash can, as well as other models we tested.

Kohler 13-Gallon Step Can

$140

Kohler

$150

Amazon

Fresh: Good-looking, soft close, lid locks for bag change
Stale: Lid can stick if not kept clean

What we love: While it was a very close race for best trash can, when all the testing was done we preferred the Kohler step-on model. The can is chic and unobtrusive and has a handsome, brushed stainless-steel finish (it comes in seven other finishes, including black stainless and options with copper accents). The design quality is evident in the details—its lid opens and closes softly no matter how hard you step on the pedal, and the rim locks into place on its own when you lift it up, making it easy to change out the bag.

The Kohler’s removable inner bucket has a small hole in the back that allows you to twist and tuck the bag tightly inside and secure it with minimal unsightly overhang. It’s a simple design feature that many trash cans inexplicably lack.

Importantly, this is an attractive stainless-steel step trash can (and at 13 gallons you will probably see it). The Kohler also feels built to last, and it has stood up to daily use for over five years now, without malfunction or noticeable wear.

What we’d leave: There have been some reports that the outer rim of the bin will get stuck to the top lid and then fall down with a loud bang. We noticed this a couple times when something sticky was on the rim. Keeping the trash can clean will keep this from happening.

Simplehuman 50-Liter Rectangular Kitchen Step Trash Can

$150

Amazon

Fresh: Contains odors well, quiet open and close, works with any standard trash bag
Stale: Lid doesn't automatically lock in place,

What we love: This Simplehuman trash can came in a close second. It has most of the same features we love about the Kohler: It is solidly built and good-looking, and it opens and closes silently, contains odors to keep your kitchen from getting too smelly, and, despite the fact that Simplehuman produces its own line of trash bags, works fine with any grocery store bag you want to use. Simplehuman’s cans also come in several additional sizes if you need something bigger or smaller for your space.

What we’d leave: The Simplehuman bin fell short on a couple small details. You need to flick a little red switch to hold the lid up when changing the bag (the Kohler just locks nicely into place when you lift it), and the stainless-steel exterior, despite being labeled “fingerprint-resistant,” is more prone to smudges and streaks.

After testing trash cans across a range of price points, we ultimately came to the conclusion that spending a little more on a nicer kitchen trash can is worth it in the long run. This is especially true if you have spacial limitations that require you to keep your trash can out on display. Plastic trash cans tend to have flimsy builds, do a poor job at containing odors, and are lousy at keeping trash bags secure. This is something you’ll use constantly, every single day and you will notice the problems with a subpar can pretty quickly.

We started by investigating the overall build of the trash cans, taking note of their sturdiness and build quality. We stepped on the foot pedals repeatedly to see if they how they tolerated excessive use.

After that we inserted a standard garbage bag into each bin to see how easy they were to secure in place. Then we dropped a 10-pound bag of potatoes in each trash can to see how well-secured the bags were.

For odor, we placed a scented air freshener inside each can and left them in a conference room for an hour before returning. This test revealed how easily scents escaped from the trash bins as well as where the smells emanated from. In general, stainless-steel trash cans are superior to plastic at containing smells. So if you weren’t picking them for looks, you might want to for their odor prevention.

Following these initial tests, we had staffers take home trash cans for long-term observational notes.

We limited our selection to single compartment 13-gallon trash cans or as close to that volume as a particular brand produced. That size seems to be the general industrial standard for household trash can size. We chose to exclude touchless, motion sensor trash cans because they require electricity, are prone to malfunctioning, and are easier for pets to get into with their touch tops. We also excluded dual compartment trash cans with recycling bins because they almost always have a single compartment counterpart that is functionally the same in every other way, so testing both felt redundant. Our top pick from Kohler, for example, comes as a dual compartment can as well.

Simplehuman 55 Liter Rectangular Hands-Free Kitchen Step Trash Can

$200

Amazon

$180

Simplehuman

This isn’t a bad trash can and has many similar features to the Kohler, however a large pocket in the back meant for storing additional liners left a large gap into the trash can, where smells could easily escape.

Brabantia New Icon Step Trash Can, 8 Gallon with Removable Bucket

$120 $87 (28% off)

Amazon

Brabantia, like Simplehuman, designs proprietary trash bags that fit perfectly into their own bins. Unlike Simplehuman's, Brabantia’s cans don’t accommodate generic trash bags very well, as they lack any method for securing. Since we think a good trash can should be able to hold any trash bag, and not just a brand’s specific bag, we can’t recommend it.

Ikea Mjösa Trash Can

$73

Ikea

We appreciated the soft close lid and the removable insert, however the build on this wastebasket felt a bit cheap and it lacked an easy way to secure the bags.

Glad 13 Gallon Trash Can

$37

Amazon

This is a pretty basic budget plastic trash can. It has a reasonably sturdy step pedal, but does a poor job at holding on to trash bags, which slipped off the rim as the bag filled up. It lacks a removable insert, so any leaks or messes that might happen would have to be cleaned directly out of the can.

Rubbermaid Premium Slow Close Step-On Wastebasket

$50

Walmart

Another black plastic trash can, this one performed similarly to the Glad can, which is to say: It wasn’t great. While it has two movable arms for securing the trash bag, we found that the bag still slipped off when full.

Umbra Brim 13 Gallon Trash Can with Lid

$50

Amazon

This plastic bin balloons when it gets full, doesn’t hold on to bags well, and can’t contain smells.