660L or 1100L Bin for a Busy Takeaway? How to Actually Decide

For most busy takeaways the right answer is a 660L general waste bin, moving to an 1100L only when you are genuinely filling the 660 before collection day and your site can physically take the bigger bin. The 1100L is not just a larger 660: it is wider, heavier when full, and pickier about where it can live. Here is the decision, factor by factor.

Capacity is the easy part

An 1100L holds roughly two thirds more than a 660L. Takeaway waste is dense: food scraps, oil-soaked packaging, drink cups with liquid still in them. That density is exactly why raw capacity is the wrong first question. A 660L of wet takeaway waste is already a heavy unit, and an 1100L of it is heavier again, which brings in the two factors that actually decide this.

Access width: the 1100L dealbreaker

A 660L wheelie bin passes through a standard commercial doorway and down a normal side path. An 1100L is a four-wheeled bin around 1.2 metres wide that needs a genuinely wide path, a flat run without kerb steps, and a spot the collection truck can reach. Shopfront takeaways in strip locations with narrow rear laneways or shared corridors often cannot take an 1100L at all, no matter how much waste they produce. Check the path from the bin's home to the collection point before anything else.

Fill rate: the 60 to 80 percent rule

A bin sized right sits at roughly 60 to 80 percent full when collection day comes, with headroom for your biggest trading day. Lower than that and you are paying to collect air. Overflowing before collection and you are undersized, which shows up as lids that will not close, bags stacked beside the bin, and pest visits.

Collections through Bin Hire Australia run weekly as standard, so size the bin for a full week of your peak trade, not your average. A takeaway doing heavy Friday and Saturday trade needs the capacity for exactly that weekend, because the bin will not be emptied between Friday and the weekly collection.

When two 660s beat one 1100

If one 660L is genuinely not enough, a second 660L is often the better upgrade than a single 1100L:

• Access: two 660s go anywhere one 660 goes. The 1100L has to earn its doorway.
• Placement: you can split them, one at the kitchen door and one out back, which shortens staff trips during service.
• Flexibility: a second bin can later become a different stream. In NSW, SA and WA, where recycling and organics are bookable, many takeaways end up with a 660L general and a recycling or organics bin doing part of the old bin's work. See the organics guide for why food-heavy venues benefit.
• Redundancy: one overfilled or contaminated bin does not take out your whole capacity for the week.

The 1100L wins where space at a single collection point is tight but wide, where waste is bulky rather than dense, and where one bin position genuinely serves the site.

The honest sizing shortcut

Count your current bags. A standard large garbage bag is roughly 70 to 80 litres. A takeaway putting out eight to ten full bags a week fits comfortably in a 660L. Consistently above a dozen, with the lid straining by day five, is 1100L territory or a second 660L.

If you are between sizes, start smaller. Adding capacity later is a quote update; paying every week for an oversized bin is a standing cost. The bin size guide by industry has broader benchmarks.

When you get a quote, you enter your address and business type, and the sizing comes out of your actual answers with the exact per-collection price shown in about two minutes, locked before you book. A vetted local provider delivers the bin, runs the weekly collections, and invoices you directly.