Pricing transparency

Three providers. Same practice. $3,816/year difference.

Below are three real invoices for the same hypothetical dental practice — a typical small office in Tampa Bay with 2 pickups a month, 60 lbs of regulated waste, and moderate sharps volume. The numbers are representative of market rates we see from national, regional, and local providers.

The math gets worse the longer you stay.

These are monthly differences on a single small practice. Across a 5-year contract, the national provider charges this same practice $7,670 more than a local operator — for the exact same service.

Multiply that across every medical, dental, vet, and surgical practice in the country and you can see why the waste industry has settled hundreds of millions of dollars in class-action lawsuits over undisclosed fees.

$1,804

saved annually by
switching to local

29.3%

of a typical national
invoice is junk fees

5 fees

stacked on most
national invoices

ancillary fees on
local provider invoice

// junk fee glossary

The five fees hiding in every national invoice

Fuel surcharge

Typical: 5–10% of invoice · Variable

Indexed to fuel prices in theory, adjusted quarterly in practice. Always goes up, never meaningfully down. Even when fuel prices drop, the surcharge stays elevated.

Environmental recovery fee

Typical: $15–40/month · Flat

Sounds like it funds environmental action. Doesn't. It's a flat markup with no corresponding expense on the provider's side.

Service cost recovery

Typical: 5–8% of invoice · Variable

Literally a fee charged to "recover the cost" of providing service. That's what your base rate is for. This is a second markup on top.

Regulatory / compliance fee

Typical: $20–40/month · Flat

Providers claim this covers regulatory reporting. Regulatory compliance is already required as part of running the business — you shouldn't be paying for it separately.

Administrative / processing fee

Typical: $8–20/month · Flat

A charge for sending you the invoice. Yes, really. Some providers charge you to administer the billing they're already doing.

Container rental surcharge

Typical: 10–25% markup

Red bags and sharps containers cost the provider pennies. Most nationals charge $0.90–$2 per bag — a 300–500% markup over wholesale cost.

// about these numbers

How we modeled these invoices

The invoices above are representative market estimates, not actual bills from specific providers. Base rates and fee percentages reflect pricing patterns we've seen across multiple medical waste invoices in the Tampa Bay market. Actual pricing varies by zip code, waste volume, contract terms, and negotiating leverage.

The fee names (fuel surcharge, environmental recovery, service cost recovery, etc.) are real line items that appear on invoices from major national providers. Fee percentages — 5–10% for fuel, 5–8% for service cost recovery, etc. — reflect industry-typical ranges.

Want to see what your actual invoice looks like compared to these benchmarks? The free invoice analyzer takes 2 minutes: upload a real invoice and see a line-by-line breakdown of what you're paying vs. fair market pricing.

See what your practice is actually paying.

Upload a recent invoice to our free analyzer. We'll break down every line item, flag the junk fees, and show you what fair market pricing looks like for your zip code.

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