I had been looking to replace a old smaller garbage can. I wanted to have two seperate ones. One for food and other for recycling. WHen I saw these I had to have them. THey are bigger than your standard 13 gallon size. It's 18 gallons. Plu it will hold more stuff as well. We decided to get 2 to be able to conserve. Love the automatic features as well. No more having to lift the lid or push to close it.