Free Garbage Truck SVG for a 3D Gift Box

Recently, we had a trash truck themed birthday party for my now 3 year old son. I made these really cool garbage truck shaped favor boxes to put the favors for his friends inside. It took several tries to get them right, but I think they turned out super fun. The kids all really enjoyed them and I am excited to share this free garbage truck SVG with you.

But first….just kidding. If you are like me, you see free in the title and assume you will have to subscribe or give me some amount of information. But, when I say free I mean it. Here are the SVG files, you can download the file, unzip it, and be off to making cute 3d trash trucks. Would I love it if you kept scrolling for easy step by step instructions, went to the very bottom to subscribe, left a comment, or looked at other fun crafts on my site (including more trash truck party ideas)? Absolutely. But you don’t have to.

This is also the first time I have posted an SVG and I only tested it in Canvas Workspace. So, please help me out if you have a Cricut or Silhouette or something else. Please comment at the bottom of this post whether or not the SVGs worked in your software. If not, I will do my best to get it working for your tool.

And now here are step by step instructions on how to put your trash truck pieces together:

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How to Make a 3D Garbage Truck Gift Box

Materials:

Cardstock (light green, dark green, black, and white)
Brother Scan N Cut (or another cutting machine or an X-ACTO knife)
Garbage truck SVG
School glue
Cotton swabs and a paint palette (optional)
Hook and loop

Cutting the Pieces (and the Free Garbage Truck SVG):

First, you need to cut out all your pieces. I have a Brother Scan N Cut that I absolutely love that I used to cut my pieces. But, if you don’t have a cutting machine, you can cut all the pieces with an X-ACTO knife instead. All four of the below SVGs are in this ZIP file. Once you extract them, cut these pieces:

Trash truck back – light green cardstock
Trash truck outer layer – dark green cardstock
Trash truck front- white cardstock
Trash truck tires – black cardstock

After cutting your pieces, prefold them on the dotted lines. Below I have step by step pictures that includes this folding if you aren’t sure how it is supposed to look.

Gluing the Pieces:

Next, it is time to glue all the pieces together. I found the best way to do this was to squirt school glue into a paint palette. Then, use a cotton swab to spread the glue on your pieces.

Picture of a paint palette filled with school glue and two cotton swabs next to it

Here is how I put all the pieces I cut from my garbage truck SVG together:

1. Cut and Prefold “Trash Truck Back”:

Picture of a light green piece of paper cut from a back garbage truck SVG

Picture of the cut out back piece of a garbage truck favor box folded but not put together

2. Cut and Prefold “Trash Truck Outer Layer”:

Picture of a dark green piece of paper cut from a back texture garbage truck SVG

Picture of the outer texture layer of a garbage truck favor box cut out and folded

3. Glue “Trash Truck Outer Layer” on “Trash Truck Back”:

Picture of the top of an outer dark green texture being glued on to the top of a lighter green back of a trash truck

Picture of a paper unfolded back of a garbage truck 3d favor box. There is a piece of dark green glued to a piece of light green.

4. Glue the Back of the Garbage Truck into a Box:

Picture of the back section of a paper 3d garbage truck being folded

5. Cut and Prefold “Trash Truck Front”:

Picture of a white piece of paper cut from a front garbage truck SVG

Picture of a cut piece of paper prefolded into the shape of the front of a garbage truck

6. Glue the Front of the Garbage Truck into a Box:

Picture of the front section of a paper 3d garbage truck being folded

7. Glue the Front and Back of the Trash Truck Together:

Picture of the front and back of a paper trash truck favor box glued together

8. Cut “Trash Truck Tires” and Glue On Trash Truck:

Picture of a black piece of paper cut from a tires garbage truck SVG

Picture of a 3d trash truck favor box cut from a free garbage truck SVG

Finishing the Box:

I wanted the kids to be able to use these trash trucks as toys after I used them as gift boxes for the party. This meant the kids needed to be able to open and close the backs of the garbage trucks easily. So, I cut small strips of hook and loop and attached them to the back flap of the truck. Then, I put bouncy balls and a trash can Play-Doh (instructions coming soon) in each one.

Picture of Velcro stuck to the back flap of a 3d paper garbage truck

Conclusion of Making Favor Boxes with My Garbage Truck SVG

I love how these cute garbage truck gift boxes turned out. They were a hit with the kids and lots of the grownups commented on how cool they looked. With two layers of cardstock on the back, they were sturdier than I expected. But, they are made of paper, so they aren’t going to hold up to super rough play. My son loved his but that didn’t stop him from thinking it was really fun to stomp them flat. I actually forgot to take pictures when I made them for his party and just made a new one for the sake of this post. So far he has been much nicer to this one.

What do you think of these gift boxes? Again, I would love to know in the comments if the SVGs give you any trouble so I can fix them if I need to. And make sure to check out all of the other fun things I made for my son’s trash truck party.