What Can You Put in a Skip?

When you hire a skip to dispose of your waste, you’re helping us to recycle more and that’s great news for the planet and the local community. You’re also taking responsibility for your waste and acting legally to deal with it, but it’s important to know that not everything can be accepted in a skip.

While it’s a great way to get rid of so many things, from household waste to construction waste, if you don’t familiarise yourself with accepted and restricted waste types, you could inadvertently end up with a fine for contaminating a skip’s worth of rubbish.

To help you better understand what you can put in our skips at Reston Waste, we’ve created a short guide to the waste we can and can’t take.

What can go in our skips?

Our accepted waste for skip hire includes a mixture of common materials that you’re likely to want to dispose of and which can be easily recycled at our facilities.

Wood

waste wood

We accept wood, either bare or painted, including your wooden furniture, fencing and pallets.

Concrete

concrete waste

We accept concrete, ideally dry and broken up. This is a common item when renovating your home or as part of a demolition project.

Soil

waste soil

We accept soil from your landscaping project or demolition work, but don’t forget to remove any large tree trunks.

Glass

glass

We accept glass, whether as a sheet by itself or within a window frame. Please note, we charge for the collection of laminated by tonnage separately. See our guide on glass here.

Metals

metal waste

We accept your metal waste, whether that’s iron, aluminium, copper or any other type of metal. Typical items include bicycle frames, bed frames and scrap metal pieces from construction.

Plastics

plastic waste

We accept plastic waste from numerous sources, whether you’ve got old plastic toys cluttering the garage or plastic waste from a shop clearance.

Paper

paper waste

We accept paper waste, commonly as part of an office or clearance, but also from your household if clearing out boxes of old magazines or paperwork.

Tiles

tiles

We accept tiles in our skips, whether as part of your roofing work or for tiles from bathroom and kitchen renovations.

What can’t you put in our skips?

In order for us to process as much waste as possible for recycling, we cannot accept certain items that would contaminate the load. Here are some of the items we definitely don’t accept:

Chemical and liquid waste

liquid waste disposal

Due to the issue of spillages during transit as well as not being able to separate liquids from your skip waste, we cannot accept chemicals or liquid waste.

Animal products

Animal waste

Animal products are not safe for skip hire as they can contaminate waste. They also come with special requirements for their disposal.

Food waste

Food waste cannot go in our skips as a specific licence is required to handle food waste, regardless of whether it’s scrap or excess items.

Oil

oil disposal

Oil cannot be accepted in our skips, regardless of whether it is in a sealed container or not. This is because it is a hazardous substance that requires specialist recycling.

Tree trunks

wood waste

We have a diameter restriction on tree trunks, which means overly large trunks and stumps cannot be accepted in our skip. Please speak to us if you’d like to discuss the disposal of your tree trunks.

Asbestos

asbestos waste

Asbestos is not accepted in any of our services as it is an extremely hazardous material. You will require a specialist company just to be able to handle the material.

Biological and medical waste

medical waste

This is a hazardous waste we cannot accept, whether it’s human waste, toilet waste, septic tank waste or other hazardous material from a container.

Batteries

Batteries cannot be placed in skips

Batteries such as lithium batteries require separate, specialist disposal as they are an extreme fire hazard when damaged or when they come into contact with water. You must not place batteries in with your general waste or our skips.

Additional sundry waste

There are some items that we can accept for an additional fee and with prior notice that you wish to include them:

Carpet

carpets

Whether part of office or home renovations, we can accept your carpet waste with an added charge of £150 per tonne.

Tarmac

tarmac

Tarmac usually forms part of waste generated from driveway construction or large commercial projects. Regardless, you can put it in our skips with an added charge of £50 per tonne.

Mattress

mattress disposal

For every mattress you wish to dispose of as part of skip hire, we charge £20+VAT.

Rubber

rubber waste

Your waste rubber can be placed in our skips for an added charge of £135 per tonne.

Metal and wood flooring

flooring disposal

Where you have metal or wooden flooring that you need to dispose of via our skips, there is an added charge of £115 per tonne.

Plasterboard

plasterboard

We can accept plasterboard when pre-agreed. If your skip will contain less than 10% plasterboard, it can be bagged and placed on top. If your skip will be filled with plasterboard more than 10%, you will need to hire a skip solely for this material.

Insulation

Whether you’re disposing of old insulation from the attic or have scrap material leftover from construction, we can accept building insulation with an added charge of £135 per tonne.

Asphalt

Asphalt waste

Asphalt is something we can accept in our skips when you’re carrying out demolition and stripping work, with an added charge of £135 per tonne.

POPs Waste

Persistent organic pollutants are waste upholstered seating items that can no longer be disposed of in the usual way. We can collect, store and process POPs, with a charge applied per item.

Fridges

Fridge waste

Refrigerators can contain harmful gases and require specialist collection and disposal separate from your skip hire. Contact us to enquire about disposal of your fridges.

At Reston Waste, we’ve got multiple ways for you to quickly and legally dispose of your waste without having to take multiple trips to a local authority site. We recycle as much of your waste as possible through both skip hire and our waste removal service, so you can count on us wherever you are in London.

Make light work of your waste – call today and book a skip in London with our friendly and professional team.

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