What can go in a skip?
Almost everything from a house, garden or building job: rubble, wood, furniture, metal, plastics, green waste. The genuine no-go list is short and it exists for safety and licensing reasons, not awkwardness: no liquids, no asbestos, no gas cylinders, no fridges, no electricals, no tyres. A few items, plasterboard and sofas mainly, are legal but must travel separately, so tell us about them when you book.
The A-Z, item by item
Rules checked August 2026. If your item is not here, ring 07523 163550 and we will give you a straight yes or no.
| Item | In the skip? | The detail |
|---|---|---|
| Bricks, rubble & concrete | Yes | Fine, but heavy — see the weight section below before picking a size. |
| Soil & turf | Yes | Fine in smaller skips; a 6-yard full of soil is too heavy to lift. |
| Wood & timber | Yes | Painted or not, nails in or out. Fence panels welcome. |
| Furniture (tables, wardrobes, beds) | Yes | Non-upholstered furniture goes straight in. Sofas are different — see below. |
| Kitchen units & worktops | Yes | Rip-out waste is our bread and butter. |
| Bathroom suites & tiles | Yes | Baths, basins, toilets, tiles — all fine. |
| Garden waste | Yes | Branches, hedge cuttings, grass, plants. No tree stumps over arm-thickness without a word first. |
| Metal & radiators | Yes | All scrap metal welcome. Drain radiators first. |
| Plastic, cardboard & packaging | Yes | Flatten boxes — air is the most expensive thing you can put in a skip. |
| Carpets & underlay | Yes | Roll them tight rather than folding flat across the whole base. |
| Laminate & vinyl flooring | Yes | Fine, including the offcuts and grippers. |
| Windows & glass | Yes | Whole frames are fine. Lay glass flat and cover it if people are loading around it. |
| Plasterboard & gypsum | Tell us first | Legal to take, but by law it must be kept separate from mixed waste. Bag it separately and tell us when booking. |
| Mattresses | Tell us first | We can take them, but recyclers process them separately, so tell us how many when you book. |
| Sofas & upholstered chairs | Tell us first | The 2023 POPs rules mean upholstered seating must be incinerated, not landfilled or recycled. Tell us when booking so it travels the right route. |
| Tyres | No | Banned from landfill and from mixed skips. Your local garage or tyre fitter takes them for a small fee. |
| Fridges & freezers | No | The refrigerant gases class them as hazardous. Council recycling centres and retailer take-back schemes handle them. |
| TVs, monitors & electricals | No | Electrical waste has its own recycling route (WEEE). Council recycling centres take it free. |
| Paint, oil, fuel & liquids | No | No liquids of any kind. Let paint tins dry out fully with the lid off — then the tin can go in. |
| Gas cylinders | No | Even 'empty' cylinders can explode in a crusher. The supplier on the label takes them back. |
| Asbestos | No | Licensed removal only — never a skip. If you suspect it, stop and get it surveyed before disturbing it. |
| Batteries | No | Car and household batteries start fires in waste loads. Shops and recycling centres take them free. |
| Fluorescent tubes & bulbs | No | Contain mercury. Recycling centres have a dedicated bin for them. |
| Medical & clinical waste | No | Needles and medicines need a clinical waste route — your pharmacy can point you to it. |
The weight rule most people learn the hard way
Skips fail on weight before they fail on space. A 6-yard skip holds roughly five tonnes of soil, but no lorry we run, or anyone else runs, can legally lift that. So the working rule is: mostly-heavy waste goes in a smaller skip. Rubble from a single garden wall fits happily in the 2-yard; a full landscaping dig-out is 4-yard territory at most, sometimes two trips. Mixed house-clearance waste, which is mostly air and chipboard, can fill the 6-yard without going near the limit. Describe the job when you book and we will size it honestly, because collecting an unliftable skip helps nobody.
Load it level, load it clever
Level with the rim is the legal maximum, and it is also the cheapest way to use the space you have paid for. Flat things vertical against the sides, heavy things first, boxes flattened, furniture broken down where it will let you. The classic mistake is laying a wardrobe flat in the base and building a cathedral of air on top of it.
Straight answers
Can a sofa go in a skip?
Only by arrangement. Since 2023, upholstered seating is classed as POPs waste (persistent organic pollutants in the foam and fabric) and legally has to be incinerated rather than landfilled or recycled, so it cannot ride along in mixed waste. Tell us when you book and we will handle it the compliant way.
Can plasterboard go in a skip?
Yes, but not mixed in. Gypsum reacts in landfill to produce toxic gas, so the law requires plasterboard to be kept separate from general waste. Bag your offcuts separately, mention it when booking, and it travels legally.
How full can I fill the skip?
Level with the top, no higher. A skip loaded past level cannot legally be sheeted or craned onto the lorry, so anything above the rim has to come off before we can collect. Fill heavy waste first and light waste on top, and you will get the most from the space.
Can I put soil and rubble in any size skip?
In the bag, the 2-yard and the 4-yard, yes. A 6-yard skip filled entirely with soil or hardcore is beyond safe lifting weight, which is why we ask what is going in before recommending a size. Mostly-heavy waste means a smaller skip or two runs, and we will price that honestly.
What happens if I put a banned item in the skip?
It gets found, because every load is sorted at the transfer station. Hazardous items mean the whole load can be rejected or surcharged, and that cost has to be passed on. If you are not sure about an item, ring us before it goes in — thirty seconds on the phone beats an awkward invoice.
Where does the waste actually go?
To a licensed transfer station for sorting, where metal, wood, rubble and card are pulled out for recycling and the rest is processed properly. That is what your money pays for, and it is why we can put our waste carrier details on every skip.
Sized up what is going in? Check which skip fits the job or see the full price list.