What you can’t put in a skip, and where it goes instead

Nearly everything from a house, a garden or a building job can go in a skip. The short list of what can’t is short for a reason: each item is either dangerous to the driver and the sorting team, or needs a treatment a skip can’t give it.

Never in any skip

Asbestos. Old garage roofs, textured ceilings, some floor tiles and pipe lagging. It needs a licensed contractor to remove and bag it. If you’re not sure, stop work and get it tested.

Fridges and freezers. The gases in the cooling circuit and the foam have to be recovered by specialist plant. Most councils collect them, and many retailers take the old one away when they deliver the new.

Tyres. They are banned from landfill and from our sorting line. A tyre fitter will take them for a small fee.

Paint, oil and solvents. Liquids leak, and solvents catch fire. Dried-out paint tins are fine; anything still wet goes to the household recycling centre.

Gas bottles and aerosols. Both can explode when the skip is tipped or crushed. Return gas bottles to the supplier; empty aerosols go in your household recycling.

TVs, monitors and batteries. Electricals are collected separately so the metals and the hazardous parts can be recovered. Your recycling centre takes them free.

Allowed, but it costs extra

• Mattresses — £20 each, because they have to be taken apart by hand.
• Plasterboard — £15 a bag, kept separate from the rest of the skip.
• Sofas and armchairs — £25 each, for the same reason as mattresses.

Tell us when you book and the price you see is the price you pay.

Loads that change the price

Some waste is fine but changes which rate applies. A rubble skip with timber in it goes onto the mixed rate. A garden skip with soil over a tenth of the load does the same. Our sizes and prices page shows every rate side by side.

If in doubt

Ask before it goes in. A quick call to the yard costs nothing; a load we can’t tip costs both of us time. Get in touch and describe it, or send a photo.