Whether you have just finished a major renovation or are simply clearing out your home and garden, you are often left with a lot of excess waste and little idea of how best to get rid of it in an eco-friendly but still cost-efficient way. Whatever your rubbish removal project, the experts at RecycleZone have compiled a handy guide to saving money in the process with five simple, informative tips!
1. Separate and Dispose of Waste Properly
If you are looking to save money on your upcoming rubbish removal project, our first piece of advice is to separate and organise your waste ready for disposal. This tedious process typically involves separating your waste into items to be recycled, repurposed, sold or disposed of entirely.
By organising waste in this way, you can find the cheapest and most efficient ways to dispose of each item rather than simply filling skips unnecessarily. Although it is time consuming, doing this is not only better for the environment, but it also prevents you needing a larger skip and therefore cuts your costs and saves money on a large rubbish removal project.
Separating and disposing of waste properly is also a significant factor in saving money because failing to do so could result in a costly fine or even additional charges from your skip provider. In fact, there are many items which are unfit for skips altogether and should be disposed of separately. For example, the following must not be put into your skip – particularly if you want to avoid hefty fees and returning waste.
- Asbestos
- Large Batteries
- Electrical appliances and equipment
- Oil, petrol and diesel
- Tyres
- Toxic materials
- Fluorescent bulbs
- Medical waste
- Gas Cylinders
- Paints
Much of your waste can sometimes be recycled for free at local recycling facilities which can be located using your local council’s website. This is often the cheapest way of getting rid of rubbish. However, doing this can often be a tedious task without the right time, help and vehicle and it is well worth checking for opening times, necessary permits and additional charges before showing up.
2. Donate and Sell
This second piece of advice is not only likely to save you money, but it might even make you money too! Much of what you deem to be ‘rubbish’ can be either sold or donated instead – so long as it is in good enough condition. After all, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
In particular, larger pieces of furniture or materials are typically able to be collected by local charities or taken away by house clearance specialists like RecycleZone who donate it to their partnering charities. This is the perfect way to cut the costs on your next rubbish removal project since these are renowned for being the items which hog precious skip space, meaning either you require multiple skips, or a larger and therefore more expensive one. These are typically also the items which one man and an ordinary car will struggle to get to the skip, meaning charity is a favourable and free option.
If you have slightly more time on your hands, it is also worth considering how you could turn all of your clutter into cash instead. During large rubbish removal projects, we often find clothes that still have tags, furniture that is still within its prime and materials that can be repurposed by those with an enthusiasm for DIY. For example, the demand for typically mundane materials such as wooden pallets rocket have skyrocketed in recent years, with pallet projects on many people’s to-do lists.
In particular, we recommend checking out the following places to sell your excess waste, rather than simply binning it:
- Hobby-specific or local Facebook groups
- Facebook Marketplace
- Gumtree
- eBay
3. Plan Ahead
Planning ahead is potentially one of the easiest ways to save money on your large rubbish removal project and minimise stress. By planning ahead, you can ensure that you have decluttered your home in the most cost-efficient way.
For example, it is often better to schedule in a large rubbish removal project and predict how much waste there is likely to be because this allows you to opt for the cheapest and most suitable disposal services or skips and have these booked in for the appropriate period of time.
Failing to do so might otherwise leave you either forking out unnecessarily for another skip later because your time has expired with the first or simply because you have too much or too little waste for the wrong sized skip. As specialists, we strongly advise that you should research to find the right sized skip as part of planning your large removal project. Since skip prices depend on the size required, ordering one that is too small might leave you with overflowing excess waste, meanwhile one that is too big might be a waste of money.
When you are planning ahead, we highly recommend speaking to a professional waste collection service since they can advise you on the flexibility of their services, timings and skip sizes. You can contact Recyclezone’s friendly and reliable team today for any advice, call-outs or enquiries.
4. Load Your Skip Efficiently
Another way to ensure you get the most value for your money during your next rubbish removal project is to load your skip as efficiently as possible. As skip specialists, the team at Recyclezone have compiled these quick tips to help you get the most from your skip:
- Break it down all materials and break them into the following four categories ready to be disposed of:
- Flat items (e.g cardboard, wood and plasterboard)
- Stackable items (e.g bricks or wooden planks)
- Large and bulky items
- Loose debris
- Always place the flatter and most heavy items at the bottom of the skip since these will fit neatly and fill all edges and gaps at the bottom of the skip, making more space for extra waste. Any wood and boxes should be dismantled as far as possible and flattened before placing in the skip.
- Next you should put in any stackable items, such as bricks or wooden planks since these fit neatly beside and within each other and create more space for other rubbish. Doing this ensures that the skip’s contents is as compact as possible.
- Next you want to place large and bulky items in the skip. This typically refers to large furniture. We strongly recommend disassembling any furniture into its smallest components so that these can be spread out across the skip to fill small gaps. This is certainly advised with flat pack furniture which is designed to be broken down.
- Finally, you should complete the skip by placing any loose debris you may have on top. This general rule is very effective since due to the nature of debris, it is able to fill all available pockets of space and spares more space for the larger items.
5. Avoid Fines
Finally, we strongly advise that you don’t risk or chance fines. These can very quickly turn a cost-efficient waste removal project into a far pricier one, with some fines reaching up to £1000.
There are two common ways to be fined:
- Failing to acquire a skip permit for skips that are not on private property
- Putting prohibited items into skips.
We recommend that before ordering a skip you can either ensure that it can be placed on private property or that you have acquired a permit from the local council. Typically this is the duty of the skip hire provider, however in some cases it is down to the client instead. We strongly advise consulting with the skip provider on the matter of placement and licensing, since you are likely to be hit with a hefty fine otherwise.
Additionally, we advise that you are wary of placing any prohibited items within your skip since these are always found when the skip is emptied and sorted. If prohibited items are found, it is likely that you will face additional fees and potentially have the restricted items returned. Unfortunately, this is nonetheless the case if the public put their waste within your skip, since it is held to be your responsibility to monitor the contents. We suggest either that you keep the skip out of a public and open area or that you are able to closely monitor it at all times.
Feature image credit: ungvar / Shutterstock