Recycling guide

What Happens to Your Skip Waste After Collection

How licensed waste carriers sort and recycle skip waste, what a waste transfer note is, and why over 90% avoids landfill.

Where your skip goes after we collect it

Once we collect your skip, it goes to a licensed waste transfer station. There, staff sort the contents by material type before anything is sent on for recycling, recovery, or disposal. Nothing goes straight to landfill from the transfer station. Every load is weighed, logged, and processed in line with our Environment Agency licence.

How sorting works

At the transfer station, mixed waste is broken down into separate streams. Timber gets chipped into biomass fuel or aggregate. Metal is baled and sent to steel mills. Concrete, bricks, and hardcore are crushed into recycled aggregate used in road sub-base and construction. Soil is screened and either reused in landscaping or processed into growing media. Cardboard and clean plastic go to the relevant recycling mills. What remains after sorting, typically contaminated materials that cannot be separated economically, goes to an energy-from-waste plant rather than landfill.

The recycling rate

Over 92% of the waste we handle is diverted from landfill through recycling or energy recovery. That figure is not a marketing claim; it is reported to and verified by the Environment Agency as part of our waste management licence conditions. The exact percentage varies slightly depending on the mix of materials in any given skip, but general builders' waste and domestic clearances routinely exceed 90% diversion.

What a waste transfer note is and why it matters

A waste transfer note (WTN) is the legal document that records the transfer of controlled waste from one party to another. When you hire a skip from us, we produce a WTN that covers your waste from your address to our transfer station. It records the date, the quantity, a description of the waste type, and the licence details of both parties. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, both you and we are required to keep a copy for at least two years. If you are a business, this is part of your duty of care and you must be able to produce it if the Environment Agency asks. We issue WTNs as standard on every hire.

Hazardous waste and why it cannot go in a skip

Some materials require separate disposal under the Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005. These include fridges and freezers, televisions and monitors, fluorescent tubes, asbestos, paint (liquid or in tins with wet paint), batteries, and anything contaminated with oil or chemical solvents. If hazardous waste ends up in a skip, it can contaminate the entire load and prevent recycling of the other materials. It also creates legal liability for you as the waste producer. These items need a specialist collector or a household hazardous waste drop-off at your local council site.

Plasterboard: the separate rule

Plasterboard (gypsum board) cannot be mixed with general waste in a skip because when it decomposes in landfill alongside biodegradable waste, it produces hydrogen sulphide gas. Landfill operators therefore reject mixed loads containing plasterboard, which means any skip with loose plasterboard mixed in cannot be composted or sent to a standard waste processing facility. If you have plasterboard from a renovation, let us know when you book. We can arrange a dedicated plasterboard-only skip or advise on segregated disposal. Keeping it separate means the gypsum can be recycled back into new plasterboard board.

Tyres and why they need separate collection

Used tyres are a controlled waste and are banned from landfill under the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002. They cannot go in a standard skip. Garages and tyre fitters are legally required to arrange tyre recycling through a licensed collector, and householders can usually take tyres to a local council recycling centre for a small fee. If you have tyres to dispose of, contact your local council for the nearest accepted drop-off point.

Your legal position as a waste producer

Anyone who produces waste, including householders, has a duty of care to ensure it is disposed of legally. Using a licensed waste carrier like us discharges most of that duty, but you still need to make sure you are not including prohibited or hazardous items in the skip. Illegally dumping waste, or using an unlicensed carrier, can result in a fixed penalty or prosecution. Checking that your skip hire company holds a valid Environment Agency waste carrier registration (which you can verify on the public register) is the simplest way to protect yourself.