What Happens to Skip Waste After Collection?

A skip lorry from a licensed supplier in our network collects the skip and transports it to an authorised facility. Anyone carrying waste for others must be registered as a waste carrier – with the Environment Agency in England, Natural Resources Wales in Wales or SEPA in Scotland. The skip should be loaded level and contain only the waste agreed, because the description of the waste follows it through the process.

On arrival, the load is checked against what the facility is permitted to accept and weighed on a weighbridge. Facilities are permitted for particular waste types and activities. If a skip contains something the facility cannot accept – such as asbestos, gas bottles or electricals – it may be rejected or the item removed and charged for separately, which is why it matters to declare unusual items when booking. See what can I put in a builders’ skip?

The weighbridge record matters for more than pricing. It forms part of the facility’s records of the waste it has received and helps support the paperwork that travels with your load.

Mixed skip waste is tipped and sorted. Depending on the facility, this may involve excavators and grabs to pull out large items, trommels and screens to separate fines and soil, magnets to recover ferrous metal, air separation for lighter material, and picking lines where staff remove specific materials by hand. Loads of a single, clean material, such as hardcore or green waste, may go straight to a dedicated process.

Sorting is easier and more effective when the waste arrives reasonably clean. A skip that contains hardcore, timber and metal with little else can be separated quickly, while a load containing food waste, liquids or contaminated materials is harder to process. That is why keeping materials such as plasterboard separate, and keeping hazardous items out altogether, helps.

Separated materials go to the next stage of their journey:

• Hardcore, bricks and concrete: crushed and screened for reuse as recycled aggregate
• Soil: screened and, where suitable, reused
• Timber: processed for reuse in products such as board or as biomass fuel
• Metals: sent to metal recyclers
• Cardboard, paper and plastics: baled and sent for reprocessing
• Green waste: composted

Learn more on our recycling page and in the guides to timber and metal.

Recovered materials become products or feedstock for other industries. Recycled aggregate, for example, can be used as sub-base in roads and car parks, while recovered metal is melted and reused. Each onward route is subject to its own standards and regulations.

Whatever cannot be recovered is residual waste. Depending on its nature and the facility, it may be processed into refuse-derived fuel for energy recovery or sent to landfill. Landfill tax applies to landfilled waste in all three nations, which gives facilities a strong incentive to recover as much as practicable.

Some residual material can also be used for engineering purposes at permitted sites, such as restoration, where the regulator allows it. The aim across the industry is to move waste up the waste hierarchy – prevention, reuse, recycling and recovery – with disposal as the last resort.

Everyone who produces, carries or handles waste has a legal duty of care. For most skip waste, a waste transfer note records what the waste is, who produced it, who carried it and where it went; businesses must keep these records, typically for at least two years. Hazardous waste in England and Wales travels with a consignment note, and special waste in Scotland with a special waste consignment note. Your supplier provides the relevant paperwork, and for commercial and national accounts we can help gather documentation centrally through WastePrime.