Most guides to grab hire versus skip hire compare the two across dozens of factors. In reality, there’s one question that usually makes the decision obvious: is your waste loose and in a pile, or is it being generated gradually over several days?
If it’s loose and in a pile — soil from an excavation, rubble from a demolition, hardcore from a driveway, a heap of garden waste — grab hire is almost certainly the right answer. A grab lorry can clear several tonnes in a single visit without needing any infrastructure on your site. No skip to position, no waiting for it to be delivered, no worrying about it being overfilled or whether you need a road permit. It arrives, loads up and goes.
If the waste is being generated gradually — a renovation where rubbish accumulates over a week, a garden clearance you’re doing yourself over several weekends, a loft clear-out where you keep finding more things to throw away — a skip makes more sense. You fill it at your own pace and we collect it when you’re ready.
The Practical Differences
Access: Grab lorries need enough clearance to operate the arm — typically around 3-4 metres of headroom and reasonable road access. For tight urban sites or properties with low overhead cables or trees, a skip may be more practical.
Volume: For large volumes of heavy material, grab hire is significantly more cost-effective per tonne than skip hire. For lighter, mixed domestic waste, the skip often wins on price.
Speed: Grab hire clears a site in one visit. Skip hire involves delivery, your own filling time, and then collection — which suits some jobs and not others.
We operate grab hire and skip hire across St Helens, Liverpool, Manchester, Warrington, Wigan and the wider North West. Call us on 01744 758 349 for advice on which is right for your job.
Whether skip hire is worth it depends on what you’re actually trying to clear — and for many domestic jobs in St Helens, the honest answer is that it isn’t the cheapest option available.
Skip hire makes sense when you have a large volume of waste that you need to fill incrementally over several days. A bathroom renovation, a kitchen rip-out, a garden clearance that’s going to take a week to get through — these are exactly the jobs skips were designed for. You fill it at your own pace, we collect it when you’re done.
Where skip hire often doesn’t make sense is for one-off collections where the waste is already bagged and ready to go. If you’ve cleared your garage and you’re looking at 15 bin bags and a broken sofa, a skip is going to cost you more than it should — because you’re paying for several days of driveway space when what you actually need is one collection.
That’s where our cheaper than a skip service often works better. We come to you, load the van ourselves, and take it away the same day. You don’t have to worry about a skip blocking the road, whether you need a permit, or whether your neighbours are going to start filling it overnight.
The other thing worth knowing is that skips can’t take everything. Mattresses, fridges, paint, tyres, asbestos and certain chemicals are all either banned outright or carry a surcharge. If you’re not sure what your clearance will involve, it’s worth calling us first — we can advise on the right service before you commit to a skip.
For a free quote on skip hire or our bag collection service across St Helens, Warrington, Wigan and the wider North West, call us on 01744 758 349.
Construction projects generate a wide range of waste, and not all of it can go in a standard skip. Getting this wrong doesn’t just cause problems at the collection end — it can leave you with a skip that can’t be collected and, in the case of hazardous materials, a potential fine.
What Can Go in a Construction Skip
Standard construction and demolition waste is fine: bricks and rubble, concrete, tiles and ceramics, timber and wood offcuts, soil and hardcore, plasterboard (non-hazardous), metals, plastic packaging and mixed construction debris. These are the everyday materials from any building site and are handled routinely at licensed waste processing facilities.
What Can’t Go in a Standard Skip
Asbestos — any asbestos-containing material needs licensed removal and disposal. It cannot go in a standard skip under any circumstances and carries serious legal consequences if disposed of incorrectly. We provide a licensed asbestos removal service across the North West.
Plasterboard containing gypsum — while non-hazardous plasterboard is allowed in skips, large quantities may need to go to a specialist facility due to the hydrogen sulphide gas it generates in landfill.
Hazardous materials — paints, solvents, oils, adhesives, treated timber and chemical containers from construction sites are classified as hazardous waste and need to be collected separately.
Tyres — not permitted in standard skips.
The Right Solution for Construction Waste in the North West
For most North West construction sites, we’d recommend a combination: a standard skip for inert waste and a separate arrangement for any hazardous materials that arise. For large volumes of soil and rubble, grab hire is often faster and more cost-effective. For complete site clearances, our site clearance service handles everything in one visit.
We cover construction waste across St Helens, Liverpool, Manchester and the wider North West. Call us on 01744 758 349 for a free quote.
Olympics 2020 Beds and Medals Made of Recycled Materials
Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics is one of the much-awaited events of this year. It is the time where athletes around the world will come together to showcase and compete for their skills with the aim of honour and camaraderie.
But this year of competition is quite different from the previous years. The Olympics organising committee came up with a brilliant idea of using recycled materials. This idea truly deserves an appreciation, knowing that they will able to help preserve the environment.
It is exciting to know what materials and how they were able to produce to achieve such an aim of using recycled materials.
Well, one of the main topics on the news is the Olympics organising committee shared that the medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics will be made from recycled electronics. Most of the electronics contain copper, silver, and gold-which are essential in making medals for the Olympics. Last 2017, the Olympics organisers requested the Japanese residents to donate their old smartphones and other electronic devices to produce medals for this year’s Summer Olympics.
The Japanese residents were very supportive; the Olympics Organisers were able to collect 78,985 tons of donated electronics, and from that, they were able to bring out approximately 4,850 pounds of bronze, 7,716 pounds of silver, and 70 pounds of gold. Amazingly enough to provide medals for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Not just medals made from recycled materials will be used for this event. The bed frames for athletes will be made of recycled cardboard as well. Even if it is recycled, the Olympics Organisers assures that it’s durable where it will be able to support a weight of about 200kg. The mattress for the beds will be from polyethylene materials, which will be reuse for plastic products after the event. A perfect combination to achieve environmentally friendly materials.
The Olympics Organisers extended their effort to embrace environmentally friendly materials. The Olympic Torch is made from aluminium waste and the podiums from recycled household and marine plastic waste.
Stable electricity must be required for this big event. Thus, the Power source will come from renewable sources to attain an eco-friendly goal.
Most people who book a house clearance have never done it before. It might be after a bereavement, at the end of a tenancy, ahead of a property sale, or simply after years of accumulated belongings have got out of hand. Whatever the reason, knowing what to expect makes the process a lot less stressful.
Before the Day
When you book with North West Waste, we’ll ask a few questions about the property and what needs clearing — number of rooms, what’s staying and what’s going, whether there’s anything heavy or awkward, and any access issues. This helps us make sure we bring the right size team and the right vehicle.
You don’t need to sort anything or bag anything before we arrive. That’s the point of a professional clearance — we do that work so you don’t have to.
On the Day
Our team arrives at the agreed time and carries out a quick walkthrough with you so everyone is clear on what’s being taken. We work methodically through the property, removing items to the vehicle and keeping the house tidy as we go.
If you want to check the contents of drawers and cupboards before we clear them, that’s completely fine — we work at your pace. We’re also used to working sensitively in properties where someone has recently passed away, and we treat every clearance with the same care and respect.
After the Clearance
Everything taken is sorted at our facility for recycling, donation or responsible disposal. We aim to divert as much as possible from landfill — items in reasonable condition are passed to local charities where appropriate.
We cover house clearances across St Helens, Wigan, Liverpool, Manchester, Warrington and the wider North West. For a free, no-obligation quote, call us on 01744 758 349.
