The skip alternative
Tonne bags & hippo bags
One bag or twenty, dropped off and collected when they are full. No permit, no hire clock, and it sits on your drive rather than on the road.
A tonne bag is a woven polypropylene sack, roughly a cubic metre, with lifting handles at the corners. Hippo-style bags are the same idea in various sizes. You fill it, you ring, it goes.
The comparison table further down this page sets out how that differs from a skip. What follows is the part a table cannot tell you: whether it is the right choice for your job.
When a bag is the better buy
- The waste appears slowly. A bag has no hire clock running, so a project that dribbles out rubble over five weekends costs the same as one that produces it all on a Saturday.
- There is nowhere legal to put a skip. No drive, terraced street, residents’ parking. A bag goes in a front garden, a side passage, a back yard, or a corner of the drive next to the car rather than instead of it.
- You only need a bit of capacity. The smallest useful skip is bigger than a lot of jobs need, and you pay for the volume whether you fill it or not.
- You want it out of sight. A bag in a back garden is invisible from the road. A skip on the drive is an advertisement, and one of the more reliable ways to acquire other people’s rubbish overnight.
When a skip is genuinely better, and we will say so
- A lot of heavy material at once. Full-house rubble, a patio, a chimney breast. Bags are limited by what can be lifted safely, so past a certain tonnage you are buying a lot of bags to do a skip’s job.
- You need something to throw waste into from height, like a roof strip or a first-floor rip-out with a chute.
- A live building site producing continuously with room for a skip. That is what skips are for.
The one thing people get wrong
Weight, not volume, is the limit. A tonne bag is called that because a tonne is roughly what it holds, and soil, rubble, tile and plaster get to a tonne long before they get to the top of the bag.
A bag of household clear-out can be filled to the brim. A bag of broken concrete filled to the brim cannot be lifted, and then it is not a bag, it is a pile with a bag around it. Rule of thumb: rubble to a third, mixed waste to two-thirds, light bulky stuff to the top.
If you are not sure, fill it to where you think it should be, send a photo, and we will tell you before we turn up with the wrong vehicle.
What goes in
General household and garden waste, timber, rubble, soil, tile, plasterboard, furniture, packaging. Metal can go in and it comes off the price. The exclusions are the same as everywhere else on this site: no asbestos, no gas cylinders, no drums of oil or chemicals, no fridges in with the general waste — though we will happily take fridges and appliances separately on the same visit.
How to get some
Tell us roughly what the job is and how much you think there is. We will tell you how many bags and what size, drop them off, and come back when you say. If it turns out to be more than you thought, that is extremely normal and we will bring more.
How it works
Three steps. No site visit.
Send a photo
WhatsApp a picture of whatever needs shifting. No need to tidy it first or guess the weight.
Get a price
A straight number back, usually the same day. The real price for your actual load.
It’s gone
We turn up, load it, sweep up, and you get the paperwork showing where it went.
The money bit
What actually decides the price
Nobody likes “it depends”. Here is what it actually depends on, so you can guess pretty well before you even send the photo.
01
How much there is
The biggest single factor, and the one the photo answers on its own. We price by what it takes to shift — part of a van, a full van, one tipper load, three.
02
What’s in it
Some things carry a disposal charge by law — fridges, mattresses, tyres, plasterboard, paint. Others go the other way: if there’s real metal in the load, that value comes off your price.
03
How hard it is to reach
Kerbside and a wide drive is quick. Up two flights, through a narrow side gate, or forty yards down a wet garden is not. We’re charging for the time, not punishing you for the stairs.
04
Where you are
Wymondham and Hethersett are on the doorstep. Beccles is a run. It’s rarely the deciding factor, but it’s honest to say it counts for something.
Why there’s no “from £80” on this page
Because a from-price is a number chosen to get you on the phone, not a number anyone intends to charge. You ring, it turns out your job isn’t the one job in a hundred that qualifies, and the real figure lands once someone is already stood on your drive.
We’d rather you got the actual number for your actual load, in writing, before anyone turns up — and that you were free to ignore it. The price we send is the price you pay, unless you add to the pile, in which case tell us and we’ll re-quote.
Skip or us
A skip is a box you fill yourself.
Sometimes a skip genuinely is the right answer — a long refurb, a job where waste appears over weeks. For a one-off clear-out, it’s usually the more expensive way to do your own lifting.
| What | A skip | Us |
|---|---|---|
| Who loads it | You do, over several evenings | We do, while you make a cup of tea |
| Permit | Needed if it stands on the road, from the council | Never — nothing is left anywhere |
| How long it’s there | Sat on your drive for the hire period | Gone the same visit |
| How full | Level with the rim, no higher | Loaded properly, stacked, strapped |
| Fridges & mattresses | Usually excluded or surcharged | Taken, and handled under the WEEE rules |
| Sorting | Whatever went in goes as mixed waste | Metal pulled out and recycled, rest sorted |
| Paperwork | A hire invoice | A waste transfer note with our carrier number on it |
One thing worth knowing either way: your duty of care follows the waste, not the container. Hiring a skip from an unregistered operator lands you in exactly the same place as handing it to a van — here’s how to check either of them.
FAQ
Straight answers
How much actually fits in one?
Weight is the limit, not volume. A tonne bag is called that because a tonne is roughly what it holds, and rubble gets there long before it reaches the top. Rule of thumb: rubble to a third, mixed waste to two-thirds, light bulky stuff to the brim.
How long can I keep it?
As long as you need. There is no hire clock, which is the main reason to choose a bag over a skip when the waste is going to appear over several weekends rather than all at once.
Where can I put it?
Anywhere on your own property — a front garden, a side passage, a back yard, or the corner of the drive next to the car rather than instead of it. No permit, because it is not standing on the road.
What areas do you cover?
Wymondham and everywhere down the A11 and A47 — Norwich, Attleborough, Thetford, Diss, Long Stratton and across into Suffolk to Beccles and Bungay. If you are not sure, just ask.
Is it all done legally?
Yes. We are a registered waste carrier and licensed scrap dealer, every load comes with a waste transfer note, and our registration numbers are on every page of this site so you can check them before you ring.
How quickly can you come?
Often the same week, sometimes the same day if we are passing. Tell us where you are and you will get the honest answer rather than the one that gets us the booking.