Every year in the fortnight before 5 November, the same thing happens across West Lancashire and Merseyside. Bonfire Night waste starts to pile up at the bottom of the garden. The autumn cut back adds branches, the shed clear-out adds old timber, and the heap quietly turns into a bonfire. Some of it should never be burned. Some of it is a fire risk long before anyone lights it. Almost all of it would be better off in a skip, and after a century of running lorries around this part of the North West, this is how we would approach it.
What Bonfire Night Waste Should Not Go on the Fire
Lancashire Fire and Rescue bonfire safety advice is clear. Burn only untreated wood, nothing else, and never use petrol or another accelerant to get it going. That rules out most of what collects on a pile in late October. Old fence panels and decking are usually treated, painted or stained. Chipboard, MDF and old furniture are full of glues and resins. Pallets are often treated too, and the fire service names them as something to leave off.
Then there is the household rubbish that lands on the pile simply because it is there. Plastics, foam cushions, old mattresses, tyres and paint tins give off toxic smoke and burn unpredictably. Burning household waste is not a legal way to get rid of it. Smoke can also interfere with your neighbours’ use of their homes. In that case the council can serve an abatement notice, and breaching that notice is a criminal offence.
The Fire Service Would Rather You Did Not Have One
It is worth knowing where the fire service actually stands. Lancashire Fire and Rescue recommends not having a bonfire in your garden at all, because they can easily get out of hand. Instead, they point people towards organised displays. If you do go ahead, build the fire well away from sheds, fences, trees and bushes. Keep everyone at least five metres back once it is lit, and keep a bucket of water nearby. Check the pile for children and animals before lighting it, because a heap that has stood for two weeks is exactly where hedgehogs shelter.
Location matters near a road as well. Under section 161 of the Highways Act 1980, it is an offence to light a fire on a road if a road user is injured, interrupted or endangered as a result. The same applies to letting off fireworks within 50 feet of the centre of a road. Smoke drifting across a lane in the dark on Bonfire Night is precisely that risk.
A Skip for Bonfire Night Waste Before the Fifth
The simplest way to take the pressure off the pile is to have a skip on the driveway while the autumn work goes on. A garden cut back, a hedge reduced and a shed emptied usually fit a 4 tonne midi skip. It sits comfortably on a standard drive. Perhaps the clear-out also involves old fence panels, a rotten deck or a garage full of timber. Then an 8 tonne builders skip is the safer choice, because timber and soil reach the weight limit long before the skip looks full.
Green waste fills a skip by volume rather than weight, since it is mostly air. So break branches down and tread leaves in as you go. Your question may be less about Bonfire Night and more about burning garden waste through the rest of the year. If so, our article on burning garden waste covers that in more detail.
Book in the second half of October if you can. The run-up to the fifth is one of the busiest garden clear-out periods of the year. A skip that arrives after the fifth does not stop somebody lighting a pile before it.
Do Not Leave a Pile Standing
A stack of dry timber and garden waste left out for a fortnight in early November is a target. Other people add to piles, and sometimes somebody else lights them early. They can also put the shed or fence they lean against at risk. Loading Bonfire Night waste into a skip as you produce it, rather than stacking it for later, removes that risk completely. We then collect the skip, and the yard is clear before the evening itself.
Clearing Up Bonfire Night Waste the Morning After
The morning after brings its own waste. Keep fireworks out of a skip altogether, whether spent or unused, because a casing that looks dead can still hold unburnt composition. Soak spent fireworks in a bucket of water before you dispose of them. Never go back to one that has been lit and has not gone off.
Ash and half-burnt timber must be completely cold before they go anywhere near a skip. Warm ash buried in a load of dry garden waste is how a skip catches fire on a driveway. Tyres, gas bottles, paint tins with liquid still in them, electrical items and asbestos also need a separate route whatever the time of year. The full list is in our guide to what you can put in a skip.
Where Your Garden Waste Goes
Everything we collect comes back to our own recycling centre rather than going to a third party. We separate green waste and timber there. Then we recover what we can, so it does not end up in landfill or on a back garden fire. Our environmental and recycling page explains how the site works.
Book a Skip for Bonfire Night Waste Before 5 November
We deliver across West Lancashire, Sefton and Knowsley, including skip hire in Skelmersdale and skip hire in Burscough. Tell us what Bonfire Night waste is coming out of the garden and where the skip can sit. We will tell you plainly which size fits. Ring our team on 01704 779345 or use our contact page.
