Planning some work in the garden usually creates more waste than people expect, and clearing it cheaply and properly comes down to a bit of forward planning. Whether you are stripping out an overgrown plot in Burscough, tidying a sandy coastal garden in Formby or cutting back a large rural garden inland, the way you sort and load the material has a direct effect on what the job costs. We have been handling green waste across West Lancashire for well over a century, so an organised approach to garden waste skip hire is something we talk customers through most weeks.
How sorting your garden waste keeps the cost down
Not everything that comes out of a garden can be recycled the same way, and the material that can be recycled is cheaper to deal with. Pure green waste such as grass cuttings, leaves, weeds and small twigs is the least expensive to remove because it goes straight into our composting and recycling stream. Once you start adding bigger branches, old garden furniture, plastic plant pots, rubble, broken slabs or bagged soil, that material counts as mixed general waste and is handled differently. The simplest thing you can do before we arrive is build two piles, one green and one mixed, and tell us what you have when you book so the load goes to the right place. Around here we see a lot of heavy clay soil and turf, which weighs far more than people imagine, so if your clearance involves digging out beds or lifting a lawn it is worth flagging that early.
Choosing the right skip size for a garden clearance
Waste removal is charged by the space it takes up rather than the weight alone, so the less room your material occupies the less you pay. Cutting bulky branches down and placing heavier items low in the skip helps you fit more in. As a general rule it pays to order the largest skip you can sensibly fill, because a bigger container costs less per cubic metre than a small one, and a single larger skip usually works out cheaper than a second small one halfway through the job. For a modest border tidy a 4 tonne midi skip tends to be plenty, while a full garden strip out with turf and rubble often needs an 8 tonne builders skip. If you are unsure which fits your job, our guide to choosing the right skip size walks through the common options.
Composting bonfires and the greener options worth a look
A skip is the quickest way to clear a garden, but it is not the only route, and some material is better kept on site. Starting a compost heap is one of the cheapest and most environmentally friendly ways to deal with green waste, and you can make usable compost for free from leaves, grass and bark over time. Grass cuttings left to break down on the surface of the lawn also return nutrients to the soil, so they never need to leave the garden at all. Burning is another option some people use, and an incinerator bin is generally safer than an open bonfire because it burns hotter and produces less smoke. Having a bonfire in your own garden is legal as long as it does not cause a nuisance to neighbours, though we always suggest checking with your local council first, since West Lancashire, Chorley and Sefton all set their own guidance on when fires are acceptable.
What happens to the green waste we collect
Once a load leaves your garden it comes back to our own recycling centre, where we sort it rather than sending it straight to landfill. Clean green waste is processed for composting, timber and metals are separated out, and soil and hardcore are dealt with through the right channels. Running our own site is part of how a family business that has served the area for over a hundred years keeps costs sensible and keeps as much material as possible out of the ground. You can read more about how we handle and divert waste on our recycling and environmental work page.
Garden clearances across West Lancashire and Merseyside
We cover a wide stretch of the region, and the gardens we clear vary a lot from one area to the next. The big rural plots around Burscough and Tarleton tend to throw up large volumes of green waste and hedge cuttings, while the coastal gardens in Formby and along the Sefton coast bring more sand and fine soil into the mix. If you are local to Burscough skip hire, Formby skip hire or Tarleton skip hire, we can usually get a skip to you quickly and collect it on a timescale that suits the job.
Whenever you are ready to clear the garden, our office can sort out the right skip and a quote shaped around what you actually have. Call our friendly team on 01704 779345 or get in touch through our contact our team page, and we will be pleased to help.
