The unglamorous parts, done well.
Onyx Recycling is a family-run waste firm in Leeds. We hire out skips, drive our own lorries and sort every load at our Garnet Road transfer station — and we've worked that way since 2017.
- Founded in Leeds — family-run ever since
- 2017
- Of collected waste diverted from landfill
- 90%+
- Hire period included as standard on every skip
- 7 days
- LS and WF postcode districts covered every week
- 39
Founded in Leeds — family-run ever since
Of collected waste diverted from landfill
Hire period included as standard on every skip
LS and WF postcode districts covered every week
Started in 2017, run the same way since.
Onyx Recycling started in 2017 with one observation: skip hire around Leeds had too many middlemen. You’d ring one firm, a different firm’s lorry would turn up, and nobody could tell you where the waste actually ended up. We thought the whole thing worked better without the relay race — so we run our own lorries, employ our own drivers and sort every load ourselves.
We’re a family firm, and it shows in ordinary ways rather than dramatic ones. The person who answers the phone can book your skip on the spot. The driver who delivers it is usually the one who collects it. If we say Tuesday, we mean Tuesday — and if we can’t do Tuesday, we say that instead of promising it.
Home is Unit 22b Climax Works on Garnet Road — a working transfer station in LS11, not an office with a stock photo of a skip. Every skip, grab load and roll-on-roll-off container we collect comes back here to be tipped, graded and separated into what can be used again. It isn’t a glamorous place. It is a very effective one.
The short version: honest prices, our own fleet, and a phone that gets answered. The long version is the rest of this page.
What happens after the lorry leaves.
A skip disappearing down the road is only half the job. The other half happens back at Garnet Road — and it's the half we're fussiest about.
of everything we collect is diverted from landfill
Tipped on the floor, not into a hole
Every load comes back to LS11 and is tipped on the sorting floor of our transfer station. Nothing gets sent straight on unseen — we look at everything we collect.
Graded by machine and by hand
Plant does the heavy lifting; experienced eyes do the fine work. Each load is separated into wood, metal, plastics, hardcore, soil and residual streams.
Sent where it still has value
Clean timber, metal and plastics leave as recyclate. Hardcore is crushed into aggregate. Much of what remains is processed into refuse-derived fuel rather than buried.
Documented, if you need it
We're a licensed waste carrier and can issue waste transfer notes for any job — useful for trade customers, landlords and anyone whose audits ask awkward questions.
Five habits we won't break.
None of these are slogans. They're the standing rules of the yard, and the reason people book a second skip after the first one.
Priced before you commit
In practice it means the figure your postcode returns is the figure on the invoice — VAT, delivery, collection and seven days’ hire already inside it, and anything extra, like a road permit or a declared mattress, itemised at booking rather than discovered afterwards. The zone-by-zone workings are on our skip prices page.
Our own fleet and drivers
Ring the office and you reach someone who can see the run sheets and book you in on the spot — not a call centre promising a callback. The lorry that turns up is ours, the driver is on our payroll, and it’s usually the same person delivering your skip and collecting it a week later.
Sorted, not buried
No load leaves our yard unseen. Every skip is tipped on the sorting floor at Garnet Road and pulled apart — plant for the heavy grading, experienced hands for the fine work — into wood, metal, plastics, hardcore and soil. That’s how over 90% of what we collect leaves as recyclate, aggregate or fuel instead of going into the ground.
Permits handled for you
Tick “public road” when you book and the council application becomes our admin, not yours: £40, an initial two-week period, and lights and cones arriving on the lorry with the skip. Keep it longer and we renew the permit alongside your extension — the full rules are in our skip permit guide.
Straight answers
If same-day isn’t going to happen, we say so on the phone rather than let you find out at 4pm. And if a 4-yard will do the job, we won’t sell you an 8-yard — compare the sizes and see what your job actually needs.
Have a look around.
Ready when you are.
Book online in two minutes, or speak to the Leeds office and we'll sort it over the phone.