A grab lorry loads itself — the arm reaches over the wall, picks up half a tonne at a time and clears in minutes what would take days of barrowing. Soil, hardcore and green waste, quoted by phone.
A grab lorry is a tipper with a hydraulic arm and a clamshell bucket mounted behind the cab. It parks on the road or your drive, and the arm does the rest.
The arm reaches several metres from where the lorry stands and lifts over walls, fences and hedges of ordinary height — so the muck doesn’t need vehicle access, and neither do you. Each bite of the bucket takes around half a tonne, and a full 8-wheel load is on board in twenty to thirty minutes.
Compare that with the skip version of the same job: barrowing several tonnes by hand, filling skip after skip, paying for each one to sit on the road with a permit while you go. For heavy waste in volume, the grab wins on price, speed and your back.
Everything we grab comes back to our transfer station on Garnet Road, where over 90% of it is recovered as aggregate, fill or recyclate rather than landfilled — with a waste transfer note to prove it.
On the road, your drive or hard standing — the lorry needs a clear stretch to stand, nothing more.
Half a tonne per bite, over the wall if it has to. Nobody touches a shovel.
A waste transfer note for the load — duty of care handled, not implied.
Sorted, screened and crushed for recovery. Over 90% stays out of landfill.
Two lorries, one decision: how much muck, and how tight is the street? We'll make the call with you on the phone — it takes about a minute.
The workhorse · ~15–16 tonnes per load
Our default for muck away. One load shifts roughly the contents of three to four builder’s skips, which is why groundworkers, landscapers and demolition crews book it on repeat. If your job has normal road access and a serious pile, this is the lorry that turns up.
The tight-access one · smaller, shorter, lighter
For the streets the 8-wheeler shouldn’t attempt: narrow terraces, awkward corners, weight-limited lanes and softer ground. It carries less per load, so bigger jobs take more trips — but a lorry that reaches the pile beats a bigger one that doesn’t.
Not sure which fits your street? Describe it on 0113 539 9836 or email a photo to info@onyxrecycling.co.uk — we’d rather send the right lorry than an apology.
Grab work is built for the heavy, awkward waste streams that make skips look small. Everything below is collected for recovery at our own yard.
Footings, pond digs, garden regrades and driveway excavations. Screened at our yard and recovered as fill rather than landfilled.
Brick, block, concrete, stone and tarmac planings. Crushed and screened into recycled aggregate that goes back into the ground on someone else's job.
Soil and rubble together, as most real digs produce it. Priced honestly for what it is — no surprise reclassification after the lorry has left.
Site clearance, hedge and tree arisings, turf and topsoil strippings. Bulky, light and miserable to barrow into a skip — ideal grab work.
We can’t grab asbestos, fridges, tyres, paint, chemicals, gas canisters or batteries — the same exclusions as our skips. If your pile is a mystery, say so on the phone and we’ll work it out together before booking anything.
Skips are the right tool most of the time — we sell enough of them to know. But for heavy waste in volume, the maths tips quickly.
One 8-wheel load carries what three or four builder's skips would — one price, one visit, one lot of paperwork.
A skip needs somewhere to sit for days. The grab needs twenty minutes at the kerb, and the arm reaches over the wall to where the muck actually is.
Nothing is left on the highway, so there's no £40 council permit and no waiting for one to be granted before work starts.
Filling a skip with rubble means moving every kilogram by hand. The grab arm does it in half-tonne bites while you watch.
Smaller job? Below a few tonnes, a skip is usually the cheaper tool — compare skip sizes or check prices for your postcode. Muck coming off site week after week? A RoRo container on exchange may beat both.
Skips are simple enough to price online. Grab work isn't — material, tonnage and access all move the number, and pretending otherwise is how other firms end up revising quotes on your doorstep.
We cover LS1–LS18, LS25–LS28 and WF1–WF17 — Leeds, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Batley and the surrounding towns. Office hours are Mon–Fri 8am–5pm and Sat 8am–1pm. Moving muck regularly for your firm? A trade account gets you agreed rates and one monthly invoice.
Call 0113 539 9836 and tell us it's grab work. You'll speak to someone who schedules these lorries every day, not a call centre.
What the material is, roughly how much there is, and what stands between the kerb and the muck. Photos emailed to info@onyxrecycling.co.uk genuinely help.
We quote there and then. If a skip or a RoRo would honestly work out cheaper for your job, we'll say so — we run all three.
Usually within a couple of working days, and we'll give you an honest slot rather than promise the moon and miss it.
Anything else, ring 0113 539 9836 — the person who answers can actually price the job.
Grab work is quoted by phone on 0113 539 9836, because the honest answer depends on what the material is, how much of it there is and how easy it is to reach. Describe the pile and we'll price it while you're on the line. For heavy waste in volume, one grab load almost always works out cheaper than the string of skips it replaces.
Soil, subsoil, hardcore, brick, block, concrete, tarmac planings, mixed inert waste and green waste. The exclusions are the same as for skips: no asbestos, fridges, tyres, paint, chemicals, gas canisters or batteries. If you're not sure what's in your pile, say so when you call — it's much easier to sort out before the lorry arrives than after.
No. A skip that sits on a public road needs a £40 council permit; a grab lorry just stops, loads and leaves, the same as any delivery vehicle. Nothing is left on the highway, so there's no permit, no lead time and no lights and cones to worry about.
Around 15 to 16 tonnes of muck per load — roughly the same material as three or four builder's skips, moved in a single visit. The 6-wheeler carries less but fits where the big lorry won't, which is exactly why we run both.
Usually, yes. The arm reaches several metres from where the lorry parks and lifts over walls and fences of ordinary height, so the pile itself doesn't need vehicle access. Tell us what's between the kerb and the muck when you call — or email a photo to info@onyxrecycling.co.uk — and we'll confirm before anything is booked.
Not usually. As long as the pile is accessible and we've agreed exactly what's going, the driver can load and leave without you standing about watching. If anything on site doesn't match what was described, the driver will ring you before touching it rather than guess.
Tell us what you've got — material, rough amount, access — and we'll price it while you're on the phone.