Every question we actually get asked.
Twenty-three honest answers, grouped so you can jump straight to yours. If it isn’t here, ring 0113 539 9836— a human in the Leeds office picks up, and they’ll know the answer.
Pricing and booking.
The money questions first. Live prices for your street are on the booking page; the wider picture is on skip prices.
Skip hire with Onyx Recycling starts from £130 for a 2-yard mini skip, £170 for a 4-yard midi, £270 for an 8-yard builder's skip and £510 for a 16-yard maxi. Every price includes VAT, delivery, collection, disposal and seven days' hire — the figure you see is the figure you pay. Exact prices vary slightly by postcode, so enter yours on the booking page for a live quote for your street. If the skip is going on a public road, add a £40 council permit, which we arrange for you.
Everything that gets the job done: VAT, delivery to your door, collection when you're finished, responsible disposal at our Leeds transfer station and seven days' hire as standard. Only three things can add to it, and we tell you about all of them before you pay: a £40 council permit if the skip sits on a public road, a small charge for controlled waste such as mattresses, carpets or plasterboard, and an extension fee if you keep the skip beyond the included week.
No. The price quoted for your postcode is the price you pay. The only possible extras are the £40 road permit, controlled-waste items you declare at booking (mattresses, carpets, plasterboard) and hire extensions — all named upfront, none sprung on you at collection. If a driver ever hits an access problem on delivery day, we phone you and sort it like adults rather than quietly adding a fee to the invoice.
Two ways. Book online at onyxrecycling.co.uk/book — postcode in, pick a size, choose a delivery date, pay; about two minutes all told. Or call the office on 0113 539 9836, Monday to Friday 8am–5pm and Saturday 8am–1pm, and we'll sort it over the phone — the better option if you're unsure on size or the placement is awkward. Either way you get a confirmed delivery date, and next-day delivery is standard when you book before 3pm.
We deliver daily across Leeds (LS1–LS18 and LS25–LS28) and the Wakefield district (WF1–WF17), which takes in Wakefield, Dewsbury, Batley, Morley, Castleford, Pontefract, Normanton, Ossett, Pudsey, Garforth and the towns in between. Our yard is on Garnet Road in south Leeds, so most of the patch is within half an hour of the depot. Just outside those postcodes? Ring 0113 539 9836 — we can often stretch a little further on request.
Delivery and placement.
Where the skip goes and how it gets there. The full permit picture is in the skip permit guide.
Next-day delivery is standard across Leeds and Wakefield when you book before 3pm — order Tuesday afternoon, skip on the drive Wednesday. Same-day is often possible if you phone the office early, and we'll tell you straight whether we can make it rather than promise and miss. Deliveries run through the working week, and Saturday mornings can usually be arranged. If you need a specific time window, say so when you book and we'll plan the route around it where we can.
No — most of our deliveries happen while people are at work. Tell us exactly where you want the skip when you book ("left of the drive, clear of the garage door" beats "out front") and the driver places it there. Leave the space clear of cars and keep your phone handy in case the driver needs to check something. The same applies at collection: as long as the skip is accessible, you don't need to be in for either visit.
On any firm, level, private surface: a driveway, front garden, yard or site compound. The lorry needs to get close enough to lift the skip on and off — straight down from above — so check gates, arches, overhanging branches and cables before you book. If there's no room off-road, the skip can sit on the public road or pavement with a £40 council permit, which we apply for on your behalf, lights and cones supplied. Our skip permit guide covers the details.
Only if the skip is going on a public road, pavement or verge. On your own driveway or private land, no permit is needed. Road permits in Leeds and Wakefield cost £40, cover an initial two-week period, and we apply to the council for you when you book — you fill in nothing. Placing a skip on the highway without one is an offence that can attract a fine of up to £1,000, so if you're unsure whether your spot counts as highway, describe it to us and we'll advise.
Rarely, on a sound concrete or tarmac drive — skips arrive empty and are set down gently. On block paving, decorative gravel or a newly laid surface, put down a row of scaffold boards or a sheet of thick plywood first: it spreads the load and stops the skip's steel rails leaving marks, which matters more once the skip is full and weighs a few tonnes. Our drivers place skips exactly where you ask; the boards are cheap insurance for a surface you care about.
What can go in.
The abridged rules — the full yes/no list has every item, and the disposal guides cover what to do with the banned ones.
Most everyday waste: household clutter, furniture, wood, metal, plastics, cardboard, garden waste, soil, bricks, rubble, tiles and general building waste from kitchens, bathrooms and renovations. Heavy materials such as soil and rubble are fine in our 2, 4 and 8-yard skips but never the 16-yard, which takes light, bulky waste only. Mattresses, carpets and plasterboard are accepted for a small extra charge, declared at booking. For the complete rundown, see our what-can-go-in-a-skip guide.
Fridges and freezers, tyres, asbestos, paint, chemicals, gas bottles and batteries can never go in a skip — each is either hazardous or legally required to travel in its own processing stream. Mattresses, carpets and plasterboard are allowed but chargeable as controlled waste. If a prohibited item turns up in a load it has to be pulled out and handled separately, which always costs more than disposing of it properly in the first place. Our item-by-item disposal guides cover the right route for each.
Yes — both are accepted, but as controlled waste with a small extra charge, because they have to be pulled out at our transfer station and processed separately rather than going through the normal sorting line. Tell us how many mattresses, or roughly how much carpet, when you book and we'll confirm the charge upfront. Don't bury them at the bottom of the load and hope: every skip is tipped and sorted, they're always found, and an undeclared item costs more than a declared one.
Soil, rubble, hardcore and other heavy waste can go in the 2, 4 and 8-yard skips, filled level with the rim. The 16-yard maxi is light waste only — no soil, no rubble, no hardcore. It isn't us being awkward: a 16-yarder full of muck would weigh far beyond what the lorry can legally lift. For serious quantities — a full garden dig-out, footings — our grab hire service usually beats multiple skips on price and shifts the lot in one visit.
No. Fridges and freezers contain refrigerant gases and insulation blowing agents that must be professionally removed before recycling, so they can't legally travel in a mixed skip load — at any price. Use retailer take-back when a new appliance is delivered, book a council bulky-waste collection, or take the unit to a household waste recycling centre. Our fridge and freezer disposal guide walks through each option for Leeds and Wakefield, including the cheapest.
During the hire.
The week (or more) the skip sits on your drive. Rules of thumb for filling it well are in the skip size guide.
Seven days' hire is included as standard with every skip — comfortably enough for most jobs. If the project runs on, extend by the day or the week for a small charge: ring the office on 0113 539 9836 before your collection date and we'll move it in the system. No drama, no penalty; we'd far rather know than send a lorry to a half-loaded skip. If your skip sits on a road permit, we extend the permit alongside the hire so it never sits on the highway uncovered.
Please don't. Skips are heavier than they look even empty, dragging one scores tarmac and block paving, and a road-permitted skip that wanders from its approved spot is no longer covered by the permit. If the skip genuinely needs to be somewhere else — the builders need the space, a delivery lorry is due — call us and we'll lift and re-site it properly. It's a quick job for a lorry with chains, and it keeps your drive and your paperwork intact.
Level with the rim — a "level load". That's the legal limit for transporting a skip on a public road: anything mounded above the sides can shed on the way to the yard, and a driver can refuse to collect an overloaded skip until it's levelled off. Load flat, heavy items first, break furniture down, and fill the voids with smaller waste as you go. A well-packed skip holds noticeably more than one filled by enthusiastic throwing from the back door.
Ring us. If you're done ahead of schedule we'll collect early — no need to sit on a full skip for the rest of the week. If the job is producing more waste than expected, we can collect the full skip and drop a fresh one in the same visit, which most renovation customers find easier than guessing the total upfront. Either way, call the office on 0113 539 9836 and we'll re-plan the lorry runs around you.
Collection and recycling.
What happens when the lorry comes back — and where your waste actually goes. The long version is on the blog: what happens to your skip waste.
Collection is scheduled for the end of your hire period — you don't need to do anything, though a quick call to say the skip's ready never hurts and often gets it collected sooner. On the day, keep the skip accessible: no cars parked hard against it, gates unlocked, nothing stacked on the lid of the load. You don't need to be home. If your dates change either way, ring 0113 539 9836 — extending is easy, and collecting early is even easier.
Every skip comes back to our transfer station off Garnet Road in Leeds, where the load is tipped and sorted — by machine and by hand — into wood, metal, plastics, hardcore, soil and residual waste. Each stream goes on for recycling or recovery: hardcore is crushed into aggregate, wood is chipped, metals are reprocessed. Over 90% of everything we collect is diverted from landfill. It's the reason the company is called Onyx Recycling rather than Onyx Skips.
Yes. As a licensed waste carrier we can supply a waste transfer note for any collection — ask when you book, or email info@onyxrecycling.co.uk afterwards. Householders rarely need one, but if you're a tradesperson or business you have a legal duty of care to show your waste went to a licensed facility, and the transfer note is that proof. Commercial customers on regular collections get their documentation as standard — see our commercial page for trade accounts.
Yes — registration CB/DU362435, which you can look up yourself on the Environment Agency's public register at environment.data.gov.uk. Everything we collect is processed through our own transfer station in Leeds rather than passed to a third party, so we can account for exactly where your waste ends up and issue a waste transfer note for any job. We've been family-run since 2017 and we operate our own lorries and drivers. Want to check credentials before booking? Sensible — call 0113 539 9836 and we'll talk you through them.
The guides behind the answers.
Every answer above has a longer version. Start with these three, or browse all guides.
What size skip do you need?
Bin-bag maths, the level-load rule, heavy-waste limits and job-by-job recommendations — so you order once and order right.
Read the guideSkip permits, explained
When a permit is needed, when it isn't, what Leeds and Wakefield charge, and how we handle the whole thing on your behalf.
Read the guideWhat can go in a skip?
The definitive yes, no and 'yes, but' list — from garden waste and rubble to plasterboard, mattresses and the items never allowed.
Read the guideQuestion answered? Job on.
Postcode in, price out — VAT, delivery, collection and seven days' hire included. Or ring the office and we'll sort it the old-fashioned way.