The environmental benefits of skip hire

Skip hire is a convenient, safe and legal way to remove waste. Hiring a skip is also an environmentally friendly option for taking waste away from your home or commercial site. The environmental benefits of skip hire are often overlooked.

Our approach to waste needs to change

Rather than a problem that must simply be removed ‘come what may’, waste should be considered a valuable resource. When recycled and reused, waste becomes valuable and leaves a reduced carbon footprint. To protect the environment, we can all adopt more strategic waste management processes.

The goal of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty signed by 196 nations including the UK, is to reduce carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050. In running our homes and businesses, we need to collectively find ways to reduce our carbon footprint. How we manage our waste can help the UK towards meeting net zero targets.

Why skip hire is environmentally friendly

If you remove your waste yourself rather than hiring a skip hire company, you are missing an opportunity to protect the environment. Waste has a significant impact on climate change.

There are several reasons why skip hire is the ideal eco-friendly choice over DIY waste removal.

Recycling to reduce landfill

Reducing landfill is one way to work towards the Paris Agreement targets. Hiring a skip keeps waste away from landfill.

A skip hire company will either sort your waste or send it to a licensed agency, to recycle as much of it as possible. In fact, sometimes 100% of your waste can be recycled rather be sent to landfill. When you sort our own waste, you are less likely to painstakingly recycle, or even know which items of waste can be recycled. A skip hire company has the facilities to sort your litter into different bins so that most items are recycled. There is often also the option for the skip hire company to provide waste treatments that remove toxic substances.

Reusing and recycling waste into useful products saves the energy needed for the manufacture of replacement products up to as much as 95%. Meanwhile many items that cannot be recycled undergo a controlled incineration process from which electricity can be generated – a win-win!

Reduce ground and water pollution

By reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill, we are also reducing ground and water pollution and therefore improving the air and water quality. Landfills also produce a high volume of methane gas which is a major contributor to climate change.

Produce fertiliser from green waste

Rather than sending green waste to decompose in landfill, a skip hire company will send it to be made into fertiliser which can be used domestically and in farming. If left in landfill, green waste produces high quantities of methane which, as mentioned above, has a direct impact on our climate.

Burning waste produces toxic gases

Many people who don’t want to send their waste to landfill will burn it instead. However, this is also not good for the environment because burning waste can produce toxic fumes. Burning plastic releases harmful gases.

Avoid the spread of bacteria

Waste produces bacteria. When disposed of recklessly, waste can introduce disease into the environment and make people and animals ill. A skip hire company knows how to dispose of waste safely, so you have the peace of mind that your waste won’t cause unnecessary damage to the environment.

Skip hire is sustainable

By reducing the harm that irresponsibly disposed of waste can have on our environment and reducing the depletion of natural resources, skip hire is a sustainable process.

What to check when looking for an environmentally friendly skip hire company

To be sure your skip hire company will dispose of your waste in the most environmentally friendly way, check that they have the following:

• A UK Waste Carrier Licence with the Environment Agency
• A Waste Disposal Licence
• Skip Operator Licence for putting your skip on a public highway