How Full Can a Skip Be?

It’s your first time dealing with skips and although you know they can hold a lot of waste, you know that there is a limit and don’t want to make the area unsafe for anyone. If you’ve found yourself asking ‘How full can a skip be?’ you’re in the right place. At Wasteaway, we deal with skips every day and our customers ask the same question. In this blog, we will discuss everything there is to know about your skip hire, keeping safe and how to arrange the skip to make the most out of your money. 

Choosing the correct skip size

Here at Wasteaway, we want to make getting rid of waste as simple as possible, which is why all of our skips come with a fill line, to give our customers proper guidance. Although this seems like a simple solution to the frequently asked question, a lot of skips hire companies do not have this fill line, leaving customers worried about whether they’re filling their skip too high. 

It’s important to be knowledgeable on these matters – if your skip is too full, the skip company may refuse to pick it up due to safety concerns. On the other hand, if your skip isn’t full enough, you’re possibly not making the most out of the skip and may need to order two. 

With skips, it’s always best to do some preparation – i.e. make sure that you order the correct skip size. Here are some skip sizes and approximately what you can hold in each of them: 

• 4-yard skip (40 bags) 
• 6-yard skip (60 bags) 
• 8-yard skip (80 bags) 
• 12-yard skip (120 bags) 

You should consider health and safety 

Our first priority at Wasteaway is to make sure that the public, our drivers and our customers stay safe at all times. This is precisely the reason that our skips have a safety line. Exceeding this line can have an impact on safety as well as the environment in a number of ways: 

• Items could fall out of the skip onto pedestrians or drivers
• Waste sticking out of the skip could clip pedestrians or vehicles 
• Lighter items might blow out of the skip and pose a threat to the environment 
• Items that are balancing at a height on the skip could cause a ‘landslide’ of waste out of the skip
• An overfilled skip is more likely to spill or become unbalanced when getting collected. 

How can I maximise space in my skip without overfilling it? 

There are ways to make the most out of the space in your skip without going over the fill line or spilling out the edges and posing health or environmental risks: 

• Put lighter items at the bottom of the skip so that the heavy items compress the lower layers of waste. 
• Break up the bulky items into smaller pieces, reducing the amount of space within these items.
• Place large flat items along the sides of the skip.
• Place heavier items on the top to crush the lighter items and help to create more space. 

Thank you for reading our blog ‘How full can a skip be?’. If you’re looking for skips to hire, get in touch with Wasteaway today.