What actually happens to it.

Your rubbish stays your responsibility

This surprises people, so it is worth stating plainly. Under household waste duty of care, you are responsible for making sure your waste is passed to someone authorised to take it. If it turns up fly-tipped in a lay-by off the A491 or on a bit of scrubland in Netherton, the enforcement trail starts with whatever is identifiable in the pile — and that is usually your post.

People do get fined for this after paying somebody else to take their rubbish away. The defence is having used a registered carrier and having the paperwork to show it.

Ask anyone, including us

Before handing waste to any firm — us or anyone else — it is reasonable to ask for their waste carrier registration and to check it on the Environment Agency's public register. It takes a minute and it is free.

Ask us for our registration details when you enquire and we will provide them so you can check them for yourself before we collect anything.

How we sort a load

A mixed load does not go to one place. It gets separated, because different materials have different routes and because tipping everything as general waste is both worse environmentally and more expensive.

• Metal — scrap, radiators, appliance casings, pipework. Recycled.
• Timber — clean wood recycled; treated and painted timber routed separately.
• Green waste — composted where it is not contaminated with plastic or treated wood.
• Cardboard and paper — recycled.
• Electricals — WEEE route. Fridges and freezers are classed as hazardous because of the gases in the cooling circuit and are degassed properly rather than crushed.
• Plasterboard — kept out of general waste, as the regulations require, and sent to a dedicated facility.
• Rubble and hardcore — crushed and reused as aggregate where clean.
• Textiles and furniture — reusable items diverted where there is a route for them.
• Residual — what genuinely cannot be recycled goes to a licensed facility.

Waste transfer notes

A transfer note records what was moved, who moved it and where it went. For a business it is a legal requirement you must keep. For a household clearance it is not compulsory, but it is the document that proves you did the right thing if a question ever arises.

Ask and we will give you one. On commercial collections we provide one automatically.

What we will not take, and why we say so

Asbestos, clinical and offensive waste, chemicals, solvents, fuel and gas bottles. Each needs a specific licence, specific containment and separate documentation. A firm that agrees to take asbestos "on the van" is either unlicensed or intending to dump it, and either way the consequences land on the property owner as well.

If you have any of it, say so and we will point you at someone who can deal with it properly. Then we will clear everything else.