The charges from 1 April 2026
Glasgow charges per item rather than per uplift. A standard bulky item, a wardrobe, a mattress, a bed frame, a table, costs £5. Small and medium electrical items are also £5. That part has not changed.
What changed on 1 April 2026 is that white goods were split out of the electrical category and now cost £25 each. That covers washing machines, dishwashers, fridges and freezers. The council's reasoning is that these need de-gassing and specialist handling under WEEE (anything with a plug or a battery) rules, and the flat £5 was nowhere near the cost.
Special items, the things that need two crews or a different vehicle, are £80. And there is a new category for waste upholstered domestic seating: sofas, armchairs, sofa beds and any padded seating, at £5 an item but collected on a separate run from everything else.
- Standard items: £5 each
- Electrical items: £5 each
- White goods: £25 each (new separate category)
- Special items: £80
- Upholstered seating: £5 each, collected separately
- Book online or on 0141 287 9700
Why sofas are collected separately now
Upholstered seating made before 2019 contains fire-retardant chemicals that Scotland bans from landfill and that cannot be mixed with other waste. SEPA's guidance requires it to be kept apart and sent for high-temperature destruction, and a council lorry that throws a sofa in with wardrobes has contaminated the whole load.
So Glasgow now collects seating on its own, and you book it as its own category. The rule and the reason are in why your old sofa can't go to landfill. It is the same rule that applies to any carrier, and one worth asking about before booking anyone.
We segregate upholstered seating on every job and consign it under its own code. If you have a sofa and a fridge and a wardrobe, that is three categories to the council and one visit to us.
Three categories to the council, one visit to us
Sofa, fridge and wardrobe carried down the close together. Usually next day in Glasgow.
When the council uplift is the right call
For one or two standard items where you are not in a hurry and can get them to the kerb, the council uplift is hard to beat on price. Two wardrobes at £5 each is £10, and no private carrier will match that.
The trade-offs are time and carrying. Council slots run days to weeks ahead depending on the area, items have to be at the collection point, and the crew will not come into a close or up three flights. Anything the council lists as excluded, garden waste, rubble, plasterboard, paint, does not go at any price.
How Glasgow compares with the rest of the country is in council bulky uplift charges across Scotland. The short version is that Glasgow and Edinburgh are cheap per item and most councils charge £36 to £90 for a batch.
When a private collection makes more sense
When there is a lot of it, when it is upstairs, when it is mixed with things the council will not take, or when it needs to go this week. A quarter load with us is £160 + VAT and covers roughly what a small van holds, carried from wherever it is, sorted at the transfer station, with the sofa kept separate and the fridge de-gassed.
That is our bulky waste collection service, and the Glasgow page for the wider job is rubbish removal in Glasgow. Single appliances are covered by fridge removal and furniture removal.
The other option is the tip. Glasgow's recycling centres take most of this free in a car, with rules for vans, and the new Easter Queenslie site is due to open this autumn. Our guide to Glasgow recycling centres covers hours, permits and which sites take what.
