What in a house clearance is now banned from landfill
The ban covers biodegradable municipal waste: anything that rots and gives off methane in the ground. In a house clearance that is the contents of the fridge and freezer, the garden and the shed, every drawer of paperwork, the books, the wooden furniture and the timber from a shed or a fence. The reasons are in Scotland's landfill ban explained.
The awkward part is the phrase mixed waste. A black bag with food in it is banned waste. A skip with a wardrobe in it is banned waste. The ban bites on the whole load, which is why a clearance done the old way, everything into one skip, is now a load that has nowhere legal to go.
SEPA has said it will not enforce the ban until 1 January 2028 because the alternative capacity is not all there yet. The detail is in why enforcement was pushed to 2028. The relief is for waste operators facing genuine capacity gaps, not a licence to carry on as before.
- Food from the kitchen and freezer
- Garden waste and the shed's contents
- Paper, card, books and magazines
- Wooden furniture and timber
- Textiles and carpets, in practice
- Anything mixed in with the above
What a clearance firm now has to do with a load
Sort it. Either at the property, by loading in streams, or at a transfer station where the load is tipped and separated. Wood goes for chipping, paper and card for baling, metal for weighing in, textiles for reuse or recycling, green waste for composting, food for anaerobic digestion (breaking food down without air to make gas and fertiliser), and only the residual fraction for energy recovery.
That has been our model for years, and it is why we quote by the load rather than the tonne: a sorted load has most of its weight diverted and pays landfill tax on almost none of it. More than 80% of what we collect avoids landfill.
Two categories need their own route regardless. Old sofas and armchairs are kept separate under the rules on upholstered seating, and fridges, freezers and anything with a battery go as WEEE (anything with a plug or a battery), as batteries and vapes in bin lorries explains.
Want to see where each stream goes?
Ask us on the phone. We can tell you the site for the wood, the paper, the metal and the residual.
Why a mixed skip is now the wrong tool
A skip on the road for a week takes whatever goes in it, and what goes in a house clearance skip is exactly the mix the ban is aimed at. The skip company then has to sort it or find a site that will take it, and the price reflects that. Is rubbish removal cheaper than a skip? works through the numbers.
Skips also need a permit on a public road and many councils now refuse them in tenement streets, as can't get a skip permit? covers. A loaded van needs neither.
None of this makes a skip wrong for a building job full of rubble. It makes it wrong for a house full of a life, which is a different kind of load.
What to ask before you book anyone
Ask whether the load is sorted and where each stream goes. Ask whether upholstered seating is kept separate. Ask for the SEPA registration number and look it up using how to check a waste carrier is registered. Ask for a waste transfer note. A firm that can answer all four quickly is one that has been doing it properly since before the ban.
A firm that quotes a price that could not cover legal disposal is telling you where the load is going, and the duty of care (your legal responsibility for waste you produce) follows the waste back to you.
Our house clearance service does all of the above as standard, with the usual reuse pass first. The specialised versions are probate house clearance for an estate and hoarder clearance where the volume is exceptional; the process from first call to swept floor is in the house clearance checklist.
