Start at the tip, not the customer

The mistake is to look at a job, think “that’s a van load, £250”, and find out at the weighbridge that it was 1.8 tonnes of mixed waste with two sofas in it. Start from what the tip will charge and work back to the price.

Step 1: split the pile

Walk it, or get photos, and sort it in your head into types the tip prices differently:

  • Inert — soil, rubble, hardcore, bricks, concrete. Cheap per tonne if it’s clean and separate.
  • General mixed — furniture, boxes, carpets, black bags. The expensive tonne.
  • Green waste — often cheaper than mixed if it’s on its own.
  • Items with their own charge — mattresses, sofas and armchairs, fridges and freezers, tyres, gas bottles, plasterboard, TVs.

Step 2: put a weight on it

Rules of thumb that hold up: a Transit load of mixed clearance waste is 1 to 1.5 tonnes; a builder’s bag of rubble is 0.8 to 1 tonne; a three-piece suite is under 100 kg but carries a POPs charge; a double mattress is about 25 kg but carries a per-item charge. Wet garden waste and soil are the ones that catch people out.

Step 3: price the disposal

Multiply each type by your tip’s price per tonne, add the per-item charges. Landfill tax alone is £130.75 a tonne for mixed waste from April 2026, and sites add their own costs on top — so the mixed tonne is what makes or breaks the job. More on that here.

Step 4: add what you need to earn

Labour (two people for a full clearance), the van for the day, fuel, and the trip to the tip and back — then margin. A reasonable check is the going rate: man-and-van work in 2026 runs at roughly £64 to £94 an hour, and a medium house clearance sits around £400 with a wide range either side.

Worked example — three-bed house, part furnished
2.4 t mixed at £175/t = £420 · sofa and two armchairs (POPs) £60 · two mattresses £30 · fridge-freezer £25. Disposal £535. Two people, a day, van and fuel £320. Margin £145. Quote: £1,000 fixed, £200 deposit on acceptance.

Step 5: put it in writing, and take a deposit

A quote that lists what’s included, what’s excluded (loft, garage, anything hazardous) and the tip cost as a line is a quote that doesn’t get argued about at the door. Send it with a deposit link; the van doesn’t move until it’s paid. And when you’ve done the job, the transfer note and the invoice should go out before you’ve left the drive.

That whole loop — quote from the pile, deposit by card, note signed on site, invoice on the way home — is what WasteBoss is. Get early access, or write a transfer note free today.