How Much Does Rubbish Removal Cost in London? (2026 Prices)
Rubbish removal in London costs from £96 for a mini load (about one washing machine's worth) up to £420+ for a full van. A typical mixed household load lands around £174. Those are our actual prices, not a teaser — the full table is below, along with the things that genuinely change the number, and the situations where we'll tell you straight that the council is the better deal.
Most pricing pages in this industry make you fill in a form to find out what a sofa costs to remove. We think that's daft. Here's everything.
London rubbish removal prices by load size
Prices are per collection, anywhere in Greater London, and include labour, loading, transport and licensed disposal with a digital Waste Transfer Note.
| Load size | Roughly how much stuff | Price from | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini load | A washing machine, or 4–5 bin bags | £96 | £96–£114 |
| Small load | A two-seater sofa, or a cupboard's worth | £120 | £120–£168 |
| Medium load | A single room's clear-out | £174 | £174–£216 |
| Large load | A small flat's worth | £222 | £222–£276 |
| Large+ load | A garden shed, contents included | £282 | £282–£324 |
| XL load | A one-bed flat clearance | £330 | £330–£366 |
| XL+ load | A cluttered one-bed, or a sparse two-bed | £372 | £372–£414 |
| XXL load | A full house clearance load | £420 | £420–£540 |
Those are totals. Every figure already includes VAT and is what you actually pay — no call-out fee, no fuel surcharge, nothing added at checkout. Comparing us against a company that quotes excluding VAT? Divide ours by 1.2 so it's a fair fight: the mini load is £80 before VAT, the XXL £350.
Prices correct at publication — the live pricing page always has the current numbers, and our price calculator will put a band on your actual pile, including from a photo, with a real person confirming the final figure.
What changes the price
Four things move the number, and none of them should be a surprise on the day:
- Volume. The single biggest factor. You pay for the space your stuff takes in the van — nothing else. Half a van costs less than a full van, which is the main way we differ from skip hire, where you pay for the whole skip however empty it ends up.
- Specific items. Fridges, freezers, mattresses and some electricals cost extra because they legally require separate disposal routes. A fridge can't just go in the general load — it has to be degassed at a licensed facility.
- Access. A fourth-floor flat with no lift takes our crew three times as long as a driveway. Difficult access adds a surcharge; we'll ask about stairs when you book, and honesty at that point keeps the price honest on the day.
- Parking. If there's genuinely nowhere to stop — some central London streets — a parking surcharge can apply. If you have a driveway or a visitor permit, this never affects you.
What doesn't change the price: which borough you're in, or whether you found us through an ad. Same table for everyone. The one calendar exception is a Sunday, which carries a premium — shown next to the day before you choose it, never discovered afterwards.
When the council is honestly cheaper
Every London council runs a bulky waste collection, typically £15–£60 for a few items depending on the borough, and some collect certain items free. If a couple of things can sit at the kerb for a week or three, book the council and keep your money — that's not a trick, it's just the right answer for that job.
The council option comes with three catches worth knowing: the wait is commonly one to four weeks, you carry everything to the kerb yourself, and they take a set list of household items rather than mixed loads. The moment the job involves stairs, urgency, or "the whole spare room", private collection stops being a luxury and starts being the cheaper option once your own Saturday is priced in.
How to pay less for private rubbish removal
- Send a photo. Our photo quote prices what's actually there, so you're never guessing a load size upwards to be safe.
- Get it to the ground floor if you safely can — access surcharges exist because of stairs, not spite.
- Dismantle the big stuff. A flat-packed wardrobe takes a quarter of the space of an assembled one, and you pay for space.
- Combine jobs. One medium load costs less than two small ones a week apart. Do the garage and the loft in one go.
The cheap quote that costs £1,000, and the one that grows on the day
One warning, because we see the aftermath weekly: if a price seems impossibly low — £20 for a van load off a Facebook ad — the maths only works if your waste gets fly-tipped. When it's traced (and it's traced via your post, more often than people think), you can be fined up to £1,000 via a Fixed Penalty Notice, or unlimited amounts on conviction, because householders have a legal duty of care for their waste.
Anyone legitimate will have a waste carrier licence you can check in about ten seconds on the Environment Agency's public register, and will give you a Waste Transfer Note. We issue one digitally for every single collection. If a cheap quote can't produce either, that's the whole answer.
There's a second kind of cheap quote, and it's perfectly legal. It's the one that's an estimate — "subject to on-site assessment" — with the stairs charged by the flight, the extra labour by the ten minutes, and the fridge, the fuel and the VAT all waiting on the driver's clipboard. Nothing about it is hidden, exactly. It's just not on the page you looked at.
Ours works differently, and we'd rather you checked than took our word for it. We ask about access, stairs and parking before you book, and the price on screen already includes your answers. Every charge we can add is published in one list, generated from the same rules that price your job. Stairs are brackets, not a meter: four flights and seven cost the same. Heavy waste is priced by the kilo, with the material named up front. And once a person has confirmed your price, it's held — if the day is different from what you told us, the change is a written amendment with the before and after on it, agreed before we start, never a line added to the invoice. The long version, with a worked example, is here.
Frequently asked questions
What's the minimum charge? There isn't one. A mini load — one appliance or a few bags — is £96, and anything smaller is priced item by item, so one chair is quoted as one chair. Very small jobs get looked at by a person before they're booked: if we can collect while we're already on your street, we will, and if we can't we'll tell you rather than pad the price out.
Do you charge to quote? No. Quotes are free, take about two minutes online, and a staff member confirms every price before you pay anything.
Is it cheaper than a skip? For most one-off clear-outs, yes — skips start around £150 plus a permit if it sits on the road, and you do the loading. Skips win for multi-week building jobs with heavy waste, and if that's your job you should hire one. We don't offer skips ourselves; we're a collection service, so the van is what we can quote you for.
Can I get collected today? Often, yes — same-day is frequently available in central London and next-day across the rest. The booking page shows real availability.
Those are the bands. Which one is your job?
Describe what you need shifting to Binny, our chat assistant, and he'll put a price on it. Send a photo and he'll tell you what he can see. A person checks every price before you pay anything.