What you need to know about Skip Hire in Port Elizabeth
In South Africa, one of the most popular ways to get rid of debris, junk, or any waste material is through Skip Hire. This affordable method helps bring waste removal solutions in one go. Generally, skip hire is used for both domestic and commercial projects.
In short—hiring a skip in SA is essential when generating a large amount of building waste and rubbish
There are a large number of skip hire providers in Port Elizabeth working as independent firms in their local regions. Besides these, national skip hire firms also exist to provide services throughout SA.
Generally, when deciding for your skip size, it is recommended to evaluate the amount of waste to be produced. When determining your waste, you should bear in mind that not ALL waste can be disposed of into the skip.
Items that CANNOT be placed in a skip include:
- - Batteries/electronics (fridge, freezers, TV, etc.)
- - Chemicals/paint
- - Medical items
- - Tyres
- - Gas cylinders
- - Light bulbs
- - Asbestos
- - Plasterboards
- - Any other hazardous item
Skip hire: Different Uses
People in SA hire skips for several reasons. One of the reasons being affordability and convenience that skip hiring brings as an efficient waste disposal solution. There are numerous sizes of skips available for different kinds of jobs. Here are a few popular uses of skips:
Domestic use
If you are undergoing a house renovation, skip hire is an essential waste disposal solution to consider. Whether it is fitting a new bathroom or knocking down a wall, you will accumulate a large amount of waste. Therefore, depending on the amount of waste, you can choose a skip that best fits your waste requirements.
Pave way/driveway installation
This is one of the most common uses of skip hires. The installation process removes the old driveway, and the waste material can quickly be loaded into a small skip.
Unwanted waste clearance
This usually occurs when tenants leave behind heaps of unwanted waste such as old furniture, fittings, etc. Skips are great to use as the garbage can be disposed of.
Garden clean-up
While cleaning gardens, we are often faced with a large amount of organic waste such as soil and other materials. Skips can take in all kinds of garden clearance waste. In South Africa, most garden owners can opt to choose from small affordable skips for little garden clean up jobs.
How to hire a skip in South Africa?
There are many determinants to consider when hiring a skip that fits best with your requirements.
The size
Choosing the right skip size is essentially the first step in the process. They come in a variety of sizes, shapes, measurements and length—Opting for a large skip but not having enough waste material to dispose of will only increase your cost while choosing a small skip for a large amount of junk will leave remaining unwanted garbage at your property.
Hence, making the right size decision is fundamental to assure you the best deal in town. Skip hire is also popular in South Africa as they offer a wide variety of sizes that helps to cover almost any waste disposal job easily. So, whether you need to dispose of building waste material at a commercial site or perform DIY tasks at home, you can opt from a variety of sizes. Here are three main kinds of skip hires in SA.
Mini Skip:
These are one of the smallest skips available, usually in 2 or 3 yards skip size. These are great for less amount of waste usually found in housing or gardening projects:
- Cost effective: Mini skips are great if you are undertaking small domestic jobs such as remodelling kitchen/bathroom or performing quick garden clean-ups. Instead of dumping all the waste in your car to dispose of waste material far away, save some cost by hiring a mini skip to help with the process efficiently.
- Convenience: In SA, most cities are bustling with a large number of residential areas. Therefore, RoRo skips or Builders cannot conveniently be physically placed. Hence, mini skips can allow to efficiently pick up almost 2 to 3 tonnes of waste easily
- Popularity: These are widely available across South Africa. Especially popular for domestic and other small jobs.
Builders Skip:
These are one of the most popular skip type categories, in 6 cubic yards size. They are great for commercial use where concrete items, soil and rubble are disposed of. Many households make use of builder skip for general domestic waste material. Generally, this skip type can carry almost 70 (black) bags of garbage/waste.
- Convenience: Builders skips are excellent for large scaled projects where waste material is dominant of rubble materials. Instead of hiring trucks to and from waste disposal sites, put them in convenient builders skip. This will also save you from transport/fuel costs
- Popularity: These are widely popular in commercial business jobs such as a major office or home renovations, etc.
RoRo skips:
Also known as Roll on Roll off skips, measuring around 20 to 40 yards skip sizes. They are typically used for large commercial projects and are not common or compatible in domestic projects. Additionally, this skip type essentially requires large physical space/capacity to fit:
- Convenience: These are usually equipped with doors to make rolling on and off easier. RoRo skips are an ideal waste removal solution for massive projects with equally large waste to dispose of.
- Popularity: These are widely popular with construction business that has a large amount of rubble and waste to dispose of.
Apart from those above three main types, there are other sizes available too:
Midi Skip
These are widely used for mature kitchen fitments and bathrooms, in 4 cubic yard skip size. Often time’s people make use of midi skips for domestic and landscaping waste materials. Generally, this skip type can carry 45 black bags of garbage/waste.
Maxi Skip
These are larger than builders skip, measuring 12 cubic yard in size. Due to the large size, maxi skip takes up more physical space on site and offers a much larger capacity. These are great for large, bulky debris and waste materials—mainly used at construction and commercial sites.
Secure skips (lockable)
These are primarily used to secure your skips with extra protection. This helps to ensure no additional waste elements are added. They are available in varied configuration and sizes.
Skip Hire Prices in Port Elizabeth
Some factors influence hire costs. Some of the most common and fundamental determinants include: Skip size, location in South Africa and hiring duration. Below is a map for Port Elizabeth and here is the latitude -33.918 and longitude 25.5701
Prices by size
Undoubtedly—one of the biggest determinants of skip hire lies in the size of the skip. Small sized skip—like the Mini skip will cost lesser than a Builder skip, essentially due to the size and amount of waste the skip can carry.
Many skip hire service providers in Port Elizabeth often couple other alternatives along with skips to help clients keep the overall cost low. These alternatives may include recycling or landfilling methods.
Furthermore, apart from the size, several factors help in determining the price. They are as follows:
Prices by region in South Africa
Skip hire prices fluctuate from region to region.
Hidden charges
There are no hidden charges applied when hiring skip service. However, you may be additionally charged or fined for disposing of items in skip that are prohibited as per law.
Some skip hire providers may quote prices without incorporating VAT (value added tax). Hence, when comparing prices, it is essential you ask the skip provider if any such tax has been calculated in the final price or not. It is always best to evaluate the total cost of a skip hire service beforehand.
Period of hire
The period of hire is another essential factor to consider. Also, a long period of hire will cost more in terms of the council permit cost. Usually, the longer the skip hire service, the more hiring cost.
Today, skip hire service providers offer deals that allow for an unlimited hire period.
Weight of the skip
The weight of the skip varies according to skip hire service providers weighing regulations and rules. Generally, this is evaluated by each cubic yard being equal to one tonne. So, a 2-yard skip will weigh 2 tonnes.
Most skips ranging from 2 to 8 yards can carry heavy materials such as metals and rubbles. However, to make a perfect weight balance—it is recommended to load items with a combination of both heavy load and lightweight contents. Also, you should keep in mind that loading limitations of trucks provided by your skip hire will vary.
How to reduce the cost of a skip hire?
Get quotes:
To ensure that you pay the right price (and preferably lowest) consider researching the market intensively before making the final decision. Get quotes from your regions service providers to compare. Generally, opting for 4 to 5 skip hire providers is recommended. This will give you a better insight to help make the right decision. Additionally, ensure all quotes are inclusive of taxes, any other costs.
Sell/Donate or Recycle:
Another tip to reduce skip hire cost is through Donating, Selling, and Recycling
This will help you to decrease the amount and weigh of waste material and ultimately bring down skip size. Today, there are numerous ways to donate, sell and recycle used goods that you might not know. Your regions local council can help you with various options to choose from. Likewise, you can hit the internet to donate and sell.
So, instead of opting to dump off your old furniture, cupboards, bed set, tables, kitchen and bathroom fittings or any other domestic accessory—in the skip—you can sell or donate to bring down the total skip hire cost ultimately.
Additionally, recycling can bring the following benefits:
- - Save energy: When using industry-related recycling material, we can save a lot of energy. Besides power, money is saved in the extraction and refining of natural resources.
- - Environmental protection: Recycling is one essential way to reduce pollution.
- - Resource conservation: Recycling helps to reuse materials that can be transformed into other new products. Instead of manufacturers opting to extract resources and damage the natural eco-system, they can recycle materials to conserve resources.
However, even with a large number of positive outcomes, many people still don’t recycle; this is due to:
- - Some places are not equipped with recycling bins or bags to make the process easy. Hence, people find the whole process exhausting.
- - People avoid separating items for recycling from the waste collected, and instead, opt to dump all together. Pre-planning or labelling items that can be used to recycle is one easy way to separate items.
- - A misconception prevails in today’s society, as people consider recycling as ‘unimportant’ People often tend to ignore the problem of global warming, which can significantly be reduced with the help of recycling old materials for new ones.
Recycling can be easy and convenient with the right mind set. It can also help you to keep your skip hire cost low.
Book in advance:
Booking your skip hire service in advance can save you quite a lot of money rather than opting to book them at the eleventh hour. Some skip hire may charge fixed rates as per hiring period and weigh but booking in advance can always open some room for early bird discounts. Likewise, to keep hiring period costs low, accumulate all your waste at one point to fasten up the process.
Environmentally friendly waste removal solution
Most skip hire service firms in SA are committed to recycling almost 80 to 90 per cent of the waste into recycling—hence— making it a popular environmentally friendly choice. Once waste material content is sorted and mounted, they are distributed between items that can be used for recycling and items to be disposed of into landfills.
Items usually collected and recycled by skip hire are:
- - Metal
- - Plastic
- - Wood
- - Soil
- - Furniture
- - Organic waste
Skip Hire: How long can you hire a skip for?
Hiring a skip varies from task to task. Some jobs are completed quickly while others may take long hours. In most cases, hire periods usually last from 1 to 14 days. Typically, as soon as the project reaches completion, skips are collected. Normally, skip hire providers will collect your skip within a day or two.
Skip safety measures to consider
Safety measures are essential to ensure public protection. While some safety responsibility lies on the client, others are fundamentally carried out by skip hire providers.
First, it is vital that no skip-content bulge out of the skip. This is to ensure that no pedestrians are harmed when the skip is placed on a public property area. If skips are overloaded with content, it might overflow as a result and cause harm to people nearby.
Furthermore, be careful when loading items into the skip. To start, load heavy objects first to play it safe. Move towards a lighter object to top off with the lightest. This will ensure that your skip is stable and firm during any movements.
As discussed, putting anything that can cause explosion or poison is a big NO. So, instead of the skip hire provider pointing these out (or fining you), it is best to keep them separately.
Additionally, safety for pedestrians is essential if you are placing your skip at a public place. Hence, one way to safeguard pedestrians is through making sure none of the items are out of the skip, and also surround your skips with amber lights that can easily be visible during night time to avoid any accidents.
In most regions, this is the responsibility of the skip hire provider. Likewise, skips should not be placed at locations that block ways, such as, right outside driveways, on manholes, gates, on drainage lines, etc.
Make the most out of your skip hire
After getting the best quotes and choosing your skip hire company, it’s time to get started. However, often, people fail to take full advantage of the skip spaces provided, which leaves them with higher costs and scattered waste.
A large number of people in SA discard of waste into the skip without efficiently placing them. As a result, they potentially lose a large amount of space while paying for it. When items are disposed of in the skips, it becomes challenging to arrange them. Here are some things to consider for an efficient, smooth and cheap process:
- Break up items if you need to: If you have heavy or large items that can be broken into pieces, such as furniture, boxes, or just anything oddly shaped—try to break them into smaller pieces to save some space in your skip for other waste material.
- Put heavy items first: It is recommended to discard off heavy items first. If your items are flat in shape, this can further create ease in placing another item on top. Flat items can create the best layout and space coverage. These items usually include tables, boards, etc.
- Make sure to place skip on your property: This is helpful in case you forget to put some waste material in your skip. Keeping the skip in your property will allow you to add anything that you might have missed earlier before your skip hire provider takes it away.
Hence, consider the ideas mentioned above to help you make use of your skip and take full advantage of the service.
Skip Hire: What NOT to do
Whether it is for domestic or commercial purpose, people in South Africa opt for skip hire to dispose of any building waste material. However, the process of waste disposal can sound daunting to many. This is why many people often make the following mistakes when hiring a skip.
- Do not overfill your skip: This is one of the most common problems found in SA. People tend to overfill their spills regardless of what size and weigh they can carry. Therefore, filing a mini skip with RoRo skip waste material will only cause it to overflow and potentially fine from the skip hire providers.
Look out for a skip that best fits your requirements rather than getting the job done at a low cost. Always opt for a larger size than you think. This will save you money from hiring two skips that can be more expensive. Likewise, remember to pack all waste material efficiently to make the most out of your skip spaces.
- Do not place your skip in the wrong place: It is best and highly recommended to place your skips in your private property. Public spaces are generally congested with pedestrian and car traffic.
Your skip may cause discomfort and blockage to others. However, you can avail a skip permit from the local council if you wish to place it in designated public areas. Your skip provider can help you with this.
- Do not put prohibited items: As mentioned earlier, avoid putting in things that are hazardous and deadly. These items can cost you hefty fines if you do not abide by these rules.
There are many other waste removal services available, but skip hire remains South Africa’s most sought after waste disposal solutions. This is mainly because it serves as an ideal opportunity to order skip to be delivered. Right after you are done disposing of your building waste materials, you can ask for your skip to be picked up.
Skips are available in a diverse range of sizes, measurements and configurations to allow you to choose from what best fits your needs. Additionally, the size of the skip also ensures that you only pay as much as the job requires. So whether you want to dispose of kitchen fittings, garden clean-ups or large rubbles from a construction size, pick the right size to get your job done efficiently.
In SA, skip hiring providers safely pick and deliver skips on time, bring you utmost convenience as compared to other waste disposal methods that can prove to be unreliable and cost you more for the job.
Hence, no matter what the job is—save money and time with skip hire providers in South Africa. If you do not move away your waste it can cause hazardous health related problems for you and your loved ones. Opting for a local skip hire service provider is your ultimate affordable and efficient waste disposal solution.