Rubbish removal in Mitcham

What happens once Merton's free collection is used up?

Merton's free bulky collection (external site) covers up to three items, once a year for each household. Any further collection that year costs £39.75 for up to three items or £66 for four to six. Collections are on weekdays only, you can book up to 60 days ahead, your council tax has to be up to date, and upholstered items such as sofas may be picked up as much as two working days after the rest.

Three items goes quickly when you're moving out or emptying a rented house. A third of Mitcham East households rent privately, so tenancies change hands often, and the Eastfields rebuild means some households are moving between old and new homes. We price rubbish removal in Mitcham by the space, not the item count, so a sofa, two beds, a wardrobe and the bags are all one job. See house clearance and flat clearance.

What happens to the things Merton refuses?

Free or paid, Merton's bulky service refuses all of these:

• Kitchen units, doors, windows and flooring
• Bathroom fixtures and tiles
• Shed panels and timber
• Rubble, soil and plasterboard
• Garden waste
• Paint, tyres and gas canisters
• Large glass and asbestos

Rubbish removal in Mitcham with us takes kitchen units, doors, flooring, bathroom fittings, timber and garden waste as part of the load. Paint is £10 plus VAT per 5 litres, car tyres are £4 plus VAT each and Calor gas bottles are £10 plus VAT. Heavy mixed rubble, soil and hardcore is £360 plus VAT for up to 15 cubic yards or 1,200kg. Asbestos that has already been removed can go too if you tell us about it first.

For a refit, see kitchen and bathroom rip-out and builders' waste; for an overgrown back garden behind a terrace, see garden clearance.

How does a skip compare with rubbish removal in Mitcham?

Merton's skip licence costs £84 for 14 days, and only registered skip firms can apply, with 7 working days' notice. The skip can be no bigger than 5m by 2m and has to be lit at night. If it goes in a resident or pay-and-display bay, suspending the bay costs £36.75 a day or £514.50 for two weeks, plus a £36.75 admin fee. On a single yellow line, the waiver is another £84. So a skip parked in a suspended bay for a fortnight carries £635.25 in council charges before the skip itself is paid for.

With us there's no licence and no suspended bay. We load the waste and take it away on the same visit, so there's no skip sitting in the road for days and no waiting for it to be collected, and you pay for the space your rubbish takes up. The page on using a clearance instead of skip hire goes through it in more detail.