Rubbish removal in North London

Is the council collection the better deal in your borough?

For a few items you can put out on the street, the council collection is often the better deal, and you should book it. Here's what each North London council charged for a bulky waste collection when we checked on 4 October 2026:

• Enfield (external site): free for up to 6 items on your postcode's collection day, or £22 to choose the day. Electricals are £54 for one, £60 for two and £66 for three.
• Haringey (external site): £20 for up to 4 items, then £10 each, to a maximum of 10. The page carries no date, so check the price with Haringey before you book.
• Camden (external site): £25 for 1 to 5 items or up to 20 bags, £50 for 6 to 10 items and £75 for 11 to 15, plus £10 for up to 2 large electricals. Over-65s and residents on 100% Council Tax Support get 2 free collections a year.
• Islington (external site): £10.82 an item with a £32.46 minimum and a limit of 10 items, half price for anyone on Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support.

Our minimum load is £60 plus VAT, so for a couple of chairs the council usually comes out ahead. The sums change once the pile passes the council's item limit or the things are still upstairs, and a fixed collection day can clash with the date a tenancy ends. Book before 12pm and the job's done the same day. As a rough guide, a half truck at £180 plus VAT holds about 7.5 cubic yards, around a one-bedroom flat's furniture.

Council tips in North London take no business waste and only a little DIY waste, so office clearance and builders' waste jobs come to us by the load, with heavy mixed waste such as soil and rubble at £360 plus VAT for up to 15 cubic yards or 1,200kg.

Who gets a wardrobe down from a converted flat in Camden?

Camden's bulky collection is street level only. The crew lifts what's on the pavement, and the stairs are your problem. That matters here, because Census 2021 (external site) counts converted or shared-house flats as 26.2% of homes in Camden, 22.8% in Haringey and 21.3% in Islington. Most are older houses split up, with one narrow shared staircase between the top flat and the front door.

Two of us do the carrying and loading, and the loading time is built into the load price. A big job that runs past the included time costs £30 plus VAT per 30 minutes of extra labour. For a flat being handed back at the end of a tenancy, see flat clearance; for a whole property, house clearance.

How far do we come for a North London job?

It's a fair drive. By road it's about 23 km from Chislehurst to Islington, 25 km to Camden, and 37 to 38 km to Wood Green and Enfield. Every route crosses the Thames, either through central London or round by the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels or the Dartford Crossing.

The distance doesn't change the price. A North London load costs the same as one in Bromley, with no travel surcharge and no tunnel or crossing toll, and parking fees, fines and the Congestion Charge aren't added on top. The price we give you from your photo is confirmed before work starts, with no obligation. You pay on completion by card, cash, bank transfer or company cheque and get a waste transfer note and a receipt. Hackney is covered on our East London page.