Waste removal across South London

What does each South London council charge for bulky waste?

Here's what each of the five councils charged for a bulky waste collection when we checked on 4 October 2026, lowest first. Council prices change, so check the borough's own page before you book.

• Wandsworth (external site): 2 free collections a year of up to 4 items each, announced in February 2025. We couldn't confirm the charge after that, or that the offer is still running, so check with the council.
• Lewisham (external site): £5 an item and £25 for each fridge or freezer, down from £42 for 4 items before the cut announced in October 2025. Crews don't come into the property, and the fee isn't refundable.
• Southwark (external site): £35 for up to 10 items, with no concessions.
• Lambeth (external site): £36 for up to 3 items, £70 for up to 6 and £116 for up to 10. Items must be out by 6am, bags can weigh no more than 14kg, and it won't take plasterboard, garden waste or building debris.
• Croydon (external site): £40.40 for 1 to 3 items and £65.30 for 4 to 6. Upholstered items containing POPs are collected separately.

So three items cost nothing in Wandsworth while the free collections last, £15 in Lewisham, £35 in Southwark, £36 in Lambeth and £40.40 in Croydon. Each of those is less than our minimum load of £60 plus VAT, so for a sofa and two chairs already at the kerb, book the council.

What would the same clearance cost with us?

We price by the space the waste takes up in the truck, with no counting of items. Four of our 13 load sizes, with a rough guide to what fits:

• Minimum load, £60 plus VAT: about 1 cubic yard, a few bags or one armchair.
• Quarter truck, £130 plus VAT: about 4 cubic yards, a single room's bags and small furniture or a small garden tidy.
• Half truck, £180 plus VAT: about 7.5 cubic yards, roughly a single garage or a one-bedroom flat's furniture.
• Full truck, £360 plus VAT: 15 cubic yards, for a larger clearance.

A domestic fridge adds £60 plus VAT and a mattress £10 plus VAT, and the rest are on the extra items list. Heavy soil, rubble and hardcore is £360 plus VAT for up to 15 cubic yards or 1,200kg.

A load also needs no paperwork from the council. In Southwark only a skip company can apply for a skip licence, at £110.25 a month with 7 days' notice. We don't hire skips, and the skip hire page sets out how a load from us compares. Man and van rubbish removal saves hiring a van at all: we load your waste and take it away in the same visit.

Which kind of clearance does your borough usually need?

The housing decides the job. Lambeth (20.6%) and Wandsworth (17.7%) have the most houses split into flats of the five boroughs on Census 2021 (external site) figures, mostly old terraces with shared stairs and no lift. Wandsworth also has the most private renting, at 36.3%, so an end-of-tenancy flat clearance with everything carried down is the usual call there.

Croydon is the house borough, with 36.9% of homes (external site) semi-detached or detached and 24.2% owned outright. That's where garden clearance, garage clearance and full house clearance come in. Southwark and Lambeth have large council estates, at 39.7% and 33.6% social rent, and Lambeth runs a separate bulky waste process for its estate residents.

How bad is fly-tipping across South London?

Croydon recorded 53,268 fly-tipping incidents in 2024/25, the highest in England on Defra figures (external site), with Lewisham on 33,471 and Southwark on 18,530. Southwark, Lewisham, Wandsworth and Bromley all fine fly-tippers £1,000.

Check the carrier number of anyone who offers to take your waste, and keep the receipt. We're an upper tier carrier, broker and dealer, number CBDU175566, and you get a waste transfer note and a receipt when you pay on completion. For rubbish someone else has dumped on your land, see fly-tipping clearance.