Guide
Commercial waste collection costs in the UK, per lift and per bin size
Updated
Commercial waste collection costs £20.50 to £28 a lift for an 1100 litre general waste bin from the UK operators that print a price on their own page, with a median of £24.55, read on 28 October 2026. Almost all of those prices are councils' trade waste tariffs; the private firms we read quote per site.
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The published prices
We read 44 operators' own pages; 6 publish a price per lift for an 1100 litre general waste bin: West Northamptonshire Council at £20.50, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar at £20.60, Ards and North Down at £23.60, North Devon at £25.49, Amber Valley at £26.04 and Mid Ulster at £28 (every row, with its source).
What moves the price
- Bin size
- An 1100 litre bin costs more a lift than a 240 litre wheelie bin but less per sack it holds.
- Frequency
- A weekly lift is 52 a year and a fortnightly one 26, so the annual bill roughly halves.
- What goes in it
- Mixed recycling lifts are cheaper than general waste lifts on the council tariffs we read that price both.
- Extras
- Bin rental, a delivery charge and overweight or side-waste charges are added by some operators.
Council or private firm
Several council tariffs we read are charged without VAT, and private firms add VAT at 20%. Compare the two on the same bin, the same frequency and the same VAT basis.
Published figures are what each operator advertises on its own page, read on 28 October 2026; they are not a quote for your premises.