Rubbish removal in Lewes: what goes in one load

Anyone searching for rubbish removal in Lewes soon hits the same question: how much counts as one load? A sofa and a few bags is one thing. A garage, a shed and a heap of garden cuttings is another. The answer decides what the job involves, and people tend to guess from the wrong end, by counting items instead of looking at the space they fill.

This guide explains what makes a load, how to sort a mixed pile so the person pricing it can see what is in it, and which council and tip rules apply in Lewes if you would rather do some of it yourself. It deliberately puts no price on a Right Turn job. Lewis gives a clear price from your photos, and what moves that price is covered below.

What counts as one load

A load is what can be collected safely in a single trip, and volume, weight, stairs and parking decide it more than the number of items.

People often describe a job as "about ten things", but ten things can mean ten bags or a wardrobe, a bed frame and a washing machine. What matters to the person loading is how much space it fills, how heavy it is, how far it has to be carried and how close the van can stand. Right Turn works from a clear look at the pile rather than an item count, which is why every quote starts with photos.

Three things shift a pile from a small job to a larger one. The first is where it sits: a heap at the front gate is quicker than the same heap at the back of a garden down a side passage or at the top of a loft ladder. The second is how loose it is. Bagged and boxed rubbish stacks neatly, while loose timber, garden cuttings and awkward furniture take longer to place. The third is what is hidden: a garage can look half full from the door and hold a second layer behind it. Lewis reviews volume, access, parking and anything that needs a specialist route before giving a clear price, and he agrees any change with you before continuing if the scope shifts on the day.

If your pile is really the contents of whole rooms, you are closer to a clearance than a rubbish load. Our house clearance page and the guide to house clearance cost in Lewes cover that end of the scale, and the services page shows how rubbish clearance sits alongside the other jobs Right Turn does.

Sort the pile into four groups

Sorting into furniture, general rubbish, garden waste and building waste, and flagging the odd ones, tells the quoter what the load is made of.

Mixed here simply means more than one kind of material in the same load. That is normal for rubbish clearance, and Right Turn takes garage, garden, loft, building waste and mixed household loads. Mixed does not mean unsorted, though. Some materials have their own rules, so the table below shows how to group a pile and what to tell Lewis about each group.

The last row matters most for safety. Right Turn cannot take hazardous or flammable materials, gas bottles, chemicals, asbestos, clinical or medical waste, illegal items, live animals or anything not agreed before the job. If you are not sure whether something falls in that group, ask before the day rather than on it. The guides to fridge freezer disposal and mattress disposal explain the specialist items in the fifth row.

How the photos turn into a clear price

Wide photos of each pile, plus the postcode and access notes, let Lewis judge the load and give a clear price before you book.

The job starts with photos. Send wide shots of each area, with the postcode and notes on access, by WhatsApp, the contact form, phone or email. Lewis looks at volume, access, parking and anything needing a specialist route, then gives a clear price before booking. There is no hourly meter and no surprise add-ons, and if the scope changes on the day he explains it and agrees any change before carrying on.

A few habits make photos much more useful. Stand back far enough to show the whole pile and the floor around it. Take one photo of the route from the pile to the road, including steps. Photograph the back of a garage or loft as well as the front. Open cupboards rather than shutting them on the evidence. If the pile is across several spaces, send each one so the whole load can be seen at once.

Photos can undersell a job, because items hide behind each other and bags look smaller from a distance. That is why Right Turn promises a clear price rather than a rigid one, and why it explains any change on the day. For more on how sending photos works for different jobs, see the contact page.

What Lewes District Council will collect

The council collects bulky household items from the front of the property for a set charge, and it cannot collect from inside, a garage or the rear.

The council's own page sets the bulky waste charge for the Lewes district at £57 for one to five items and £88 for six to ten items. Items have to be easily accessible at the front of your property, and the council says it cannot collect from inside your property, from a garage or from the rear. These are Lewes charges, and the same page lists different ones for Eastbourne, so do not mix them up.

That suits a short, tidy list of furniture. It suits a mixed pile less well, because a garage clear-out, a heap of garden waste and a stack of bags are the kind of thing that is behind the house or inside a building. The sum below is the council route only, to show how it works. It is not a Right Turn price.

Say you have six items at the front: a sofa, a wardrobe, a bed frame, a table and two chairs. That falls in the six to ten band at £88. If you tried to keep it to the lower band by splitting it into one booking of five items and one of a single item, the two bookings would cost £57 each and £114 in total, so splitting does not help. A ten-item list still sits in the same £88 band. Anything beyond the stated bands, anything round the back and anything from a garage needs another route.

Our comparison of council collection versus a man and van works through the same trade-off for Brighton and Hove, and getting rid of old furniture covers the furniture-only end of it.

Taking it to the Lewes tip yourself

The Lewes tip needs a booking, accepts vans only on set days and refuses trade waste, so check the rules before loading your own vehicle.

East Sussex County Council's Lewes household waste recycling site page and its site rules page set out the conditions. You must book a slot to visit any East Sussex tip, bookings can be made up to two weeks ahead, and a slot on the day is possible if one is free. Most slots are 30 minutes.

Vans may use the Lewes site only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and drivers need photo ID plus a second document showing their home address. The council refuses vehicles of 3,500kg gross weight or above, and vehicles with Luton, flatbed or tipper bodies. Trailers are limited to 1.8 metres in length. Trade or business waste is not accepted at any site, and vans are checked.

Some materials carry extra conditions. Tyres are accepted at Lewes but charged, with a limit of four per household per calendar month. Small amounts of rubble are accepted with a weekly free allowance of two 50-litre bags or one single item, and charges apply above that. Bonded asbestos is not taken at Lewes. Council pages change, so check the booking page before you set out.

The tip route works well for a car boot of general rubbish. It works less well for a heavy mixed load, because rubble and timber weigh more than they look, and for anyone without a suitable vehicle. If you are clearing someone else's property, our checklist for clearing a parent's house shows how to split the work between what you carry yourself and what you hand on.

What a good quote should cover

A comparable quote names what is included, how access has been judged and what happens if the load turns out different.

Comparing quotes is easier when you ask each person the same questions. Do they say what the price covers and what it does not? Do they say how they have allowed for stairs and parking? What happens if the pile is bigger than the photos? Will they agree any change with you before they carry on? Do they have a waste carrier licence you can check?

Right Turn's answer to the last one is a registered waste carrier licence, CBDU621046, and Lewis can give a waste receipt and the relevant waste record on request. You do not have to take that on trust, and you should not take anyone's word for it. The Environment Agency register of waste carriers lets you search by registration number or business name. GOV.UK's guidance on getting rid of household waste tells you to check that anyone you pay to take household waste is registered, because you share responsibility for it.

Treat any quote that is a bare number, with nothing on what is included, as incomplete. The same goes for a quote that cannot say who will do the work. At Right Turn, Lewis runs every job personally, so you deal with him directly, which is covered further on the licensed house clearance guide.

Getting a pile ready before the day

Grouping the pile, clearing the route and keeping the things you need to keep apart makes the day quicker.

You do not have to carry everything to one spot, but a little preparation helps. Move the things you are keeping well away from the rubbish so nothing leaves by mistake. Bag loose small items so they stack. Keep a clear path from the pile to the door and the van, and tell Lewis about any narrow gate or steps. Check pockets, boxes and drawers for papers or valuables.

If the pile is part of a bigger move or a property change, there may be more than one job involved. A rubbish load before a move is covered in our home removals page, and the moving house checklist shows where a clear-out fits in the order of things. For a nearby example of the tip and council rules in another East Sussex town, read about house clearance in Newhaven.

The sofa end of a pile has its own routes, set out in the guide to sofa disposal in Brighton and Hove. Anything you cannot sort can simply go in the photos, with a note saying so.