Where the load goes
Skip bin recycling in Cairns
Your bin comes back to our own sorting yard at Holloways Beach. What arrives separate is recycled, what cannot be pulled out is tipped, and the difference shows up in your quote.
The question
“Recycled” is easy to write. This is what ours means
You are pricing a job or running a site, and “recycled” is on the website of every skip company you have looked at. It rarely says where, or what for. What you want is the plain version: where the bin goes when it leaves the site, what happens to each material once it is there, what still gets tipped, and whether any of it changes the price. That is this page, and the answer to the last one is yes.
- 1Where the bin goes when it leaves the site
- 2What happens to each material once it is there
- 3What still gets tipped
- 4Whether any of it changes the price
The yard
One yard. Pick what is on the truck
Your bin comes back to the sorting and recycling facility we run with Tropical Skips, our own yard rather than somebody else's transfer station. Tap a material and follow it in.
On the truck
On the truck
Concrete
Broken or leftover concrete, brick and masonry
Leaves the yard as
Reusable aggregate, road base and drainage gravel
Not a site plan. The bays are drawn to show where each material goes, not where it sits, and nothing here is drawn to proportion. The yard is a sorting facility, never open to the public: everything comes in on our trucks, in our bins.
The fleet behind the yard is Tropical Skips', grown from two trucks and 115 bins in 2019 to 800 bins and 10 trucks and more than 30,000 Cairns jobs. Same yard, same drivers, whichever brand is on the door.
The quote
Separate it on site and it shows up in the quote
A separated load costs less to process than a mixed one, because a clean load goes straight to its bay and a mixed one has to be pulled apart first. Nothing else on the job moves your waste bill more, and on a build the concrete and the metal are the easy ones to keep apart. Book the bin by the material and tell us what else is on the job. If two bins beat one, we will say so before the truck leaves.
- 1A clean load goes straight to its bay
- 2A mixed load is pulled apart first
- 3Two bins can beat one. Ask before the truck leaves
The journey
After the truck leaves
Four stops between the site and what the load turns into.
- 01
Collected.
The driver checks the load is level to the rail and the tarp fastens, and the bin leaves the site on our truck.
- 02
Back to our yard.
It comes to the sorting and recycling facility we run with Tropical Skips at Holloways Beach, not to a third party's transfer station.
- 03
Sorted.
A clean load goes straight to its bay. A mixed load is pulled apart, and whatever comes out on its own, metal, concrete, green waste, clean fill, timber or plasterboard, is recycled.
- 04
Out the gate.
Each stream leaves as something: road base, mulch, scrap, fill, recycled timber and plasterboard. The general stream is tipped.
Book it separate
Book the bin that keeps it separate
The yard can only recycle what arrives on its own. These are the bins that get it there.
Concrete
Concrete only, booked up to the 6m³, crushed to road base
Book this binSoil and dirt
Clean fill in the 2m³, 3m³ and 4m³, reused as fill
Book this binThe builders load
Partly recycled, if split. Pull the concrete and the metal out and the rest is builders waste
Book this binMixed waste
When the load cannot be split. Sorted at the yard, tipped only where it has to be
Book this binGreen waste
Recycled when it arrives separate. Vegetation only, shredded to mulch and compost
Book a green waste binMetal
Recycled when it arrives separate. One metal type, straight to a scrap metal recycling plant
Book a metal only bin
Never in the bin
What never goes in, and what still gets tipped
Six things never go in the bin at all: asbestos, tyres and batteries, paints and thinners, oil and liquid waste, gas cylinders, and food waste and perishables. Anything classed as dangerous or hazardous, call us and we will tell you where it can go. Of what does go in, whatever cannot be pulled out of a mixed load goes to the general stream and is tipped. Household and general rubbish is the general stream by definition; it is the concrete, metal, green waste, clean fill, timber and plasterboard mixed in with it that the yard pulls out.
- Asbestos
- Tyres and batteries
- Paints and thinners
- Oil and liquid waste
- Gas cylinders
- Food waste and perishables
The five real questions
Frequently asked questions
It comes back to the yard the same as a clean load. Anything that comes out of it on its own, metal, concrete, green waste, clean fill, timber or plasterboard, is pulled and recycled. What cannot be pulled goes to the general stream and is tipped. It is booked and priced as a mixed load either way, which is why separating on site is worth doing.
No. A mixed load is booked and taken as it is. But a separated load costs less to process than a mixed one, and that shows up in the quote. On a build, the concrete and the metal are the easy ones to keep apart.
Concrete and masonry are crushed to reusable aggregate, road base and drainage gravel. Green waste is shredded to mulch and compost. Metal goes to a scrap metal recycling plant. Clean fill is reused as fill in land reclamation and construction projects. Timber is recycled rather than tipped. Plasterboard is segregated and recycled into new product.
No. The yard is a sorting facility, not a transfer station, and it is never open to the public. Everything comes in on our trucks, in our bins. Book the bin and we bring it to the site, same day for builders.
No. Building, general, household and green waste are taken in every size from 2m³ to 6m³. Clean fill is taken in the 2m³, 3m³ and 4m³ only, and concrete up to the 6m³. Heavy material reaches the weight allowance before it fills a larger bin, so above those sizes it cannot be booked at all.
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