When a Greyhound skip is collected from your Dublin driveway, what actually happens next? It’s a question more customers are asking — and rightly so. In a market where several operators advertise cheap prices without much detail on what happens to your waste, we think transparency matters. Here’s exactly how Greyhound handles your skip waste from collection to completion.

Step 1: Collection and Transport

Once your hire period ends and you call for collection, our driver arrives with a skip lorry equipped to safely lift and transport your skip. Your waste is taken directly to a licensed waste processing facility — not to a landfill site, and not to an unlicensed third party.

Greyhound holds National Waste Collection Permits NWCPO-14-11447-06 and NWCPO-21-12653-01, issued under the Waste Management Act 1996. These permits are a legal requirement for any company collecting and transporting waste in Ireland — and not every operator advertising skip hire in Dublin holds them. When you book with Greyhound, you can be certain your waste is being handled by a fully licensed and regulated waste management company.

Step 2: Arrival at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)

Your skip load is tipped at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) — a specialist facility designed to sort mixed waste into recyclable streams. This is where the real work begins.

An MRF uses a combination of machinery and manual sorting to separate different materials from the mixed waste in your skip. The goal is to divert as much material as possible away from landfill and into recycling or recovery streams.

Step 3: Sorting and Separation

Once tipped, your skip waste goes through a sorting process. Materials are separated into distinct streams:

Metals

Steel, iron, copper and aluminium are separated using magnetic and eddy current separators. Metals are highly recyclable — almost all metal from skip waste is recovered and sent for smelting and reuse. Old radiators, pipework, steel frames and kitchen appliances all contribute to this stream.

Timber and wood

Clean timber — floorboards, skirting boards, doors, furniture frames — is separated and sent for wood recycling or biomass energy recovery. Treated timber goes to appropriate recovery channels depending on its treatment type.

Aggregates and inert materials

Concrete, bricks, tiles and hardcore are crushed and processed as recycled aggregate — used in road construction, groundworks and fill material. This is one of the highest-volume recycling streams from construction skip waste.

Plastics

Hard plastics, UPVC window frames and non-contaminated plastic materials are separated and sent to plastic recyclers. Not all plastic types are equally recyclable, but recovery rates have improved significantly with better sorting technology.

Cardboard and paper

Clean cardboard and paper is baled and sent to paper mills for recycling. Contaminated paper and cardboard is sent to energy recovery rather than paper recycling.

Residual waste

Material that cannot be recycled through the above streams — contaminated mixed material, non-recyclable composites — is sent to energy recovery facilities rather than landfill where possible. Energy recovery (waste-to-energy) converts residual waste into electricity or heat, keeping it out of landfill even when direct recycling isn’t possible.

Why This Matters: Greyhound vs Price-Only Operators

Not all skip hire operators are equal when it comes to what happens to your waste. Some of the cheapest operators in the Dublin market achieve low prices partly by cutting corners on waste processing — using less sophisticated sorting, accepting lower recycling rates, or using disposal routes that are cheaper but less environmentally responsible.

When you hire a skip with Greyhound, you’re choosing a company that:

• Holds full National Waste Collection Permits
• Processes waste at a licensed, regulated MRF
• Prioritises recycling and recovery over landfill disposal
• Provides waste transfer documentation for commercial customers
• Has been operating responsibly in Dublin for over 40 years

What You Can Do to Improve Recycling Rates

The sorting process at the MRF works best when skip waste is reasonably well-loaded. A few simple things you can do to maximise the recyclability of your skip load:

• Keep hazardous materials out. Paint, batteries, asbestos, fluorescent tubes and oils contaminate otherwise recyclable loads. Dispose of these separately through council civic amenity sites.
• Don’t mix soil with general waste. Soil and rubble mixed through a general load reduces sorting efficiency. Use a separate heavy waste skip if you have significant quantities of inert material.
• Remove food waste before bagging. Food-contaminated bags reduce the recyclability of paper and cardboard in the same load.
• Declare mattresses at booking. Mattresses go to a dedicated mattress recycling stream — they can’t be processed through general MRF sorting. Declaring them at booking (€30 surcharge applies) ensures they’re correctly channelled.

Frequently Asked Questions