Biffa launches ‘pay-as-you-throw’ collection service

Waste management company Biffa has launched a ‘pay-as-you-throw’ collection brand, ‘Skoup’, allowing consumers and small businesses to book ad-hoc waste collection.

The nationwide service, which can be booked online, via an app or over the phone, provides bin bag collection from £10, a van from £99 or skip from £130.

The launch of Skoup comes alongside new research from Biffa, revealing that homes and businesses are wasting space and money on storage for items that they’ll never use – the company’s Censuswide survey found that 164,000 houses worth of space are being wasted by people storing bulky rubbish and old junk.

The survey claims that storing junk could be costing the UK small and medium-sized businesses as much as £34 billion per year nationally in wasted rent.

George Pearce, Commercial Development Manager at Biffa, said: “The reason we have launched Skoup is simple – we are meeting an increasing demand in the UK for an easy and reliable way to get rid of unwanted ‘stuff’.

“Lifestyle influencers such as Marie Kondo are driving a growing movement to clear out and declutter our homes and businesses, while the trend of fewer people owning cars means less of us can take our waste to the tip like we used to.

“In addition, having the household name of Biffa behind the brand means people know they can trust Skoup to deal with their rubbish properly.

Commenting on Biffa’s research, Pearce added: “Many of us wish that we had more space in our homes and businesses, and often we overlook the rubbish that has literally become part of the furniture.”

Previous research has affirmed the difficulties with disposing of bulky items. Figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have revealed that the majority of the waste fly-tipped in England in 2015/16 consisted of large items that could not be collected from the kerbside, including old furniture, carpets and material from house or shed clearances.

Many local authorities do provide a collection service for bulky waste, helping households to dispose of items such as mattresses, furniture and white goods. Moreover, recent research from Eunomia Research and Consulting suggested that local authorities could increase their recycling rates by more than 1.5 per cent by introducing collections of bulky waste for reuse.

You can find out more about Biffa’s new collection service on the Skoup website.