Lighten the load: How to use a skip as sustainably as possible

If you intend to put a skip on the roadside, ensure you get a permit from your local authority for the dates. Otherwise, you could face a fine of up to €1270. File picture

Skips — when facing a major project at home, they seem like a godsend. The skip backs up to the house, it’s swung into position, and there it is calling to us — all that lovely, unapologetic empty cubic metres. Soon we’re enthusiastically flinging building bits and bobs, garage detritus, bruised second-hand furniture, chemical-heavy pails and bottles, lightly worn-out serviceable goods, and ropey retail decisions. 

Leave your skip unattended even on your driveway or street, and complete strangers will top it with their great and unwanted within hours, following the urban legend that an open skip is fair game. The segregating behaviour we exercise faultlessly around our domestic rubbish can evaporate, shrouded by the skip's high, secretive panels. General waste, recyclables, toxic DIY left-overs, even compostable food waste — it can and does go skyward and into the skip’s rusty embrace.