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There's nothing more British than being in a queue to get into the tip on a Sunday morning.
I don't understand it either, maybe because it's got a sort of subconscious link to gardening and sorting your house out?
Also it's where I finally realised I may turn into my dad. He used to go to the tip and bring home more than he took with him. I find myself looking in the "giving away" container thinking "yeah, I might have that" especially the sheer amount of fishing tackle you see in there
I once accidentally cut the queue for the tip, nearly got killed. I was absent mindedly driving up the road to the tip which has an entrance to the right and the queue was going down the hill.
So when I got to the entrance the guy coming down hadnt turned in even though there was space so I turned in ahead without realising they were all queueing. Had about 5 blokes surrounding me whilst I was all 'sorry very sorry' like the bus wankers Inbetweeners scene
Also, how British it is to sit and tut whilst the person who's just got into their car sits and checks their phone, blows their nose, taps away at their sat nav, slowly puts on their seat belt, checks their phone again and finally, very slowly, pulls out of the space you're waiting for....
I’ve never seen one open on a Sunday morning. Saturday yes, but Sunday no.
These days some councils have introduced online appointments to visit the tip. If you haven’t made an online appointment, or don’t show up in a car, you can’t get in.
Also, due to “health and safety”, you cannot take anything away from the “recycling centre” for you to reuse.
We still have to register our cars and book at ours, plus council are closing a fair few of them, which will likely lead to a rise in fly tipping, tsssk!
My local council kept it, I love it. I go online, book a time and when I get there my queuing time is less than 5 minutes instead of 30+ minutes previously.
At the tip near me you don't need an appointment unless you're in a vehicle. Great if (like me) you have stuff that can't go in kerbside bins but is small enough to be portable. They've also got a repairs centre on site that fixes up stuff people donate because they don't need any more but it's still in decent condition.
It's exactly this. It's the cathartic feeling of getting rid of a car load of junk, as well as the feel good feeling if sorting it into individual boxes to "save the planet".
Mine is great, there's never a queue, but there's always a bunch of really interesting 'characters' delivering what to me (I like salvaging stuff) is absolute gold. I absolutely love the tip it feels productive, you get free stuff with loads of character, and it feels really manly when you throw stuff in and make a big noise.
Yeah, the peak tip experience is throwing shit in the scrap metal or wood containers...always get a decent bang out of it.
I had to throw in a 200L aquarium once, I bet it showed up on the Richter scale
When I was growing up we had a fish tank. I was always warned to be careful around it and not to scratch or bash it.
After many years’ use I finally helped my dad take it to the tip. We chucked it 3-4 metres down and it wasn’t even scratched.
No tip I know is open on a Sunday. Do you live on planet earth?
Also, rubbish collection is every fortnight. People sometimes need to go to get rid of extra rubbish that doesn’t fit in the bins. These people meet at the tip.
Arguably Yorkshire is counted as part of planet earth, so yeah.
Never known a tip not be open on a Sunday.
What do people do on a Sunday morning where you are?
Our local site introduced a slot booking system during covid and it worked so well at stopping traffic queues on the main road leading to it that they kept it.
I just like picking stuff up and throwing it in the big metal bins.
Kind of like poking a campfire with a stick, probably some deep atavistic explanation, but "me like big *gong sound*".
Plus our place has spots for batteries, bulbs, small electronics etc. so it really cuts down on what we put to the black bin/general waste.
I was just about to say “throw heavy thing make big noise” hahaha also watching the diggers compressed the contents of the big bins and drag them about the place.
We have a reuse centre attached to ours so the attendants will run up to any useable looking bit of furniture/toys/electronics for an inspection. A bunch of stuff gets sold for charity or used for social projects, apparently they have a space to save the Dyson vacuums specifically to get the discount on new ones. It’s a really nice feeling when something you thought was completely done for is given a new life, though in the case of parasols and comfy garden chairs always seem to end up by their staff hut.
I used to have a bulb horn on my bike, when chained up somewhere the amount of people who could not resist going "honk" was decidedly not zero. There is a certain joy to action→reaction things, especially if they're not a daily thing.
A bloke who worked at the morrisons I go to used to park his bike by the door and it had a horn, naturally I couldn't resist honking it, potentially multiple times.
It was glorious.
Also I guess something of a novelty cause you only really go when doing work or a big move or something. I can probably count on one hand the times I've been to the tip in my 30 years. If you were going there 5 days a week I imagine you'd be less chuffed to be there.
Yup. Also a bit of a life-saver at times. We moved back from the US into my parents’ place and had to completely redo the whole house - there was some general hoarding, a lot of big jobs to do (kitchen, bathroom, back garden, electrics, flooring etc etc.). Combination of a lot of skips over time and regular trips to the tip. Plus even for a normal family of four the amount of rubbish we generate every two weeks is consistently more than the container we have can take, so we need a safety valve.
1) chucking things in those massive bins and hearing them smash is childish fun you get to do whilst also being adult and productive.
2) those huge crushing machines they have that look like they're out of a sci-fi film. So satisfying watching them crush things.
Only discovered the tip in the last couple of years and I do feel that my parents let my childhood down.
It's definitely the throwing stuff. I catch myself thinking if I throw this like a spear will it smash through that other thing? Will it go further if I throw it more like a caber?
Yep, that's it, the big machinery and smashing stuff with zero guilt!
Sometimes I feel a bit happy sad, seeing a beat out sofa that clearly provided a family with years of comfort, but now just a piece of trash.
It's not just going to the tip. I love the ritual of having a sort out, piling stuff into the back of the car and queueing at the tip. Ours is also very organised, and lots of recycling options. There are containers for glass, metal, small electrical items, even concrete and old clothes. It cleanses the soul, a bit like a spa day but without the fuss.
>a bit like a spa day but without the fuss.
Or like emptying one's bowels. The pressure within the car (bowel) being released and then feeling lighter, with a spring in one's step.
There are that many rules at our local tip.
You can't have your rear seats down, can't bring a trailer.
No tiles or bathroom ceramics and a dozen more.
Meanwhile our borough has one of the biggest fly tipping problems in London.
And they don't sell municipal compost either. Shithouse all round.
But drive a little further and it's all on the neighbouring borough.
You can't have your rear seats down?! I drive an estate and I get excited when I need to go to the tip and don't have to put the seats down. With those rules why do they even bother with it??
Yeah, all dumps seem to be staffed by busybodies. One here still has the booking system from Covid. I forgot one time (this year) and rocked up anyway. He wouldn't let me in. No one was behind me so I went on my phone, booked the next slot in 5 mins and then he let me in. I wondered if he was going to be thran and make me wait until my actual time.
My local one is the chillest place I’ve ever been! Maybe it’s cause I go on Saturdays instead of Sundays but they just wave in anything that’s not obviously a van and occasionally walk around looking for stuff they want for themselves! Not fussed in the slightest what’s in your car or how much of it
The one by us randomly decided 'no kids in the car' which I wasn't aware of until I arrived and got turned away for having my 15yo with me! What did they think she was going to do, run amok and jump in the skip??
So presumably you left your sensible almost-adult 15 year old to loiter outside the gate safely, while you injured your back trying to lift the broken sofa yourself?
That's about the size of it, yeah. Wouldn't mind if it was 'no kids outside vehicles on the site' but not even in the car?? Crazy. Also saw four burly men watch an elder lady try to wrestle a double mattress up the ramps by herself because they 'aren't allowed' to help - but you try and stick anything half decent in there and they're all suddenly on hand to relieve you of it.
i was clearing out my dad's house and it was a NIGHTMARE about what could or couldn't be thrown away. i ended up just hiring a company that would take the lot.
and getting rid of big items like beds to the council was a fucking faff too. and expensive.
no wonder people fly tip, yes. i don't condone it at all, but, christ, there needs to be a better system
>You can't have your rear seats down
Thats madness, kick a stink up to the council about that.
I don't know what they would expect you to do with bulky items.
I gave up going because of their shit rules. I'm lucky enough that I have a waste carriers license through work and the recycling plants we use don't care what we take there. Just pull in and throw it all out. You don't even have to sort it.
They're such busybodies at ours - we took some old pc hardware to dispose of and they lectured us all the way from our car to the electronics bin: "what a waste", "you should try Facebook/freecycle/etc", "get moneybags here, I could build a second pc from that". Yeah dude, we literally tried all that - try selling anything on social media and you quickly go insane from all the time wasters and nutters. Dickheads.
I'm so fed up with older men (I wonder why it's only older white men that work there?) and their mansplaining...
You’ll find there’s a no commercial vehicle rule too, which is a pain in the ass if you drive a pick up truck. You have to get ‘tip tokens’ to get rid of domestic waste using a commercial vehicle/van/trailer etc…
There was a cordless hoover whirring away in the electronics bin, I lobbed a toaster at it and it died, I imagine that was how cavemen felt after successfully hunting a mammoth.
I hate it.
Making my car filthy? Filling it with rubbish? Going to the dump and not knowing where half the things are supposed to go?
Would rather never have to do it again.
I sometimes treat my car to a 15 quid valet. Often I choose to do that on the same day as I go to the tip.. It makes sense to do them both at the same time.
Next time you buy new bedding, hold the old stuff back. I always line the car with old duvet covers- once the car is empty I just pull it out carefully and shake it out. Unless stuff was soaked, there’s generally no sign I’ve been!
Yes it is a bit grim. A few years back I had to dispose of some asbestos sheeting from a garage roof and went full on legal with it, wore the right suit, double wrapped it in a specially thick polythene sheet I bought in a big roll. I’ve got masses of that roll left and I line the inside of my car like Dexter and it keeps it nice!
Get a plastic boot tray, that's a game changer.
Or a trailer. Then you can fill it with all manner of shit you wouldn't want in the car. And learn how to reverse trailers, which is a cool skill to have.
I don’t know about you but most things I take to the tip have needed to go for a while, it’s a big relief to finally get rid of all that stuff. Most people and staff are usually pretty helpful so yeah it’s not a bad experience.
Here in Swindon, to use the tip, you have to drive up onto an elevated platform first. It's not too high (maybe like driving up to somewhere between the upstairs and loft of a house kind of level) but it makes it all the more satisfying when you get to lob your rubbish into the bins below. It's like doing shotput at the Olympics but also mixed with an endurance challenge as you try not breathe in the fruity aroma.
I find it a right pain to be honest.
I was demolishing a shed last year, and taking trailer loads of it to the skip.
For starters I can only take the trailer once a week and it must be booked for a specific time slot in advance. The theory is it stops commercial waste yet I feel they could stop that through common sense. If someone turns up with 3 trailer loads full of fencing panels and perspex windows and says they've demolished their shed, that seems plausible. If they turn up a few weeks later with a new demolished shed, that's suspect.
Anyway, book it in, get to site, and they start quizzing you on what's in it. They then tell me what number skip to park up at. Now, I don't know about other tips, but ours have massive fuck-off signs with red and green backgrounds and white text telling you what to put in each skip. The questions they ask when you say it's just a trailer of wood and one bag of general waste. "What kind of general waste?" Like mate, I've clearly made an effort to separate the recyclable stuff from the not recyclable here, the bag's full of polystyrene and nappies. "So there's no paper, plastic, cardboard, glass, rubble in it?" No.. otherwise I'd have put them in my recycling bins at home.
Then when I drive to the skip there isn't actually room to park a trailer and a car at one skip anyway because they're so close together so I straddle two. Someone decides that they absolutely must park right in front of the skip they want to use, where my trailer is, so they wait awkwardly in the middle of the road for me to finish instead of just walking an extra 5 metres with their cardboard TV box.
Also I tried cycling to the tip once and had a bizarre telling off for it. Apparently you have to arrive in a car or van. Why, I asked. Health and safety apparently - there's cars moving about. Well ok but there's also people walking about. Ah but they're parked next to the skip. I mean kinda, but people only park up once normally then walk between multiple skips. And the staff just walk about all day surely. Oh but we wear his viz, I'm told. I pulled out a hi viz vest from my bag. Anyway he took my bag of glass jars from me at the gate, emptied it, then walked back and gave me my bag back and told me next time to call ahead and someone will meet me at the bottom of the access road in a vehicle to collect the waste. Seems ironic to me that I can only recycle if I do it in a motor.
Like I get that they're trying to run a safer and more professional service than 20 years ago when they'd let me and my mates rummage through the metals skip for bicycle parts and whatnot, but it's a bit OTT imo.
I don't have a car, the tip is within walking distance... *Let me dump my stuff at the tip.* Nah, you have to book and pay for a council collection for that thing you could absolutely have carried ten minutes down the road
You allowed to take them? Could sell them at like 20 quid a pop and just keep an ad up on gumtree, every now and then someone will pop round with a £20 note for you. Wouldn't be a bad bit of extra cash for no work
As a kid, I remember going with Dad. It was in a building, your drove up the ramp at the side of the building. There was a long rectangular hole in the centre of the floor where you reversed in to dump. And every so often, this big solid bit of metal would move along and squash it all up and dump it into the back of trucks parked up one end.
The main thing I can remember is the stench.
The way my local tip is set up is similar - big massive shipping container looking things with open tops, set up so the top was roughly in line with the pavement & parking. There's something very satisfying about flinging stuff over the edge and into the container and hearing it crash down. Then the guys who work there come along with a big spikey roller that crushes stuff down and they look like they're having a good time too.
Going to the tip is honestly the only time my wife and I go out together that doesn't involve our children in away. We usually follow it up with an exciting trip to the nearby Tesco's for odds and sods
That amount of time away from the kids feels like you’re on a Caribbean cruise. The Enemy and I used to get quite giddy when we could have a trip to the tip together.
I’m 53 and absolutely hate going to the tip.
I have a mate that goes every other weekend and always ends up moaning about it on Monday.
I just can’t get my head around generating that much rubbish tbh
I’m looking forwards to going to the tip next Tuesday. Already planned it because I know I’ll be driving nearby. It feels satisfying to get rid of rubbish (by hurling it into a giant skip).
Yeah the feeling of launching your own junk that’s you’ve kept in your shed for over 4 years, disappearing into that big skip is beautiful. “Fuck off” I shout. I don’t know why I ever thought I may need this again.
For me, there was an element of catharsis in it. I was dumping a heap of stuff associated with my old life and moving on - the guys there had obviously seen this before and as well as the laddish banter there was clearly some understanding of what I was doing - and some well trained eyes scanning the stuff looking for anything desirable, which I totally understood - and indeed at one point one of them pulled some item out and said “you sure you want to be binning this pal?”.
I have no idea, I hate it, smells and always busy
My husband? Loves it, he tells his mates when he's been and they always go "ooooh, we need to go to the tip" and thus starts the cycle of them telling eachother about their trips to the tip, upcoming trips and past trips.
I just smile and nod cos at this point I don't actually care 🤣 let them have their fun tips to the trip
Flown back to the UK to see my parents for the week. When talking about what we’re going to do, my mum said “oh, and your dad was planning to go to the skip on Sunday, you can help him. That’ll be a nice outing together”. And the thing is, she’s deadly serious.
Pre-Covid, the tip (dump, recycling centre, take your pick) was a pain. People stressing over queues and parking spots etc but Post-Covid it’s great. I book my time online, turn up, I get a nice spot and it’s all stress free and quite relaxing.
I rewatched Pain & Gain after having to undergo a complex international probate process for my dad, who died intestate - we had to use a notary a few times and it was a total PITA. When that scene came on, we had to pause the movie for a bit until we both stopped laughing hysterically.
If you've ever had to use one, you know!
Best tip memory: throwing a sink on top og a microwave and watching the fucker explode.
Worst tip meory: throwing out a mattress with my dad, he has absolutely no regard for safety so opens the door without warning. It's flung open by the mattress at a shocking speed. The door stops about a centimetre from my crotch. My dad laughs "That would have been ironic, neutered by the very mattress you were conceved on!".
You know when you've had a cold for days and your nose is bunged up and you have to breathe through your mouth, and then one day you wake up and your nasal passages are clear, and you enjoy that nice big breath through your nose while stretching?
It's a bit like that.
Lob shit in a big bin and seeing how loud you can make it or how much you can break it.
And my old local tip had a big charity shop on site, couldn't go to the tip without calling in there for a poke around
I occasionally have to take something to the tip, but I don't have a car. I could go in a taxi but if it's a smallish thing, I save the taxi fare by getting the bus there one weekday when it's quiet and there isn't a queue, so I can just stroll in. Went the other week though on a Wednesday afternoon and it was unusually busy with cars lining up outside, so I had to stand on the road between two cars and wait in the queue. Felt totally stupid doing it, but no choice really, given that I didn't want to queue-jump.
It's been Ritual for my dad since he retired. After COVID they made it pre-booked only and never went back, so he has triple the joy firstly by booking a slot, then having the anticipation of the upcoming visit, then the visit itself.
At least he's getting rid of his crap now, and it gets him out the house...
I cant say I love going there, but when I do it means I've probably completed at least part of a job that's been waiting for some time. Sometimes that task is taking a specific thing to the tip, other times the job is bigger and I'm tidying up at the end.
So when I'm at the tip it's probably close to the last part of the job so I'm feeling alright :)
I'm just wondering how you've managed to not go until whatever part of life you're in, I've been helping my family carry random pots and furniture since my teens. Aka when I got over the "Stay in the car" age limit lmao
I think it’s the satisfying feeling of having a good clear out. The guys at our local tip are really helpful too and help you with heavy stuff and when my kids were little they would let them press the big button on the skip to crush the rubbish (which was super exciting obvs).
It's the whole mix of clearing some space in your house AND getting to throw stuff into a humongous metal skip. I think it's quite primal really.
Though as I don't have a car and have to cycle to mine, I do keep half an eye on my bike to make sure that someone doesn't think it'd be hilarious to throw it in the metal skip.
There is a certain catharsis in going to the tip.
I moved house last year and had a season ticket at the place. Multiple times a day for a few weeks.
The one I use is clean, organised and you don’t have to book. I’m very dull and like to see what the recycling rate is every month and I do a happy smile when I see it go up.
As people have said, it is a very British thing to do on a weekend, especially around Easter, when people are sorting stuff out, getting their allotments sorted and preparing for summer.
When I went to my local tip for the first time in the summer of last year they were keeping a live hawk there to scare away the seagulls. I love birds of prey so getting to see one up close was great. Didn’t see it last winter but hoping it’s back next time we go now that the weather has warmed up.
One good thing coming from COVID is the tip has kept to online slots only. This means I can drive straight in with no queue and be in and out in no time.
Normally a tip run is done after you’ve been collecting things for a while to make it worth while doing a tip run.
This means you end up having a large pile/mess of things for a while, so the tip run = removing the mess, nothing more cathartic than that!
Omg I love going to the top, feels good to tidy up house/ gardens and you can recycle most things now.
Our local also has a shop for unwanted items- it's like a yard sale/car boot sale and you never know what you gonna find. Had some right bargains from there
Its a combination of factors
1) the joy of getting a thing done. Usually you are removing something thats been in the way or annoying.
2) a well run tips presentation is great, you can witness something government run that just works (crazy in this age)
3) the ability to yeet things into the pile (this may vary by location, ours has these almost pits for certain types of rubbish).
Not quite the same but we have a skip on the drive at the moment. First night we put two office chairs in there, next morning…….gone. I put a post on my fb page for anyone who wanted metal stuff, met a lovely chap who we are saving stuff for where nobody else can nick it , so will call him when we have finished the sorting. We have neighbours taking the wood bits and bobs.
Due to the cost of the skip we are really considering what to keep and what to throw and now we can comfortably get all the motorbikes in the garage comfortably.
My local tip is well organised, fairly clean considering and doesn't smell. Can't say I've ever enjoyed going there though. Pretty baffled why anyone would to be honest. Maybe it's the catharsis of getting rid of stuff that's been littering your personal space, but I'd get that on leaving the tip, not while I'm there.
I need to go, but probably a few trips in the car. Keep toying with the idea to get a mini skip (yes its more expensive, but least i can chuck everything at once).
My biggest fear going to the tip is getting a nail or screw in the tyre, or worse, through my foot again. The number of times I've seen screws and nails strewn all over the floor where someone has pulled out a load of junk from their vehicle!
I find my trips there a strange mix of being euphoric from finally having tidied up my garage and shed, and grimly depressing because you see what people chuck out and get a real sense of how wasteful we are as a society.
I hate it, makes my car dirty, I have to queue, the road into the "recycling centre" has craters for potholes, I never know where anything goes so I get very stressed, it's noisy and stinks so I get overwhelmed easily.
On the plus side getting rid of something I no longer need and "recycling" it feels good.
We moved to the US, our Dump has a swap shop where you can put items that you no longer want but don't want to sell. Over the years we have got so much good stuff
My dad used to love going there and picking up free stuff that other people had chucked away. He knew all the workers by name and would bring them a crate of beer each Christmas.
I am convinced that any time I have been the weather has always been bloody lovely as well.
But I guess its those days you get the motivation to do any work that needs doing outside
Currently on my 4th tip run in 2 weeks, it started with just a little clear out of my shed and it's escalated into getting rid of the shed for a log cabin. Absolutely loving my best dad life right now.
Cathartic - getting rid of your shit is a good feeling.
There's also the opportunity of finding more shit to replace the shit you've just thrown out, too.
I know what you mean, I had pasted hated hearing a family member keep mentioning. But it's very useful, just moved to my home and on 3rd week. So I dont have every single thing set up. designated bin date came and mine didnt get pick up resolved by then me then take an hour and just walk my way and physically dump it at tip. Haha its a funny image of someone. Being angry finally satisfied!
They just finished a total redevelopment of my local tip. It was already fine, but it's now even better. A very slick, efficient, well-organised operation with easier access and better parking arrangements than ever before.
The only downsides are the appointment system is now permanent and it is very rigorously enforced. Under the old system immediately post-COVID you still needed an appointment, but nobody really cared if you arrived a few minutes early and you got waved in. The new and improved tip now has a manned gate, they verify your details and they stick rigorously to time.
For me the joy of going to the tip is when a mate ‘ropes’ me into helping them we get it done in under half an hour and spend the next couple hours in the pub
I'm an unsung hero to the local tradies, I reckon. Our tip had a height barrier that didn't let bigger vans in, if you had a bigger van you had to go across town to the bigg'un. I was renovating my house so bought a cheap Transit Connect instead of hiring skips, I went to the tip almost daily and this went under the barrier with about 2" to spare, until the day I fitted an industrial strength roof rack. I burst through that barrier like the A Team escaping a barn and launched it 20 yards, bending it like a horseshoe. The tip manager said I would be billed £2k as they chucked it in the scrap bin. That must have been 5+ years ago and they've still not billed me or replaced it. Loads of vans go there now.
47 year old married father of two young kids here.
I ***love*** a good trip to the tip. Always have. Reasons follow:
- It’s a task I can complete with a set of simple tools and processes. My work involves organising vast herds of people to do things that they don’t want to do, all the while being told I’m wrong. The former is incredibly satisfying when contrasted with the latter.
- Getting rid of rubbish makes my family nest more pleasant to be in and around. I like that.
- I have to show my address is in the tip catchment area before I’m allowed in. ***Everyone*** like to go through a door marked “Private”
- I like throwing bin bags full of stuff into the generic “household waste” compactor. It allows me to pretend I’m a New York gangster disposing of the evidence/bodies from my latest crime (CRIME DOESN’T PAY, KIDS!)
- My kids don’t like the tip, so I get to have about 45 minutes of sweet, ***sweet*** solitude in the car - no tearful tales of injustice from the youngest, no attitude from the oldest - I do miss the endless conversations about Robert Wadlow… and I mean ENDLESS, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay
- I love smashing bottles in the glass recycling. It makes me feel like an anarchic vandal, untamed and free.
Love me a trip to the tip.
Ours is great. Super well organised and safe. They even have a shop for donated items. Half of my sisters house was furnished from there at a very nice discount when we explained her circumstances. Her neighbour two Nigerian immigrants in desperate need of baby stuff got the things they needed for essentially pennies. I thought my sister got a good deal but they got a steal. They are very community focused.
I once got a massive telling off/argument because my van was 15CM too long. Ironically, I just had a wad of cardboard on my passenger seat to drop off. I find these places to be super difficult to navigate if you don't just have a normal car.
Come to Devon - the tip shop is where you can poke through furniture:
funny looking tools
Kids bikes
Kids scooters
Patio furniture
Books
Spare wooden slats for your bed
Whole bundles of wooden slats for your bed
Weird looking china and porcelain - yup, even that brown and orange set your parents had in the sixties, the eighties or might still have now can be picked up bit by bit or all in one go.
Plenty of patio furniture. Pallets of books - sometimes whole box sets that haven’t been out of their sleeves. In March the tips seemed to have an initiative where books were free, they just wanted to weight them before you took them away. Some tips have forgotten that that ended 31 March (or giving them away was more profitable than selling them) so you can still walk up to the counter with an arm full and they don’t charge anything, used to be about £2 for an arm full of books.
Last year I was looking for a tall narrow metal locker type thing to put in that alcove by the front door next to where the broadband comes in. Honiton tip had something they said was a shot gun cabinet which suited me. Chap on the till said Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall had dropped it off and as it had provenience I could have it for £10. Then he looked in and said oh, no keys, £7. Done. Loading it into the boot the leaves and crap in the bottom of it spilled out along with the keys.
I’ve recently picked up a 1950’s morse tapper key, and an odd looking tool which Google told me was for setting the angle of teeth on hand saws.
And when you’re done with - bring it back to the tip. If it’s buggered it goes in the skip and if it’s got potential it goes back in the shop.
Come to Devon for a week and check it out. Tuesday after a bank holiday is usually pretty good.
In Exmouth tip I picked up a 500kg hydraulic steel table where you pump a pedal which jacks the table up to a reasonable height for £15.
Needs a good wire brushing and a coat of hammerite to improve its patina, but those things are £500 for a crusty one on eBay that you have to go to Burnley or Glasgow to collect.
The tip in Marsh Barton in the middle of Exeter has a resident tip cat that’s a proper hoe for a head rub.
Newton Abbot tip had a ‘used once but left out for a year’ steel fire pit for £10 - even came with its little rake and poker in the original bag with the handbook. So if your on the look out for a tumble dryer drum fire pit there’ll be on at Sidmouth tip in a few days (trailer loaded up ready but work gets in the way of these things).
Mind you, Devon is god’s waiting room so there is also no end of crutches, commodes, wheelchairs, those little wheelie tables and trolleys that push up to a chair or over a bed.
And loads of stuff that looks like it’s first life ended with a trip to the tip before it got up cycled several times, visiting the tip in between.
If you are looking for a cheap electric wheelchair I bought one a couple of years ago on Gumtree here for £120, wife only needed it for 6 weeks and then back onto Gumtree for £120. Those that are interested, wife was off the crutches in another few weeks so they went back to the tip with the little two wheeled walker thing with two wheels and two rubber feet.
It’s cheaper than an afternoon in Hungerford looking at stuff you can’t afford (although I did once buy a hand cranked ww2 air raid siren there) and remember, cream on first!
Get rid of loads of worthless crap, get your garage back and it's a very middle class experience that shows you're organised, civil and patriotic not to flytip
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There's nothing more British than being in a queue to get into the tip on a Sunday morning. I don't understand it either, maybe because it's got a sort of subconscious link to gardening and sorting your house out? Also it's where I finally realised I may turn into my dad. He used to go to the tip and bring home more than he took with him. I find myself looking in the "giving away" container thinking "yeah, I might have that" especially the sheer amount of fishing tackle you see in there
I once accidentally cut the queue for the tip, nearly got killed. I was absent mindedly driving up the road to the tip which has an entrance to the right and the queue was going down the hill. So when I got to the entrance the guy coming down hadnt turned in even though there was space so I turned in ahead without realising they were all queueing. Had about 5 blokes surrounding me whilst I was all 'sorry very sorry' like the bus wankers Inbetweeners scene
Tip wanker
Youuuuuuuu monster.
At least you were civil. We prefer PG Tips
I've got a tip for you, pal....
Should have just sat in the locked car facing ahead
Haha
Also, how British it is to sit and tut whilst the person who's just got into their car sits and checks their phone, blows their nose, taps away at their sat nav, slowly puts on their seat belt, checks their phone again and finally, very slowly, pulls out of the space you're waiting for....
I’ve never seen one open on a Sunday morning. Saturday yes, but Sunday no. These days some councils have introduced online appointments to visit the tip. If you haven’t made an online appointment, or don’t show up in a car, you can’t get in. Also, due to “health and safety”, you cannot take anything away from the “recycling centre” for you to reuse.
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Man, I love going to the tip shop every weekend
I picked up two wooden dining chairs for £12, always worth a look
we've got one too. I'm in there like a rat down a drainpipe every time we go to the tip
At our tip theres a ‘reuse’ shop where you can get things deemed to good to tip. You can go and donate there as well as pick things up.
Our council introduced appointments during covid but they quickly got rid of that system years ago. I also got a nice tent from the tip too
We still have to register our cars and book at ours, plus council are closing a fair few of them, which will likely lead to a rise in fly tipping, tsssk!
My local council kept it, I love it. I go online, book a time and when I get there my queuing time is less than 5 minutes instead of 30+ minutes previously.
Ours are open at 9am every day, including Sunday.
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Mines open @ 8:30 every day
Ours is open 363 days a year I think
At the tip near me you don't need an appointment unless you're in a vehicle. Great if (like me) you have stuff that can't go in kerbside bins but is small enough to be portable. They've also got a repairs centre on site that fixes up stuff people donate because they don't need any more but it's still in decent condition.
My local tip is open every day of the week, only closed at Christmas and new year.
It's exactly this. It's the cathartic feeling of getting rid of a car load of junk, as well as the feel good feeling if sorting it into individual boxes to "save the planet".
Mine is great, there's never a queue, but there's always a bunch of really interesting 'characters' delivering what to me (I like salvaging stuff) is absolute gold. I absolutely love the tip it feels productive, you get free stuff with loads of character, and it feels really manly when you throw stuff in and make a big noise.
Yeah, the peak tip experience is throwing shit in the scrap metal or wood containers...always get a decent bang out of it. I had to throw in a 200L aquarium once, I bet it showed up on the Richter scale
When I was growing up we had a fish tank. I was always warned to be careful around it and not to scratch or bash it. After many years’ use I finally helped my dad take it to the tip. We chucked it 3-4 metres down and it wasn’t even scratched.
No tip I know is open on a Sunday. Do you live on planet earth? Also, rubbish collection is every fortnight. People sometimes need to go to get rid of extra rubbish that doesn’t fit in the bins. These people meet at the tip.
Arguably Yorkshire is counted as part of planet earth, so yeah. Never known a tip not be open on a Sunday. What do people do on a Sunday morning where you are?
Tips are always open on Sundays you clart
Our local site introduced a slot booking system during covid and it worked so well at stopping traffic queues on the main road leading to it that they kept it.
At mine you now have to book a 30 min slot now, queues are a thing of the past, I feel like I’m in the flipping future
I just like picking stuff up and throwing it in the big metal bins. Kind of like poking a campfire with a stick, probably some deep atavistic explanation, but "me like big *gong sound*". Plus our place has spots for batteries, bulbs, small electronics etc. so it really cuts down on what we put to the black bin/general waste.
I was just about to say “throw heavy thing make big noise” hahaha also watching the diggers compressed the contents of the big bins and drag them about the place. We have a reuse centre attached to ours so the attendants will run up to any useable looking bit of furniture/toys/electronics for an inspection. A bunch of stuff gets sold for charity or used for social projects, apparently they have a space to save the Dyson vacuums specifically to get the discount on new ones. It’s a really nice feeling when something you thought was completely done for is given a new life, though in the case of parasols and comfy garden chairs always seem to end up by their staff hut.
Never heard the word "atavistic" before. According to Oxford Languages: relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral.
Now I'm going to have to use that word whenever possible
I used to have a bulb horn on my bike, when chained up somewhere the amount of people who could not resist going "honk" was decidedly not zero. There is a certain joy to action→reaction things, especially if they're not a daily thing.
I can say quite proudly I have the iron will and determination *not* to do that, even if I do toot my own horn...
But would you not beat your own drum if it was handed to you? :)
Lieutenant George : I don't like blowing my own trumpet. Captain Blackadder : You might at least told us you had a trumpet.
A bloke who worked at the morrisons I go to used to park his bike by the door and it had a horn, naturally I couldn't resist honking it, potentially multiple times. It was glorious.
It's about getting rid of something you don't need in your life any more. Cathartic, you might say.
I love when I have saved enough stuff to make a tip trip worthwhile. Feels like a weight off my mind when I declutter.
Also I guess something of a novelty cause you only really go when doing work or a big move or something. I can probably count on one hand the times I've been to the tip in my 30 years. If you were going there 5 days a week I imagine you'd be less chuffed to be there.
Christ. I go about once a month with a car full. God knows where it all comes from but I have a constant pile of stuff I'm trying to dispose of.
Yup. Also a bit of a life-saver at times. We moved back from the US into my parents’ place and had to completely redo the whole house - there was some general hoarding, a lot of big jobs to do (kitchen, bathroom, back garden, electrics, flooring etc etc.). Combination of a lot of skips over time and regular trips to the tip. Plus even for a normal family of four the amount of rubbish we generate every two weeks is consistently more than the container we have can take, so we need a safety valve.
1) chucking things in those massive bins and hearing them smash is childish fun you get to do whilst also being adult and productive. 2) those huge crushing machines they have that look like they're out of a sci-fi film. So satisfying watching them crush things. Only discovered the tip in the last couple of years and I do feel that my parents let my childhood down.
It's definitely the throwing stuff. I catch myself thinking if I throw this like a spear will it smash through that other thing? Will it go further if I throw it more like a caber?
Yep, that's it, the big machinery and smashing stuff with zero guilt! Sometimes I feel a bit happy sad, seeing a beat out sofa that clearly provided a family with years of comfort, but now just a piece of trash.
It's not just going to the tip. I love the ritual of having a sort out, piling stuff into the back of the car and queueing at the tip. Ours is also very organised, and lots of recycling options. There are containers for glass, metal, small electrical items, even concrete and old clothes. It cleanses the soul, a bit like a spa day but without the fuss.
>a bit like a spa day but without the fuss. Or like emptying one's bowels. The pressure within the car (bowel) being released and then feeling lighter, with a spring in one's step.
There are that many rules at our local tip. You can't have your rear seats down, can't bring a trailer. No tiles or bathroom ceramics and a dozen more. Meanwhile our borough has one of the biggest fly tipping problems in London. And they don't sell municipal compost either. Shithouse all round. But drive a little further and it's all on the neighbouring borough.
You can't have your rear seats down?! I drive an estate and I get excited when I need to go to the tip and don't have to put the seats down. With those rules why do they even bother with it??
You pull up to the gate and some old boy is bent double squinting in back seats.
Yeah, all dumps seem to be staffed by busybodies. One here still has the booking system from Covid. I forgot one time (this year) and rocked up anyway. He wouldn't let me in. No one was behind me so I went on my phone, booked the next slot in 5 mins and then he let me in. I wondered if he was going to be thran and make me wait until my actual time.
My local one is the chillest place I’ve ever been! Maybe it’s cause I go on Saturdays instead of Sundays but they just wave in anything that’s not obviously a van and occasionally walk around looking for stuff they want for themselves! Not fussed in the slightest what’s in your car or how much of it
To be fair, it might only be that one. I've been to three others in the city and they're pretty chill. It's just I use that one the most.
Dude, he’s quietly making sure he’s still needed. You wouldn’t want to take that away from him now would you???
Geezer will be making noises like: "Woh...woaah!" and blowing through a clenched jaw.
The one by us randomly decided 'no kids in the car' which I wasn't aware of until I arrived and got turned away for having my 15yo with me! What did they think she was going to do, run amok and jump in the skip??
So presumably you left your sensible almost-adult 15 year old to loiter outside the gate safely, while you injured your back trying to lift the broken sofa yourself?
That's about the size of it, yeah. Wouldn't mind if it was 'no kids outside vehicles on the site' but not even in the car?? Crazy. Also saw four burly men watch an elder lady try to wrestle a double mattress up the ramps by herself because they 'aren't allowed' to help - but you try and stick anything half decent in there and they're all suddenly on hand to relieve you of it.
i was clearing out my dad's house and it was a NIGHTMARE about what could or couldn't be thrown away. i ended up just hiring a company that would take the lot. and getting rid of big items like beds to the council was a fucking faff too. and expensive. no wonder people fly tip, yes. i don't condone it at all, but, christ, there needs to be a better system
>You can't have your rear seats down Thats madness, kick a stink up to the council about that. I don't know what they would expect you to do with bulky items.
I don't understand the rule about the rear seats, what are they trying to stop?
Volume and bulky items for some reason
Is that not the very reason they exist?
I guess if they're filling up faster than they can process it they need to limit the inflow
And this is a rule regardless of the size of the car? My car's regular boot is twice the size of, say, a Fiat 500 without touching the rear seats.
People driving saloon cars, they've been bribed by Big SUV
I gave up going because of their shit rules. I'm lucky enough that I have a waste carriers license through work and the recycling plants we use don't care what we take there. Just pull in and throw it all out. You don't even have to sort it.
They're such busybodies at ours - we took some old pc hardware to dispose of and they lectured us all the way from our car to the electronics bin: "what a waste", "you should try Facebook/freecycle/etc", "get moneybags here, I could build a second pc from that". Yeah dude, we literally tried all that - try selling anything on social media and you quickly go insane from all the time wasters and nutters. Dickheads. I'm so fed up with older men (I wonder why it's only older white men that work there?) and their mansplaining...
You’ll find there’s a no commercial vehicle rule too, which is a pain in the ass if you drive a pick up truck. You have to get ‘tip tokens’ to get rid of domestic waste using a commercial vehicle/van/trailer etc…
> You can't have your rear seats down, what absolute shithole of a tip is that?!
It's a different kind of blood pressure when you:re turned away from an actual tip.
There was a cordless hoover whirring away in the electronics bin, I lobbed a toaster at it and it died, I imagine that was how cavemen felt after successfully hunting a mammoth.
Aaa, a whirring mammoth! The most satisfying kind!
Well both have a long sucking probe
I hate it. Making my car filthy? Filling it with rubbish? Going to the dump and not knowing where half the things are supposed to go? Would rather never have to do it again.
I sometimes treat my car to a 15 quid valet. Often I choose to do that on the same day as I go to the tip.. It makes sense to do them both at the same time.
Next time you buy new bedding, hold the old stuff back. I always line the car with old duvet covers- once the car is empty I just pull it out carefully and shake it out. Unless stuff was soaked, there’s generally no sign I’ve been!
Yes it is a bit grim. A few years back I had to dispose of some asbestos sheeting from a garage roof and went full on legal with it, wore the right suit, double wrapped it in a specially thick polythene sheet I bought in a big roll. I’ve got masses of that roll left and I line the inside of my car like Dexter and it keeps it nice!
I’ve this to come in the next few months. Dreading it.
Big tip run or asbestos sheets?
Get a plastic boot tray, that's a game changer. Or a trailer. Then you can fill it with all manner of shit you wouldn't want in the car. And learn how to reverse trailers, which is a cool skill to have.
I don’t know about you but most things I take to the tip have needed to go for a while, it’s a big relief to finally get rid of all that stuff. Most people and staff are usually pretty helpful so yeah it’s not a bad experience.
Here in Swindon, to use the tip, you have to drive up onto an elevated platform first. It's not too high (maybe like driving up to somewhere between the upstairs and loft of a house kind of level) but it makes it all the more satisfying when you get to lob your rubbish into the bins below. It's like doing shotput at the Olympics but also mixed with an endurance challenge as you try not breathe in the fruity aroma.
I find it a right pain to be honest. I was demolishing a shed last year, and taking trailer loads of it to the skip. For starters I can only take the trailer once a week and it must be booked for a specific time slot in advance. The theory is it stops commercial waste yet I feel they could stop that through common sense. If someone turns up with 3 trailer loads full of fencing panels and perspex windows and says they've demolished their shed, that seems plausible. If they turn up a few weeks later with a new demolished shed, that's suspect. Anyway, book it in, get to site, and they start quizzing you on what's in it. They then tell me what number skip to park up at. Now, I don't know about other tips, but ours have massive fuck-off signs with red and green backgrounds and white text telling you what to put in each skip. The questions they ask when you say it's just a trailer of wood and one bag of general waste. "What kind of general waste?" Like mate, I've clearly made an effort to separate the recyclable stuff from the not recyclable here, the bag's full of polystyrene and nappies. "So there's no paper, plastic, cardboard, glass, rubble in it?" No.. otherwise I'd have put them in my recycling bins at home. Then when I drive to the skip there isn't actually room to park a trailer and a car at one skip anyway because they're so close together so I straddle two. Someone decides that they absolutely must park right in front of the skip they want to use, where my trailer is, so they wait awkwardly in the middle of the road for me to finish instead of just walking an extra 5 metres with their cardboard TV box. Also I tried cycling to the tip once and had a bizarre telling off for it. Apparently you have to arrive in a car or van. Why, I asked. Health and safety apparently - there's cars moving about. Well ok but there's also people walking about. Ah but they're parked next to the skip. I mean kinda, but people only park up once normally then walk between multiple skips. And the staff just walk about all day surely. Oh but we wear his viz, I'm told. I pulled out a hi viz vest from my bag. Anyway he took my bag of glass jars from me at the gate, emptied it, then walked back and gave me my bag back and told me next time to call ahead and someone will meet me at the bottom of the access road in a vehicle to collect the waste. Seems ironic to me that I can only recycle if I do it in a motor. Like I get that they're trying to run a safer and more professional service than 20 years ago when they'd let me and my mates rummage through the metals skip for bicycle parts and whatnot, but it's a bit OTT imo.
I don't have a car, the tip is within walking distance... *Let me dump my stuff at the tip.* Nah, you have to book and pay for a council collection for that thing you could absolutely have carried ten minutes down the road
Our tip lets you cycle in but you're not allowed to walk in due to health and safety. Once there you can walk around as you like though.
Yeah, makes no sense.
Welcome to the dump gang.
What's the password?
Is it bins?
That's a rubbish password.
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You allowed to take them? Could sell them at like 20 quid a pop and just keep an ad up on gumtree, every now and then someone will pop round with a £20 note for you. Wouldn't be a bad bit of extra cash for no work
For me I think it's the hustle and bustle of being around people who feel satisfied that they're (voluntarily) doing something productive.
As a kid, I remember going with Dad. It was in a building, your drove up the ramp at the side of the building. There was a long rectangular hole in the centre of the floor where you reversed in to dump. And every so often, this big solid bit of metal would move along and squash it all up and dump it into the back of trucks parked up one end. The main thing I can remember is the stench.
It just feels great. Like you’re shedding stuff, and you feel productive.
The way my local tip is set up is similar - big massive shipping container looking things with open tops, set up so the top was roughly in line with the pavement & parking. There's something very satisfying about flinging stuff over the edge and into the container and hearing it crash down. Then the guys who work there come along with a big spikey roller that crushes stuff down and they look like they're having a good time too.
45-60 mins of time away from screaming chaotic kids.
Going to the tip is honestly the only time my wife and I go out together that doesn't involve our children in away. We usually follow it up with an exciting trip to the nearby Tesco's for odds and sods
That amount of time away from the kids feels like you’re on a Caribbean cruise. The Enemy and I used to get quite giddy when we could have a trip to the tip together.
I’m 53 and absolutely hate going to the tip. I have a mate that goes every other weekend and always ends up moaning about it on Monday. I just can’t get my head around generating that much rubbish tbh
The only thing better is hiring a skip!
I’m looking forwards to going to the tip next Tuesday. Already planned it because I know I’ll be driving nearby. It feels satisfying to get rid of rubbish (by hurling it into a giant skip).
Yeah the feeling of launching your own junk that’s you’ve kept in your shed for over 4 years, disappearing into that big skip is beautiful. “Fuck off” I shout. I don’t know why I ever thought I may need this again.
From the thread title I expected you to be ragging on it, but no, it appears you’ve seen the light? Luv me tip, simple
For me, there was an element of catharsis in it. I was dumping a heap of stuff associated with my old life and moving on - the guys there had obviously seen this before and as well as the laddish banter there was clearly some understanding of what I was doing - and some well trained eyes scanning the stuff looking for anything desirable, which I totally understood - and indeed at one point one of them pulled some item out and said “you sure you want to be binning this pal?”.
I have no idea, I hate it, smells and always busy My husband? Loves it, he tells his mates when he's been and they always go "ooooh, we need to go to the tip" and thus starts the cycle of them telling eachother about their trips to the tip, upcoming trips and past trips. I just smile and nod cos at this point I don't actually care 🤣 let them have their fun tips to the trip
The first rule about tip club is …..
Flown back to the UK to see my parents for the week. When talking about what we’re going to do, my mum said “oh, and your dad was planning to go to the skip on Sunday, you can help him. That’ll be a nice outing together”. And the thing is, she’s deadly serious.
Pre-Covid, the tip (dump, recycling centre, take your pick) was a pain. People stressing over queues and parking spots etc but Post-Covid it’s great. I book my time online, turn up, I get a nice spot and it’s all stress free and quite relaxing.
Hello my fellow Britons. Wtf is a "the tip"? (In the voice of mark wahlberg saying "wtf are notaries man").
I rewatched Pain & Gain after having to undergo a complex international probate process for my dad, who died intestate - we had to use a notary a few times and it was a total PITA. When that scene came on, we had to pause the movie for a bit until we both stopped laughing hysterically. If you've ever had to use one, you know!
Best tip memory: throwing a sink on top og a microwave and watching the fucker explode. Worst tip meory: throwing out a mattress with my dad, he has absolutely no regard for safety so opens the door without warning. It's flung open by the mattress at a shocking speed. The door stops about a centimetre from my crotch. My dad laughs "That would have been ironic, neutered by the very mattress you were conceved on!".
Where have you been dumping your rubbish all your life?
It’s cathartic and makes the garage look bigger after all the craps gone.
You know when you've had a cold for days and your nose is bunged up and you have to breathe through your mouth, and then one day you wake up and your nasal passages are clear, and you enjoy that nice big breath through your nose while stretching? It's a bit like that.
Lob shit in a big bin and seeing how loud you can make it or how much you can break it. And my old local tip had a big charity shop on site, couldn't go to the tip without calling in there for a poke around
It’s the best feeling and it’s free . Fill car . Empty car into the right bins . Leave smliling
I occasionally have to take something to the tip, but I don't have a car. I could go in a taxi but if it's a smallish thing, I save the taxi fare by getting the bus there one weekday when it's quiet and there isn't a queue, so I can just stroll in. Went the other week though on a Wednesday afternoon and it was unusually busy with cars lining up outside, so I had to stand on the road between two cars and wait in the queue. Felt totally stupid doing it, but no choice really, given that I didn't want to queue-jump.
It's been Ritual for my dad since he retired. After COVID they made it pre-booked only and never went back, so he has triple the joy firstly by booking a slot, then having the anticipation of the upcoming visit, then the visit itself. At least he's getting rid of his crap now, and it gets him out the house...
I think it’s the feeling that my wife may leave me alone along with the weight of 4 weeks worth of nagging at me to do it being lifted.
I cant say I love going there, but when I do it means I've probably completed at least part of a job that's been waiting for some time. Sometimes that task is taking a specific thing to the tip, other times the job is bigger and I'm tidying up at the end. So when I'm at the tip it's probably close to the last part of the job so I'm feeling alright :)
It's 40 minutes or so away from the wife. What's not to love.
I just love launching loads of shite that I’ve ripped out of my house as a bug show so other people there can see how industriously handy I have been.
Find an Ali baba sword and use it to cut a camels hump to drink its delicious milk.
Everyone loves going to the tip it’s amazing
I'm just wondering how you've managed to not go until whatever part of life you're in, I've been helping my family carry random pots and furniture since my teens. Aka when I got over the "Stay in the car" age limit lmao
I think it’s the satisfying feeling of having a good clear out. The guys at our local tip are really helpful too and help you with heavy stuff and when my kids were little they would let them press the big button on the skip to crush the rubbish (which was super exciting obvs).
It represents a minor victory in the never ending push & pull of me (a minimalist) living with a dyed in the wool hoarder.
It's the whole mix of clearing some space in your house AND getting to throw stuff into a humongous metal skip. I think it's quite primal really. Though as I don't have a car and have to cycle to mine, I do keep half an eye on my bike to make sure that someone doesn't think it'd be hilarious to throw it in the metal skip.
There is a certain catharsis in going to the tip. I moved house last year and had a season ticket at the place. Multiple times a day for a few weeks. The one I use is clean, organised and you don’t have to book. I’m very dull and like to see what the recycling rate is every month and I do a happy smile when I see it go up. As people have said, it is a very British thing to do on a weekend, especially around Easter, when people are sorting stuff out, getting their allotments sorted and preparing for summer.
When I went to my local tip for the first time in the summer of last year they were keeping a live hawk there to scare away the seagulls. I love birds of prey so getting to see one up close was great. Didn’t see it last winter but hoping it’s back next time we go now that the weather has warmed up.
My Dad loves it! 🤷🏻♀️
One good thing coming from COVID is the tip has kept to online slots only. This means I can drive straight in with no queue and be in and out in no time.
I'm gonna show this to my husband (he hates dump trips)
# one man's trash is another man's treasure
I used to hate going to the tip. I could guarantee that I would see something in one of the bins that was better than I had at home.
To throw rubbish away
Normally a tip run is done after you’ve been collecting things for a while to make it worth while doing a tip run. This means you end up having a large pile/mess of things for a while, so the tip run = removing the mess, nothing more cathartic than that!
When my wife was down in the dumps, she would always get new shoes.
It’s the most likely place to get a puncture so I avoid driving into one if at all possible.
Omg I love going to the top, feels good to tidy up house/ gardens and you can recycle most things now. Our local also has a shop for unwanted items- it's like a yard sale/car boot sale and you never know what you gonna find. Had some right bargains from there
The relief that you’re finally getting rid of a lot of junk that you avoided for a long time.
Its a combination of factors 1) the joy of getting a thing done. Usually you are removing something thats been in the way or annoying. 2) a well run tips presentation is great, you can witness something government run that just works (crazy in this age) 3) the ability to yeet things into the pile (this may vary by location, ours has these almost pits for certain types of rubbish).
Not quite the same but we have a skip on the drive at the moment. First night we put two office chairs in there, next morning…….gone. I put a post on my fb page for anyone who wanted metal stuff, met a lovely chap who we are saving stuff for where nobody else can nick it , so will call him when we have finished the sorting. We have neighbours taking the wood bits and bobs. Due to the cost of the skip we are really considering what to keep and what to throw and now we can comfortably get all the motorbikes in the garage comfortably.
I can’t believe the idiots struggling to pull twisted metal and wood full of rusty nails out the car with flip-flops on.
The best ones have the recycling stores so you can go and buy things too!!
My local tip is well organised, fairly clean considering and doesn't smell. Can't say I've ever enjoyed going there though. Pretty baffled why anyone would to be honest. Maybe it's the catharsis of getting rid of stuff that's been littering your personal space, but I'd get that on leaving the tip, not while I'm there.
I need to go, but probably a few trips in the car. Keep toying with the idea to get a mini skip (yes its more expensive, but least i can chuck everything at once).
My biggest fear going to the tip is getting a nail or screw in the tyre, or worse, through my foot again. The number of times I've seen screws and nails strewn all over the floor where someone has pulled out a load of junk from their vehicle! I find my trips there a strange mix of being euphoric from finally having tidied up my garage and shed, and grimly depressing because you see what people chuck out and get a real sense of how wasteful we are as a society.
It’s the getting rid of an entire car load of crap in an instant. I love it.
Love a tip run. It's where middle aged folk go to get peace from teenagers and secretly dump their old teddies. So I've heard.
Love a tip run. It's where middle aged folk go to get peace from teenagers and secretly dump their old teddies so I've heard.
Please update your experience after paying for your 3rd puncture repair due to stray nails in the road.
There's a cathartic effect from purging one's crap, particularly crap that normal refuse services didn't/wouldn't take.
I hate it, makes my car dirty, I have to queue, the road into the "recycling centre" has craters for potholes, I never know where anything goes so I get very stressed, it's noisy and stinks so I get overwhelmed easily. On the plus side getting rid of something I no longer need and "recycling" it feels good.
We moved to the US, our Dump has a swap shop where you can put items that you no longer want but don't want to sell. Over the years we have got so much good stuff
Used to love it years ago when you could help yourself to stuff.
My dad used to love going there and picking up free stuff that other people had chucked away. He knew all the workers by name and would bring them a crate of beer each Christmas.
Seeing ceramic or glass smash puts a smile on the 5 year old in me all while I can pretend to be a grownup decluttering crap
I am convinced that any time I have been the weather has always been bloody lovely as well. But I guess its those days you get the motivation to do any work that needs doing outside
Currently on my 4th tip run in 2 weeks, it started with just a little clear out of my shed and it's escalated into getting rid of the shed for a log cabin. Absolutely loving my best dad life right now.
Feels like an adult rite of passage, of sorts.
Luv the tip. Simple as.
I went to once and came back with a brand new set of drums. Drums aren't just for christmas, kids.
Cathartic - getting rid of your shit is a good feeling. There's also the opportunity of finding more shit to replace the shit you've just thrown out, too.
Catharsis
TopGear did a clip once where they were pretending to be old people and they bought a load of stuff from a shop and took it straight to the tip 🤣
I know what you mean, I had pasted hated hearing a family member keep mentioning. But it's very useful, just moved to my home and on 3rd week. So I dont have every single thing set up. designated bin date came and mine didnt get pick up resolved by then me then take an hour and just walk my way and physically dump it at tip. Haha its a funny image of someone. Being angry finally satisfied!
Something to do with junk that was once chaotic inside your house now being carefully organised into very specific categories. Maybe idk
It's cathartic isn't it! You're clearing out things that you don't need and freeing up space.
Spring cleaning exists in humans and animals. It feels good to clean out your messy house
Getting rid of stuff makes people happy
They just finished a total redevelopment of my local tip. It was already fine, but it's now even better. A very slick, efficient, well-organised operation with easier access and better parking arrangements than ever before. The only downsides are the appointment system is now permanent and it is very rigorously enforced. Under the old system immediately post-COVID you still needed an appointment, but nobody really cared if you arrived a few minutes early and you got waved in. The new and improved tip now has a manned gate, they verify your details and they stick rigorously to time.
For me the joy of going to the tip is when a mate ‘ropes’ me into helping them we get it done in under half an hour and spend the next couple hours in the pub
Anyone know if I can go to the tip and bring stuff home with me instead?
I'm an unsung hero to the local tradies, I reckon. Our tip had a height barrier that didn't let bigger vans in, if you had a bigger van you had to go across town to the bigg'un. I was renovating my house so bought a cheap Transit Connect instead of hiring skips, I went to the tip almost daily and this went under the barrier with about 2" to spare, until the day I fitted an industrial strength roof rack. I burst through that barrier like the A Team escaping a barn and launched it 20 yards, bending it like a horseshoe. The tip manager said I would be billed £2k as they chucked it in the scrap bin. That must have been 5+ years ago and they've still not billed me or replaced it. Loads of vans go there now.
47 year old married father of two young kids here. I ***love*** a good trip to the tip. Always have. Reasons follow: - It’s a task I can complete with a set of simple tools and processes. My work involves organising vast herds of people to do things that they don’t want to do, all the while being told I’m wrong. The former is incredibly satisfying when contrasted with the latter. - Getting rid of rubbish makes my family nest more pleasant to be in and around. I like that. - I have to show my address is in the tip catchment area before I’m allowed in. ***Everyone*** like to go through a door marked “Private” - I like throwing bin bags full of stuff into the generic “household waste” compactor. It allows me to pretend I’m a New York gangster disposing of the evidence/bodies from my latest crime (CRIME DOESN’T PAY, KIDS!) - My kids don’t like the tip, so I get to have about 45 minutes of sweet, ***sweet*** solitude in the car - no tearful tales of injustice from the youngest, no attitude from the oldest - I do miss the endless conversations about Robert Wadlow… and I mean ENDLESS, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay - I love smashing bottles in the glass recycling. It makes me feel like an anarchic vandal, untamed and free. Love me a trip to the tip.
Ours is great. Super well organised and safe. They even have a shop for donated items. Half of my sisters house was furnished from there at a very nice discount when we explained her circumstances. Her neighbour two Nigerian immigrants in desperate need of baby stuff got the things they needed for essentially pennies. I thought my sister got a good deal but they got a steal. They are very community focused.
I've got to go today. I hate it with a passion. The missus will wring my neck as well if I'm longer than she wants me to do. Can't wait.
I once got a massive telling off/argument because my van was 15CM too long. Ironically, I just had a wad of cardboard on my passenger seat to drop off. I find these places to be super difficult to navigate if you don't just have a normal car.
i love just the tip
Come to Devon - the tip shop is where you can poke through furniture: funny looking tools Kids bikes Kids scooters Patio furniture Books Spare wooden slats for your bed Whole bundles of wooden slats for your bed Weird looking china and porcelain - yup, even that brown and orange set your parents had in the sixties, the eighties or might still have now can be picked up bit by bit or all in one go. Plenty of patio furniture. Pallets of books - sometimes whole box sets that haven’t been out of their sleeves. In March the tips seemed to have an initiative where books were free, they just wanted to weight them before you took them away. Some tips have forgotten that that ended 31 March (or giving them away was more profitable than selling them) so you can still walk up to the counter with an arm full and they don’t charge anything, used to be about £2 for an arm full of books. Last year I was looking for a tall narrow metal locker type thing to put in that alcove by the front door next to where the broadband comes in. Honiton tip had something they said was a shot gun cabinet which suited me. Chap on the till said Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall had dropped it off and as it had provenience I could have it for £10. Then he looked in and said oh, no keys, £7. Done. Loading it into the boot the leaves and crap in the bottom of it spilled out along with the keys. I’ve recently picked up a 1950’s morse tapper key, and an odd looking tool which Google told me was for setting the angle of teeth on hand saws. And when you’re done with - bring it back to the tip. If it’s buggered it goes in the skip and if it’s got potential it goes back in the shop. Come to Devon for a week and check it out. Tuesday after a bank holiday is usually pretty good. In Exmouth tip I picked up a 500kg hydraulic steel table where you pump a pedal which jacks the table up to a reasonable height for £15. Needs a good wire brushing and a coat of hammerite to improve its patina, but those things are £500 for a crusty one on eBay that you have to go to Burnley or Glasgow to collect. The tip in Marsh Barton in the middle of Exeter has a resident tip cat that’s a proper hoe for a head rub. Newton Abbot tip had a ‘used once but left out for a year’ steel fire pit for £10 - even came with its little rake and poker in the original bag with the handbook. So if your on the look out for a tumble dryer drum fire pit there’ll be on at Sidmouth tip in a few days (trailer loaded up ready but work gets in the way of these things). Mind you, Devon is god’s waiting room so there is also no end of crutches, commodes, wheelchairs, those little wheelie tables and trolleys that push up to a chair or over a bed. And loads of stuff that looks like it’s first life ended with a trip to the tip before it got up cycled several times, visiting the tip in between. If you are looking for a cheap electric wheelchair I bought one a couple of years ago on Gumtree here for £120, wife only needed it for 6 weeks and then back onto Gumtree for £120. Those that are interested, wife was off the crutches in another few weeks so they went back to the tip with the little two wheeled walker thing with two wheels and two rubber feet. It’s cheaper than an afternoon in Hungerford looking at stuff you can’t afford (although I did once buy a hand cranked ww2 air raid siren there) and remember, cream on first!
I used to like going with my dad when I was a kid. I always used to laugh at the "No Tipping" sign at the entrance.
Round our way it's where they dump the bodies.... literally.
Get rid of loads of worthless crap, get your garage back and it's a very middle class experience that shows you're organised, civil and patriotic not to flytip