Skip Hire Cost Reduction with Glass Crushers: How Much Can You Save?

By:     Conor Murphy

Skip hire is one of the largest waste management costs for licensed premises, restaurants, and hotels. The charge is fundamentally volume-based: you pay for the skip size and the frequency of collection. Anything that reduces the volume you generate reduces the cost you pay.

Glass is disproportionately expensive in a skip context because of the relationship between its volume and its density. A skip full of glass bottles is not a particularly heavy skip (glass is less dense than many other materials), but it fills the skip’s volume quickly. In a busy licensed premises, glass bottles can represent 25 to 45 percent of the total skip volume. This means that a significant fraction of your skip hire cost is being driven by a waste stream that could be dramatically reduced by a single piece of equipment.

A glass crusher reduces glass volume by 70 to 80 percent. If glass currently occupies 35 percent of your skip volume, crushing reduces that contribution to approximately 7 to 10 percent of skip volume. Your skip fills more slowly, you need fewer lifts per month, and your annual skip hire cost falls accordingly.

How Skip Hire Is Charged: The Volume Mechanics

Understanding how your skip hire charges work is the first step to calculating how much a glass crusher will save.

Per lift charges. Most skip hire is charged per lift: each time the contractor collects the full skip and delivers an empty one, you are charged. Reducing the rate at which your skip fills reduces the number of lifts per year, directly reducing the per-lift charges.

Rental and standing charges. Some skip contracts include a weekly or monthly rental charge for having the skip on site, regardless of how often it is lifted. For these contracts, reducing skip usage doesn’t reduce the rental element of the charge. However, if reducing glass volume allows you to downsize your skip, the rental charge on a smaller skip is lower.

Weight-based surcharges. Skip hire contracts sometimes include a weight allowance per lift. Glass is heavier than most other waste per unit volume; if your skip is hitting weight limits before volume limits, glass may be triggering weight-based surcharges. Removing glass volume from the skip (through dedicated glass collection or crusher installation) may resolve weight-based surcharges while also reducing volume.

Mixed waste vs. dedicated glass collection. Some operations run both a general skip and a dedicated glass collection. In this case, the glass crusher saves primarily on the dedicated glass collection cost (reducing frequency) rather than on the skip. The calculation is the same; the specific cost element being reduced differs.

Calculating Your Skip Hire Saving

Step through this calculation with your actual invoices and volumes:

Step 1: What is your current annual skip hire cost? Pull the last 12 months of skip hire invoices and add up the total. Include all lifts, rental, and any additional charges.

Step 2: What fraction of your skip volume is glass? Estimate this by observation: when your skip is lifted, roughly what proportion of the visible volume is glass bottles? In a licensed premises with table service, this is typically 25 to 40 percent. In a café or restaurant with low alcohol sales, it may be 10 to 15 percent. In a wine bar or cocktail bar, it may be 40 percent or more.

Step 3: What is the annual cost attributable to glass? Multiply your annual skip hire cost by the glass fraction: Annual skip cost × glass fraction percentage = annual glass-attributable skip cost.

Step 4: What saving does 80% volume reduction produce? The glass volume in your skip reduces by 80 percent. The glass-attributable skip cost reduces by a corresponding proportion, but not exactly 80 percent because the fixed elements of skip hire (rental, base charges) don’t change. As a working estimate, if glass represents 35 percent of your skip volume, reducing glass by 80 percent reduces total skip volume by approximately 28 percent (35% × 80%). If your skip fills at a rate that determines lift frequency, a 28 percent volume reduction means approximately 28 percent fewer lifts per year.

Step 5: Apply to your annual cost. If you currently pay for 26 skip lifts per year at £150 per lift, you pay £3,900 per year. A 28 percent reduction in lift frequency means approximately 18 to 19 lifts per year, a saving of approximately £1,050 to £1,200 per year on this element alone.

A Worked Example: Large Pub with Weekly Skip

Current position:

• 6-yard skip, collected weekly: 52 lifts per year at £180 per lift = £9,360 per year
• Plus skip rental: £15 per week × 52 = £780 per year
• Total annual skip hire cost: £10,140
• Glass estimated at 35% of skip volume

Glass-attributable cost:

• Volume-based element of skip cost (lifts): 35% × £9,360 = £3,276
• Glass volume reduction from crusher (80%): reduces this element by 80% = saving £2,621 per year
• Skip rental: not directly reduced (same skip size)
• Estimated annual saving on skip hire alone: £2,600

Additional saving from dedicated glass collection reduction:

• If this pub also has dedicated glass collection at £80 per lift × 26 lifts per year: £2,080 per year
• Monthly collection instead of fortnightly: £80 × 12 = £960 per year
• Additional saving: £1,120

Total skip and collection saving: £3,720 per year Glass crusher cost: £2,500 (large commercial unit) Payback period: approximately 8 months

When the Saving Is Big Enough to Justify Downsizing Your Skip

In some operations, the volume reduction from a glass crusher is large enough to justify moving to a smaller skip size, which generates an additional saving on the rental element of the skip hire cost.

If glass represents 40 percent of your skip volume and you are currently using a 6-yard skip, reducing glass volume by 80 percent means glass now contributes 8 percent of skip volume rather than 40 percent. Your effective skip usage requirement has fallen significantly. If the remaining waste volume fits comfortably in a 4-yard skip, switching to a smaller skip reduces both the per-lift charge and the rental cost.

Discuss with your skip hire contractor whether a skip size reduction is appropriate given your new waste profile after crusher installation. The saving from a skip size reduction can be material, particularly where skip rental is a significant element of the contract cost.

When to Consider Dedicated Glass Collection Instead

For some operations, the volume of glass is large enough that dedicated glass collection (separate from general waste, collected by a glass specialist contractor) is more cost-effective than mixing glass into a general skip even with a crusher installed. This is relevant where:

• Glass represents more than 40 percent of current skip volume
• The local market has a glass specialist contractor offering competitive collection rates
• The operation generates glass of sufficient consistency and volume to be attractive to a glass recycler who may offer collection at lower cost or with a recycling credit

A glass crusher reduces the collection frequency and therefore the cost whether the glass goes into a general skip or a dedicated glass collection. The right collection arrangement (general vs. dedicated) depends on the volumes, the local contractor market, and any recycling performance requirements.

Contact Gradeall International to discuss the right glass crushing equipment for your operation. The large glass crusher and bottle crusher cover the range from compact bar operations through to high-volume licensed premises.

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