Concrete, Brick and Soil Skip Bins
Concrete, Brick and Soil Skip Bins in Adelaide
Heavy waste doesn’t behave like other waste, and the number that matters isn’t the size of the bin — it’s the weight of what’s going in it.
Solid concrete runs around 2.4 tonnes per cubic metre. Brick rubble is lighter because of the voids, but not by as much as you’d hope. Soil sits somewhere in between, and gets substantially heavier after rain.
Which means a bin most people would call small is already at the legal limit of what a truck can carry off your property.
Why heavy waste bins are small
Fill a 6m³-9m³ bin with broken concrete and you’re asking a truck to lift close to ten tonnes. It can’t, and it isn’t legal to try.
So heavy waste bins are capped at 4m³ — smaller than anything we’d send out for household or green waste. Two or three swaps beats one bin that can’t leave the driveway.
If that sounds like it can’t possibly be enough space — ring us and describe the job. Most people are surprised by how little volume a tonne of concrete actually occupies.
Three streams, not one
This is where the money is, and where most people get it wrong. Concrete and soil are not the same waste type, and putting them in together downgrades both.
Clean hard fill
concrete, bricks, pavers, roof tiles, ceramic tiles, masonry rubble. Goes to a crusher and comes out as road base. Cheapest heavy stream there is.
Clean fill
soil, sand, clay, gravel. Goes to land rehabilitation, landscaping supply or fill projects. Priced differently, handled differently, and it has to be genuinely clean.
Mixed heavy waste
either of the above once timber, plasterboard, plastic or general rubbish is in the load. Has to be tipped, sorted and split, with the landfill portion carrying a levy.
A load of concrete with soil shovelled in on top is no longer clean hard fill — the crusher won’t take it, and it’s priced as mixed. If you’re breaking up a slab and digging out underneath it, that’s two bins, not one. Across a decent job the price difference is significant enough that the second bin pays for itself several times over.
Concrete bin hire
Typical jobs: slab removal, driveway replacement, shed and garage floors, path demolition, footings, retaining wall demolition, pool surrounds.
Reinforcing steel
Mesh and rebar are usually fine — crushers run magnets to recover the steel.
Wet concrete and washout
don't go in. Neither does slurry from cutting.
Brick, rubble and masonry
Demolished walls, chimney rubble, old paving, retaining wall blocks, roof tiles.
Bricks are lighter than solid concrete but still dense, so the same small-bin rules apply.
Mortar, sand and dust from the demolition are fine in the hard fill load. Timber, damp course, wall ties and wire mesh are not.
Soil and dirt removal
Excavation spoil, garden bed regrading, trenching, stump root balls, sand from old pool bases, clay from footings.
Two things drive the price: how wet it is, and how clean it is.
Wet soil is dramatically heavier
Adelaide clay after winter rain carries an enormous amount of water. If the job can wait for a dry week, it's worth waiting.
Clean means only soil
No turf, no roots, no plastic, no rubble, no builder's rubbish. A load of soil with half a metre of broken brick through it isn't clean fill and isn't clean hard fill — it's mixed, at mixed prices.
Loading a heavy bin
Spread the load
Distribute material evenly along the bin rather than heaping it at one end. An unevenly loaded heavy bin is difficult and unsafe to lift.
Verge placement
Some councils restrict heavy bins on nature strips because of kerbing and buried services. If it can't go on your property, check before you assume the verge is available.
Heavy and flat first
Large flat pieces across the base, smaller rubble filling the gaps.
Fill to the line, not the rim
Heavy bins are marked. Above the line the truck can't legally lift it.
Protect the surface underneath
A loaded hard fill bin puts a lot of concentrated weight through a small footprint. On a residential driveway, pavers, or anything with services beneath it, that can crack or depress the surface. We use timber packers — tell us what it's sitting on so we bring enough.
What contaminates a heavy load
Any of these turns clean hard fill into mixed waste:
Timber of any kind, including formwork offcuts
Plasterboard
Plastic, wrap, damp course, weed matting
Insulation and sarking
Soil in a concrete load, or rubble in a soil load
General rubbish
Asbestos — which is a separate problem entirely, requiring licensed removal and a specialised wrapped bin. See renovation waste removal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I just get a big bin and fill it?
Because weight, not volume, is the constraint. A large bin of concrete exceeds what a truck can legally lift well before it’s full.
Can I mix concrete and soil?
You can, but it’s priced as mixed waste and costs considerably more. Separate bins are usually cheaper overall.
Is broken concrete with mesh in it OK?
Generally yes – No surcharge, loose wire and star pickets on their own are not.
What about a stump with soil on the roots?
Knock the soil off and the stump goes in green waste. Soil and roots together are neither clean fill nor green waste.
How much does it cost?
Depends on the stream and the size. See skip bin prices.
Can you do swaps on a bigger job?
Yes — see construction skip bins for scheduled swaps and trade accounts.
Book a heavy waste bin
Tell us what the material is, roughly how much, and what it’s going to sit on. We’ll get the stream right, the size right, and give you a tonnage figure you can work to.