Ex-owner of LM Solutions London · onlyvans-uk.com · rubbishbids.co.uk
Small, Medium or Large Load? What Each Size Actually Holds
Every rubbish removal quote starts with one question you have no way of answering confidently: how big is your load? Nobody thinks in cubic metres. You are standing in front of a pile of stuff, and the form wants to know whether it is small, medium or large.
Get it wrong and the bids you get back are pricing a different job to the one you have. This guide translates each size into things you can actually count — bags, sofas, rooms — and then covers the part that catches most people out: heavy waste does not use this scale at all.
The Short Answer
Small is about five bin bags or a couple of items. Medium is roughly half a van — a sofa and a dozen bags, or a bedroom cleared. Large is a van packed to the roof. If your waste is rubble, soil or tiles, ignore this scale entirely and work out the weight instead.
| Size | In bin bags | Looks like | Van space |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | Up to 5 | A couple of items, one corner cleared | Under ¼ van |
| Medium | 10–20 | A sofa plus bags, one room cleared | About ½ van |
| Large | 25–40+ | A flat, garage or garden stripped | Full van or more |
| Not sure | — | Priced from your photos instead | Carrier assesses |
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The Four Load Sizes, Decoded
These are the four options you will see on almost every rubbish removal form, including ours. They describe volume — how much space your waste takes up in a vehicle. Here is what each one means in objects you can actually count.
Small load
Up to 5 bags
- Up to ~5 bin bags
- 1–2 single items
- A bagged garden tidy
- One room's worth of clutter
Under ~¼ of a Luton van
Would fit in a hatchback with the seats folded down.
Medium load
Van load
- A sofa plus 10–15 bags
- A small bedroom cleared
- A bathroom strip-out
- A garage half emptied
Around half a Luton van
Two people could load it in under an hour.
Large load
Full van
- A full flat clearance
- A garden landscaping strip-out
- An office floor of furniture
- A garage or loft emptied
A full Luton van (~16 m³)
You are looking at a vehicle packed to the roof, or more than one trip.
Not sure
Driver will estimate
- Mixed piles you can't picture
- Waste you haven't seen yet
- Jobs where photos tell it better
Priced from your photos
Used on 22 of 108 jobs so far.
Where the Scale Breaks: Volume vs Weight
Small, medium and large describe space. But disposal sites charge carriers by the tonne, and vehicles have a legal payload limit that has nothing to do with how full they look. For light waste those two limits roughly line up. For heavy waste they come apart completely.
A Luton van has 16 m³ of space but only 0.9–1.2 tonnes of payload. Broken brick and concrete weighs 1.4–1.6 tonnes per cubic metre. Load that van with rubble and it is legally full at roughly 0.6 m³–0.9 m³ — about 5% of the space. The van looks almost empty and cannot take another bag.
The rule of thumb
Somewhere between 9 and 20 filled rubble sacks will max out a Luton van's weight allowance — the range depends on how full the sacks are, and a sack packed to the brim weighs more than most people can lift. If you can carry a bag of your waste comfortably in one hand, load sizes work. If it takes two hands and a straight back, you are in weight territory — describe it in bulk bags or tonnes, not small/medium/large.
| Material | Weight per m³ | Fills a Luton's payload at |
|---|---|---|
| Broken brick / concrete rubble | 1.4–1.6 t | 0.6 m³–0.9 m³ (5% of the van) |
| As-dug soil and London clay (wet) | 1.5–2 t | 0.5 m³–0.8 m³ (5% of the van) |
| Dry topsoil | 1.2–1.4 t | 0.6 m³–1.0 m³ (6% of the van) |
| Sand / ballast | 1.5–1.7 t | 0.5 m³–0.8 m³ (5% of the van) |
| Tiles / paving slabs | 1.3–1.5 t | 0.6 m³–0.9 m³ (6% of the van) |
| Hardcore / MOT Type 1 | 1.4–1.8 t | 0.5 m³–0.9 m³ (5% of the van) |
| Mixed light construction waste (timber, plasterboard) | 0.3–0.5 t | 1.8 m³–4.0 m³ (25% of the van) |
Even mixed light construction waste — timber and plasterboard at 0.3–0.5 tonnes per m³ — hits the payload ceiling at around 25% of the van's volume. This is why a “full van” of building waste and a “full van” of furniture are priced nothing like each other, and why carriers ask what is in the load before they commit to a number.
Containers, in the same units
Black plastic bag (rubble sack) — 0.07 m³, 0.06–0.1 t
Bulk (tonne) bag — 0.75 m³, 1–1.2 t
3.5t tipper — 4 m³, 1–1.2 t
Luton van — 16 m³, 0.9–1.2 t
7.5t tipper — 8 m³, 3–3.5 t
8yd skip — 6.12 m³, 3–5 t
Working in tonnes already? The rubble weight calculator converts your dimensions into a weight and the right container.
What Sized Jobs Actually Get Bid
Rather than quote industry averages, here is what carriers have actually bid on RubbishBids: 181 bids across 108 jobs between 2026-04-14 and 2026-09-09. The platform-wide median bid is £200, with most bids landing between £150 and £250.
| Job type and size | Sample | Typical bid range |
|---|---|---|
| Bulky waste, medium load | 18 bids / 8 jobs | £130–£250 (median £200) |
| House clearance, medium load | 18 bids / 8 jobs | £150–£248 (median £200) |
| Mixed construction, medium load | 20 bids / 13 jobs | £238–£309 (median £250) |
| Bulky waste, size not stated | 23 bids / 10 jobs | £95–£170 (median £150) |
Only size bands with at least 15 bids across 4 jobs are shown. Smaller bands exist in the data but are held back rather than published as a number that a handful of jobs cannot support.
Why sizing carefully is worth the effort
Across 62 jobs that received more than one bid, the highest bid was a median of 50% above the lowest — and on the widest job, 300% above. Carriers are reading the same description and reaching very different conclusions about what the job involves. The more precisely you describe the load, the narrower that gap gets, and the more the bids are comparing like with like. That is the whole argument, unpacked further in why rubbish removal quotes vary.
What Happens If You Pick “Not Sure”
It is a legitimate answer, and a popular one: 22 of 108 jobs so far were posted without a load size — about 20%. The job still goes out. Carriers simply price it from your photos and description instead of from a band.
The trade-off is that a “not sure” job and a job posted as a stated medium load are not interchangeable. They are read differently and they attract different bid distributions, because the carrier is working from a different amount of information. Neither is wrong — but if you genuinely do know the size, saying so gives carriers something firmer to price against than a photo taken at an awkward angle.
If you are going to use it, earn it with photography. Shoot the whole pile from a few metres back, include something for scale — a door frame, a wheelie bin, a person — and take a second shot of the route from the waste to where a van could park. Those two images tell a carrier more than any dropdown can.
Size Is Only Half the Price
Two identical medium loads can be priced very differently. What separates them is everything around the pile — and these are the factors a carrier is mentally adding up while reading your job.
Parking
Directly outside costs less than a permit-restricted street where the van risks a ticket.
Carry distance
0–5 metres is a different job to 30 metres of communal corridor, at the same volume.
Stairs
A second-floor flat with no lift can add a second crew member to the job.
Where it sits
A back garden or basement means every item is handled twice before it reaches the van.
What's in it
Fridges, mattresses and upholstered furniture carry separate disposal routes and costs.
How heavy it is
Tip fees are charged by weight, so dense loads cost more at identical volume.
How to Describe a Load So the Bids Are Comparable
Count the countable — bags, sofas, mattresses, doors. Numbers beat adjectives.
Say what the heaviest thing is. One bath of rubble changes the vehicle needed.
Photograph the pile with something in frame for scale.
Photograph the route from the waste to the nearest parking.
Flag fridges, mattresses and upholstered furniture explicitly — they are priced separately.
If it is rubble, soil or tiles, give a weight or a bulk-bag count instead of a size.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Luke Polach
Founder, RubbishBids · Ex-owner, LM Solutions London
Luke Polach is the founder of RubbishBids and onlyvans-uk.com. He previously ran LM Solutions London, a licensed waste carrier and man-and-van company operating across London and the South East — loading the vans, paying the gate fees, and pricing the jobs that this guide describes from the other side.
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