Rubbish clearance & skip hire in Harwich
Harwich sits at the tip of a peninsula at the mouth of the Stour and Orwell, with narrow streets in the old town, Victorian terraces in Dovercourt and port-related industry at Parkeston and Harwich International Port. The local tip at Dovercourt takes cars only, closes on Thursdays and Fridays and does not accept DIY waste or rubble.
Every service in Harwich
Choose a service for prices, collection days or a free estimate. We cover CO12.
Rubbish Clearance in Harwich
Rubbish cleared from your home, garden or business. Send us photos for a free estimate. Our crew does the lifting.
Get a free estimateSkip Hire in Harwich
2 to 16-yard skips delivered across Essex. Domestic driveways, building sites and commercial yards.
Prices & bookingMan & Van in Harwich
Our crew and a caged truck for the items and bags you want gone. Leave it out the front and we load it, with a waste transfer note every time.
Prices & bookingHouse Clearance in Harwich
Full or part house clearances handled with care: probate, end of tenancy, downsizing. Priced from your photos.
Get a free estimateWait & Load in Harwich
The truck waits while you load, with our driver's help. Book by the load, with no skip left behind or skip permit to arrange.
Prices & bookingGrab Hire in Harwich
8-wheel grab lorry for soil, hardcore and mixed loads. About 16 tonnes per full load, lifted straight onto the truck.
Prices & bookingGarden Clearance in Harwich
Green waste, soil, turf, branches, sheds and fencing cleared and recycled. Priced from your photos.
Get a free estimateBuilders Waste in Harwich
Rubble, plasterboard, timber and strip-out waste collected by the truck load. Your team loads, with our driver's help.
Prices & bookingSite Clearance in Harwich
Plots, yards and building sites cleared of vegetation, rubble, rubbish and old structures, ready for the next trade.
Get a free estimateWait & load prices in Harwich
The truck by the load: you load, our driver helps, and nothing is left on the road. Want us to do the lifting? Build a collection from the item list instead.
About 25 to 30 bin bags, or the waste from a small bathroom strip-out.
About the same as a 6-yard skip, without a skip sitting on the road.
Builders' waste after a refit, a shop strip-out or a big flat clear-out.
The whole truck: site clear-ups, office strip-outs, large garden and shed jobs.
Local knowledge: Harwich
Collections across Harwich
- Postcodes
- CO12
- From our yard
- Harwich is about 65 minutes from our Wickford yard via the A130, A12, then A120. Collections are booked for the next working day. Item collections run on our Tuesday and Thursday rounds, booked by 4pm the working day before.
- We cover
- Dovercourt, Upper Dovercourt, Parkeston, Harwich International Port, Bathside, Harwich Quay, Main Road and Dovercourt High Street
- Access
- Narrow streets of period houses in old Harwich, Victorian and Edwardian terraces with on-street parking in Dovercourt, and post-war estates and bungalows in Upper Dovercourt.
- Council
- Tendring District Council · about 18,798 residents
Nearest tip to Harwich
- Site
- Dovercourt Recycling Centre, West End Lane, Dovercourt, CO12 3SF
- Hours
- 9am to 5pm from 1 March to 15 October, 9am to 4pm from 16 October to the end of February. Closed every Thursday and Friday, and on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
- Rules
- Every car visit must be booked in advance (Blue Badge holders, pedestrians and cyclists are exempt). Cars only: vans, pick-ups and large trailers are not accepted, and the site does not take DIY waste or rubble. Alternative: The nearest site that takes booked vans and household DIY waste is Clacton Recycling Centre, Rush Green Road, CO16 7BL, about 18 miles away. Lawford Recycling Centre (Greensmill, about 12 miles) is cars only with no DIY waste and is closed Wednesday and Thursday.
Skip permits in Harwich
Essex Highways issues skip licences here, not the district council. A skip on your drive needs nothing; on the road it needs a licence, and we apply for you. Allow 10 working days. Size limit on the road: 6-yard maximum on the highway; anything bigger needs a driveway or private land. Enquire online and we'll confirm the permit price and timing for your street before you book. Skip prices for Harwich →
About Harwich
Around 18,798 people. Harwich comes under Tendring District Council. House clearances from terraced streets with on-street parking in Dovercourt; DIY and renovation waste that the Dovercourt tip will not take; commercial waste from port-side and Parkeston business premises.
Harwich at a glance
Homes
Old Harwich keeps its medieval street plan, with King's Head Street, Church Street and West Street linked by narrow alleys and lined with small cottages and terraces, inside a conservation area holding nearly 150 listed buildings. Dovercourt grew in the nineteenth century around Orwell Terrace, Cliff Road and Marine Parade, with substantial Victorian houses, while Parkeston's terraces were built for railway workers in the 1880s. Upper Dovercourt has 1920s council housing and the 1960s Holyrood estate. The older terraces generally lack driveways, so clearances are often carried out to the street by hand.
House clearance in HarwichBuilding work
Refurbishment dominates building work in Harwich and Dovercourt, where much of the housing is Victorian or older. The Harwich conservation area, first designated in 1969, and the Lower Dovercourt conservation area, designated in 1986, bring tighter control over external changes, and the narrow lanes between Church Street and West Street leave little room for a skip or lorry. Dovercourt town centre is being reshaped with public realm works along Kingsway, the Orwell Place car park on the former Starlings site and new housing planned at Milton Road. A 100-home estate has been built off Low Road.
Skip hire in HarwichBusinesses
Harwich International Port at Parkeston handles roll-on roll-off passenger and freight ferries, and Navyard Wharf adjoins the old town, so port operators, hauliers and marine trades are a major source of commercial waste. Retail is centred on Dovercourt High Street, with supermarkets and discount stores at Harwich Gateway Retail Park in Parkeston. Pubs, a hotel and restaurants cluster around The Quay and Ha'penny Pier in Old Harwich, where streets are narrow and collections suit smaller vehicles or timed stops. Typical loads include packaging, pallets, food waste and glass.
Commercial waste in HarwichWhat Tendring District Council offers
The council's own collections, for comparison. They take items left outside. We collect from the front or somewhere easy to reach on our Tuesday and Thursday rounds, and can carry things out from inside for an hourly charge.
- Charge
- £55 annual subscription per 240L brown bin (emptied fortnightly, 25 times a year); the first year costs £95 including a one-off £40 joining fee.
- Takes
- Garden waste that fits the bin or sack. No soil, rubble, sheds or fencing.
As published by the council, October 2026. Council page
Rather ask first?
Tap a few answers about the job in Harwich, add a photo if you can, and we'll send you an estimate.
Questions people ask
How quickly can you get to Harwich?
We cover Harwich from Wickford, about 65 minutes away via the A130, A12, then A120, so it's booked rather than same-day: usually the next working day, with a two-hour arrival window sent by text. Item collections run on our Tuesday and Thursday rounds, booked by 4pm the working day before.
Do I need a skip permit in Harwich?
Only on the public road. Essex Highways issues skip licences here, not the district council, and we apply for you. On a driveway, nothing is needed. Enquire online and we'll confirm the permit price and timing for your street before you book.
Where's the nearest tip to Harwich?
Dovercourt Recycling Centre, West End Lane, Dovercourt, CO12 3SF. Every car visit must be booked in advance (Blue Badge holders, pedestrians and cyclists are exempt). Cars only: vans, pick-ups and large trailers are not accepted, and the site does not take DIY waste or rubble.
Which Harwich postcodes do you cover?
CO12, and everything around them: Dovercourt, Upper Dovercourt, Parkeston, Harwich International Port, Bathside, Harwich Quay.
Book a collection in Harwich
Book items, skips or wait and load online. For a clearance, send the details and photos for a free estimate. You can also call us if you're unsure which service to choose.