Recycling and landfill diversion
Where your waste goes.
- Green waste becomes mulch and compost.
- Concrete and brick is crushed into fill and road base.
- Timber is sent for recycling, not buried.
- Scrap metal goes to metal recyclers.
- Plasterboard is composted through a local farm program.
- Clean fill is reused as fill.
Most bins we collect come back to our own sorting area before anything reaches landfill, and every one of those loads is sorted by material.
The sorting line
Follow one load.
Most bins we collect come back to our own sorting area, and this is what happens to them. The wide line is what we recover. The thin one is what still has to go to licensed landfill.
Tap a stream to see where it ends up
- 1
We collect your bin
- 2
We sort by material
- 3
Each stream gets reused
Six recovered streams, one landfill. Pick one below.
Stream 1 of 6Recovered and reused
Green waste
Garden waste is one of the easiest wins. It's shredded into mulch and compost instead of rotting in landfill.
- Ends up as
- Mulch and compost
- Cheaper if kept separate
- Green waste bins
Our Environmental Guarantee
The promise behind the guarantee.
Every Tropical Skips booking carries our Environmental Guarantee: sorted, weighed, and whatever can be recycled, is. This page is what that looks like in practice.
Plenty of skip companies tip the whole bin at the nearest landfill and move on. We run our own sorting operation, so recyclable material gets pulled out and sent where it can be reused, not buried.
- Sorted at our own area
- Weighed in and out
50%+
of what we collect, diverted from landfill
Skip the sorting step
Want a cheaper bin? Keep it to one material.
Single-stream bins cost less because they skip the sorting step and go straight to the recycler. If your job produces mostly one thing, ask about our lower-priced single-stream options.
Full list on waste types, or the dedicated green waste bins page.
Priced lowerSoil & ConcreteStraight to crushing. Weighed at the weighbridge, that material only.See the bin - Priced lowerSoil & Green WasteFor the garden clean-up with soil in it. Mulched, no sorting step.See the bin
Priced lowerMetal OnlyDirect to the metal recyclers.See the bin 
Priced lowerRoof TileOne clean material, one destination, a lower rate.See the bin
Recycling questions.
No, and anyone who tells you that isn't being straight with you. We sort every load that comes through our sorting area and divert everything that can be recycled, which works out to more than half of what we collect overall. Truly mixed or contaminated waste still goes to licensed landfill.
No. Mixed loads are fine, we do the sorting at our end. If you can keep it to a single material, though, ask about a single-stream bin. They're cheaper.
It's mulched and reused. If your whole load is garden waste, a dedicated green waste bin is the cheapest way to get rid of it.
To metal recyclers. Scrap metal and aluminium are among the most valuable things in a skip, and none of it needs to go to landfill.
Tyres, contaminated fill, and mixed general waste that can't be separated. Everything else we pull out and divert.
Word of mouth
What Cairns says.
841Google reviews, rated 5.0
“Easy to deal with, paper work free, timely service”
George
“Great service and friendly staff. Would definitely use again. Thanks.”
Ryan Paiaro
“Tropical Skips provided a timely and professional service.”
Laurie Coyne
“Easy to contact, flexible to change arrangements and fast delivery”
Kasper Fratczak
“Excellent prompt service and was kept up-to-date with text as to when bin was arriving and being picked up excellent service”
Stef Baksaj
“Absolutely great service highly recommend”
Liam Elder
“Efficient, professional and competitively priced.”
Mohan Chinnappan
“Very organised, everything has been done on time. Very good communication.”
katy zhou
“Friendly, prompt and always keen. The best skip service we’ve ever seen. For many years you’ve helped us through, so here’s a heartfelt thank you!”
Beverley Gribble
“Delivered on time, very happy with service.”
McCarthy Tegan
“Punctual , professional, great service.”
Don Wong
“Promot and great to deal with”
Alan Pullen
“Great experience – From the outset, Bree was a pleasure to speak to and then through to the delivery, price and pick up. I would definitely recommend without hesitation.”
Christine Clifford
“Excellent service, modern equipment delivered in a timely basis with no complications and ease of invoicing and payment.”
Steve Crampton
“Very punctual on time dilivery and pickup”
Sunia Tuirara
“One week was ample time to fill this 2 square metre skip with my green waste. It was delivered on time and collected one week later. Thanks for the service.”
Dorothy Barker
“Two skips ordered. Both delivered and removed quickly. Thank you so much for a smooth transaction. Highly recommended. 5 stars!”
Joanne Houghton (The Artful Maverick)
“We recently used Tropical Skip Bins and were extremely impressed with the service from start to finish. The booking process was simple, delivery was right on time, and the driver was friendly and professional. The skip bin was clean, placed exactly where we needed it, and picked up promptly when finished. Pricing was fair with no hidden surprises. It made our clean-up so much easier. Highly recommend Tropical Skip Bins to anyone needing reliable and hassle-free skip bin hire.”
Noel Andersen
“Friendly and quick service, highly recommended.”
Joshua Ferguson
“Great service, great price. Made everything easy”
Patimah Singe
“Awesome to deal with everything was easy from delivery to pickup”
Rylan Hearn
“Very happy with the experience as a whole, have delt with a few skip companies in cairns and tropical are by far the best to deal with”
Tym Peterd
“Thank you so much! Prompt, friendly and efficient. Will definitly recommend and use again when needed.”
Lynne Rees
“Best price, prompt service, no issues, very happy.”
Sergey Yashumov (Русский гид в Австралии)
“Fast, efficient service from Tropical Skips. Highly recommend and would use again”
mandy ross
“Great and easy service! Enquired Tuesday and had a skip bin delivered at the exact time requested Saturday morning. Highly recommend!”
Rachel Walsh
“Had a great experience with Tropical Skips Cairns. Was hesitant about ordering a skip bin but everything went smoothly and the price was more than reasonable for hiring a 6m2 skip for 3 days. I made sure I was waiting for the driver when they deliver and also had the gates open. Will definitely use them again if needed.”
COURIER 6
“Always reliable and super friendly local crew. Keep up the good work team.”
Gabby Azzopardi
“Great service at reasonable price, nice job. Strongly recommended if I need bins hires.”
Giang Nguyen
“Great service and Value. Great people to deal with. The driver was a legend and very helpful”
Matt Zaccour
“Fast efficient service (delivery & pick up) Friendly staff with professional outlook.”
Gada Morris
“I called Tropical Skips close to closing time on Saturday for an urgent delivery. They were very helpful and were able to accommodate. They were very polite and punctual and r reasonably priced.”
Tammy Saunders
“Cheap, easy not fuss service 😁”
Mimi Blow
“They were great to deal with, communication was 150%. Prompt, put the bin where I wanted it even though it was a bit tricky, picked it up with no fuss when we were done. Highly recommend.”
Jenelle Morris
“So easy to deal with, Bri was fabulous in the office & no fuss, in & out with the skips. Thanks team x”
Suzanne Whitten
“Great, friendly, professional service.”
Sue MJ
“Fast and efficient service, couldn’t fault Tropical Skips”
PETER SMITH
“Reliable service and easy, hassle free process 🙌🏼”
Kiara Sclip
“Good service as always 😊👍”
Jori Poutanen
“Great service - reasonable price”
Alison H
A clear yard and a clear conscience.
Book an express quote and your waste gets the same treatment as every load we collect: sorted, weighed, and diverted from landfill wherever it can be.