Construction waste is dense, sharp and often wet. It is also carried by hand up and down scaffolding, which sets a hard limit on how big a sack can usefully be.
What you buy
| Product | Typical specification | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Rubble sacks | 100–125 µm, 500 × 750 mm | hardcore, tile, plaster |
| Heavy duty sacks | 70 µm, 700 × 1100 mm | mixed site waste |
| Extra heavy sacks | 80 µm | strip-out and fit-out |
| Clear sacks | 50 µm | segregated recycling on site |
| Wheelie bin liners | 60 µm, 1100 L | site compound |
| Stretch film | 23 µm hand, coloured | securing loads, weather cover |
| Pallets | one-way, custom size | material delivery |
Specifications, pack quantities and minimum orders for each: bin liners, stretch film, pallets, cling film.
Small and strong beats large and strong
The most common mistake on site is a big heavy sack. A 125 µm sack at 800 × 1200 mm sounds like the strongest option available; filled with rubble it weighs over 40 kg, nobody can lift it, and it tears under its own load before it is full.
A rubble sack is deliberately small. 500 × 750 mm at 100–125 µm holds about 25 kg — heavy enough to be worth carrying, light enough to be carried. That combination, not the micron figure alone, is what makes it work.
For lighter strip-out waste, a 700 × 1100 mm sack at 70 µm is the right trade: big enough to be efficient, strong enough for timber offcuts and plasterboard.
Weather
Site storage is outdoors more often than not:
- UV. Standard polyethylene embrittles after a few weeks of direct sun. For sacks and film stored outside, specify a UV-stabilised grade — the cost difference is small and it prevents the failure where a pallet of sacks crumbles before it is used.
- Rain. Polyethylene does not care about water, which is the reason sacks and film are what survives a site through February. What does care is the pallet under them: bare timber left in standing water swells and loses nail hold, so store pallets off the ground or specify a plywood deck.
- Cold. LDPE stays flexible below zero; HDPE goes brittle. For winter work, specify LDPE.
Segregation on site
Site waste segregation is increasingly written into contracts and into the site waste management plan. What helps in practice:
- Colour-code by stream, minimum 500 kg per colour — workable for a contractor across multiple sites, not for a single project.
- Clear sacks for inert and recyclable streams, so the gate check does not need to open them.
- Printed sacks where the client audits segregation; the printed stream name removes the argument.
Deliveries and material protection
Custom-size one-way pallets are worth specifying where a material has an awkward footprint. A pallet built to the load is cheaper than a standard pallet plus the damage from overhang, and one-way construction avoids the return logistics that nobody on a site manages.
Common mistakes
- Big rubble sacks. They cannot be lifted, and they tear before they fill.
- Standard film stored in the sun. Specify UV-stabilised for outdoor storage.
- Buying by micron alone. Size and seal type decide whether a heavy sack survives being dragged; 125 µm with a flat seal is worse than 100 µm star sealed.
- HDPE in winter. It is cheaper and it cracks.