How Do I Get Rid of a Sofa?

Getting a new Sofa? Great! But how do you dispose of your old sofa?

In the UK households tend to replace their sofa on average every 11 years. If you’ve been sitting on yours for a decade and are ready for a new one, here’s what you need to know about getting it removed and recycled…

The heart of most family homes is the sofa - or couch, settee, suite, favourite armchair - and they vary hugely in size, shape, and weight. Some are still looking great after years of use, and others seem to feel battered by a few years of tough love. Letting go of these old friends can be more challenging than you might expect as they are tricky to move and difficult to recycle responsibly. 

Some furniture retailers offer to take away your old couch when they deliver your new one as part of your purchase price. This is great but look into the small-print: sometimes they send a charity to collect it but if the sofa is marked or has lost it’s fire safety tags they may refuse to take it at the last minute, leaving you stuck with no space for your lovely new furniture.

You may find you can sell or give away your sofa on social media or local free-cycle re-use groups, but this can take time and often the stumbling block is the cost of delivery outweighing the value of used furniture. Even if you find someone you face inviting strangers to your home and can be unreliable, leaving you with the same problem on the day your new sofa comes - no space!

If you can get your sofa to the local tip (the local authority recycling centre) you may be able to dispose of it for free - or rather the cost has been included in the council tax you already pay. If you have a van or trailer (or borrow/hire one to do the job) you are likely to need to get a licence to prove your waste is domestic, not business waste. The rules vary from place to place, so look at your local authority website to make sure.

Some councils offer subsidised bulky-waste collection as part of the service you pay for with your council tax. There is usually a fee and you have to book in advance - there can be quite a wait. They often offer ‘kerbside’ collection only, which means you have to get the furniture out of the house and to the street on the right day. Check your council website to see what they offer and how much it costs.

The most convenient solution is to get a commercial disposal service to come and take the sofa at a time that suits you. At Monster Junk we collect sofas and armchairs of all shapes and sizes every day. We send a team of two uniformed and trained professional clearance specialists out to you in a dedicated vehicle. We leave you with a Duty of Care Waste Transfer Note to show you have disposed of your sofa responsibly. We’ll take it to be recycled at a professional commercial recycling centre so you can be sure you have done your bit for the planet.

At a specialist recycling plant your sofa may be taken apart by hand, as the first stage is to separate the sofa into it’s constituent materials, including fabric, leather, velcro fixings, metal supports, staples and springs, wooden frames, plastic webbing, wheels or feet and foam filling/padding. Some processors have specialist mechanical shredders and automated separation and sorting, but either way it is a labour and time intensive job. The elements that can’t be re-used or recycled may be incinerated or turned into fuel, which is better than putting any of it into landfill.

The right way to get rid of a sofa...

Whoever you use to collect your sofa, you should insist on taking their Environment Agency Waste Carriers License number and ask for a Duty of Care Waste Transfer Note. You can’t use a Man & Van type service to dispose of waste unless they are regulated by the Environment Agency as a Waste Carrier as well. If you pay someone to take it away and they later fly-tip or dump it illegally, you can be held responsible if you can’t show that you handed it to a licensed responsible waste carrier.

• Use a company that is registered with the Environment Agency
• Choose a waste carrier with great online reviews
• Ask for a 'Duty of Care Waste Transfer Note'
• Choose a company that has DBS checked staff

At Monster Junk we take our commitment to the environment very seriously, and you can see from our feedback that we can be trusted.

Click here for prices and availability - Monster Junk always send a 2 person collection team to get rid of your sofa and we always produce a waste transfer note with all of our details including our licence number for your peace of mind.