Sofa Disposal – How does the new guidance for disposing of WUDS and POPs affect our customers?
So, first and most obvious question, what are WUDS and POPs?
WUDS stands for Waste Upholstered Domestic Seating (for example that old sofa bed in the spare room that you want to get rid of). During manufacture, upholstered seating may have been treated with flame retardants containing POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants). POPs are what makes disposing of upholstered domestic seating a problem.
New guidance from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on disposing of WUDS requires that waste containing POPs must be disposed of in a way that prevents POPs escaping into the environment. This affects waste management sites and how they handle WUDS like sofas. In addition to changes in handling procedures, all POP-containing WUDS must now be incinerated because this is the only way to change the structure of POPs.
What does this mean to me and you?
This means that the price to dispose of upholstered items will increase. Charity shops will likely become much pickier, only accepting items they are confident they’ll be able to sell, to avoid incurring WUDS charges. And, unfortunately, there will undoubtedly be an increase in flytipping. This is what happened when the price to dispose of fridges and mattresses increased, we started to see fridges and mattresses being flytipped in fields and at the side of roads.
The importance of using a professional junk removal company
To ensure your unwanted items are properly (and legally!) disposed of, it’s more important than ever to choose a professional, trustworthy company like Junk-it. Junk-it has an excellent reputation built up over years of experience. We are SEPA registered, fully insured and Safe Contractor approved. Please have a browse of our Google reviews to see what our customers are saying about us.
Due to the above changes, we have amended our pricelist slightly. Sofas are now on our list of surchargable items when part of a larger job, like a house clearance for example. You can view our updated pricelist here. We are always happy to provide a free, no obligation quote and can take care of everything from a washing machine to a full house or office clearance. Get in touch via our online enquiry form or give us a call in the office on 0141 433 4330 or 0131 228 3848.
