A standard 'Right click > Delete' option would suffice to get back the hard disk space.
However, technically speaking, a regular delete/empty recycle bin does just 'recycle'... deletes all shortcuts viewable to the files being deleted/emptied from recycling bin, and marks the previous occupied space, as 'available to be overwritten' (you get the data space back to be used but the deleted fiules are still present, until overwritten, so can still be recovered through data recovery software tools)
I use CCleaner with an option of 'Secure File Deletion' which overwrites the data being deleted, to an an unrecoverable point, literally giving back all space.
Either way, both normal Delete And 'Secure Deletion' would both give you back the space, just the difference of available to be overwritten or fully erased and available space.