It’s been over a month since Dorset Council re-opened its household recycling centres (HRCs, or “the tip”) after they were closed in the early stages of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, there are concerns that HRCs are starting to feel the pressure as restrictions continue to be relaxed and more people arrive to drop off their waste.
Interestingly, while most sites have been quietest at the end of each day, weekdays have seen significantly more visitors than weekends, with Mondays and Tuesdays particularly busy.
It’s also been noted that some visitors are making multiple trips each week, with a few reports of individuals visiting even more than once daily.
As a result, Dorset Council is kindly asking HRC visitors to reconsider whether their “trip to the tip” is necessary or whether they can keep their waste at home safely until social distancing measures are relaxed, or they have enough waste to make the journey and queuing time worthwhile.
All ten of Dorset Council’s HRCs are running at 50% capacity as social distancing measures remain in effect, halving the amount of available parking spaces at each site. To manage resulting queues, volunteers and redeployed Council employees were brought in to “meet and greet” visitors, explaining how to negotiate the new site restrictions and helping prevent traffic problems.
But as more Council services prepare to re-open and employees return to their regular roles, rising numbers of visitors at HRCs are starting to create access problems for local residents and businesses.
Since 11 May, there have been over 113,000 visits to HRCs across the county. While visitor numbers were relatively low in the first few weeks, they have been steadily rising. It is mostly garden waste, wood and black bag rubbish being dropped off. The average waiting time at HRCs has varied, although the longest waiting times have been around 90 minutes.
Bespoke arrangements have been made at Sherborne HRC to cope with queuing traffic, and other measures may need to be introduced at some sites in the coming weeks to address emerging access problems if visitor numbers continue to rise.
To help ease these pressures, Dorset Council is reminding potential HRC visitors of the following: –
- While HRCs are open, social distancing measures are in effect at all sites so we can only accommodate half the usual number of visitors at any given time
- Therefore, please consider whether you need to drop off waste at an HRC at this time or whether it can be safely stored at home until restrictions are relaxed or lifted
- If you do need to visit an HRC, try to avoid Mondays and Tuesdays. Late afternoons are quieter, but always be prepared to queue
- Please sort your waste by type before arriving to reduce the amount of time on site
- Remember to follow on-site signage and instructions.
Cllr Tony Alford, Dorset Council’s portfolio holder for Customer, Community and Regulatory Services, said:
“HRCs were reopened to help residents who could not store their waste safely at home. But while all sites across the county are operating, normal service has not resumed as we need to make sure visitors can socially distance at our HRCs, which restricts the number of people we can safely accommodate at any given time.
There should be relatively few cases where waste cannot be stored safely for a week, so there is little need for people to visit more frequently. Therefore, please consider whether your journey to an HRC is essential now.
If a safety reason justifies a visit to the HRC, it is better to arrive later in the day and avoid Mondays and Tuesdays. It would be regrettable to introduce further measures to ration access. If we keep queuing traffic to a minimum, we can make sure as many people as possible can drop off their waste without causing issues for others.”
Excellent advice, well put.
As a ward member I have a lot of enquiries about the tip situation, and this information is really valuable, so thank you to all involved.
I look forward to seeing an update if and when things change substantially.
Roland Tarr
I used the recycling centre in Dorchester on Saturday. The process went very well and the public were doing a good job of keeping 2m+ apart. However the staff should be reminded to keep their distance from each other and public. Especially around the electrical items collection table.
I understand the problems of potentially overwhelming the County rubbish tips but:
1. Council tax pays for this facility and profits made on recycling go to the council for whatever reasons. Will council tax payees get a discount on their tax as the service provided has been reduced?
2. Some unscrupulous members of the public, having nowhere to put their excess rubbish/recycling because of the reduced tip service, may well take it upon themselves to illegally “fly tip”. Other than this being illegal and anti social, it will, in the long term, be the councils job to clean this up at no cheap cost to the tax payer. This should be borne in mind when considering the partial reduction in the recycling service.
3. Finally I would like to thank all those staff involved in the collection of domestic rubbish and those involved in running the tips. They as much as anyone else are “key workers” and deserve our unreserved thanks.
Thank you for your comments Mike – responses below.
1) Contrary to common belief, we do not make a profit on most recycling – it is simply cheaper and more environmentally sound to deal with than rubbish. However, while we’ve had to restrict access to HRCs for health and safety reasons, all services – primarily kerbside collections – are still running and have been since the start of the pandemic.
2) There is never a legitimate reason to fly-tip, but HRCs are still open – services have not been reduced, just access to HRCs restricted.
3) Our frontline employees appreciate the support at this time, so thank you.
James
I have made two visits to the Bridport recycling centre since it opened again, both were very necessary and though I had to join a short queue the first time the next visit was easy, with no waiting and with direction from courteous and friendly staff late in the day
WELL DONE EVERONE THERE!
I have been using Portland and on the first visit there was a considerable delay. Now it appears to be back to normal and indeed today it was the tidiest I have ever seen it and I commented on this to an operative . However on some previous visits social distancing by the staff was non existent with 3 people standing right next to one another . All in all it is really good that we have such a wonderful service.
Just a quick note on the system used at the Sherborne “Tip” – rather surprisingly, I like it.
Under the old “free-for-all” system it was often a crowded bun-fight, whilst now it actually very pleasant to visit the Sherborne Recycling Centre, with room to move.
Please keep this arrangement as along as possible!
I understand that the Somerley Tip used by residents in st Ives now requires an appointment, how do we do this?
Please visit https://www.hants.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling/recyclingcentres/book-appointment – thank you.
Hi, just been to that website – you need to register a car so you can make an appointment but if you live in Dorset you cannot register a car, some of us tried that a number of months ago. Hants cc said some months ago that Dorset cc would publish the procedure so St Ives residents can get access but, personally, I have seen nothing on the Dorset website or emails; I of course may have missed something
You don’t need to register your vehicle if you live in Dorset – you should be able to book a slot without registration.