Zero out of 128 polled council representatives said they considered a trip to the household waste and recycling centre (HWRC) “essential” under current regulations.
A poll by recycling and waste management firm SUEZ recycling and recovery UK gauged the opinion of 128 local authority representatives during a webinar on safe operation of HWRCs.
Of those who participated in the polls during the webinar none believed that “under current regulations” was a trip to HWRC “essential”; and 72% of representatives thought that it would take between one and three weeks to “remobilise one or more HWRCs”.
The poll results come as an increase fly-tipping – thought to be due to reduced waste services provided by councils during the COIVD-19 crisis – has resulted in calls for local recycling centres to be reopened.
With these essential public cleansing services continuing, there isn’t a need for a whole scale reopening of household waste recycling centres
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is now planning to consult with local authorities on whether this is feasible.
The Department last week issued a statement that said it was “encouraging councils to keep their HWRCs open to ensure that bulky waste can continue to be disposed of, but only if social distancing guidelines can be adhered to on site”.
John Scanlon, Chief Executive Officer for SUEZ recycling and recovery UK said that with HWRCs and charity shops closed and bring banks full, it is time for people to “think before they discard”, and to store or re-use items at home.
“We and others in our sector are working alongside local authorities to keep household waste and recycling collections going through the pandemic,” he said.
“With these essential public cleansing services continuing, there isn’t a need for a whole scale reopening of household waste recycling centres and this current scenario is helping our key worker refuse staff to stay focused on doing their job so the NHS, and other front line services can stay working to keep us all safe.”
Think before discarding
He said if there is a need to re-open a limited number of strategically located HWRCs in order to ease any pressures on household collection services, SUEZ will ensure those facilities operate in line with Public Health England guidelines, which will mean limiting the number of vehicles and people who can attend at any one time, restricting their capacity by at least 50% to maintain social distancing.
In this event, Mr Scanlon said SUEZ anticipates that initially HWRCs would accept only one or two critical materials such as garden waste, wood or general household waste, and that access may need to be restricted, for example, by allocating households in different postcode areas specific days to use their local site, in order to manage demand and avoid lengthy queues on surrounding roads.
With HWRCs and charity shops closed and bring banks full, it is time for people to think before they discard, and store or re-use items at home
“If any do re-open, we urge the public that a trip to their local recycling centre under a restricted service should remain something that must be only strictly necessary and cannot be used as diversionary trip or because people feel unable to responsibly store toys, clothes or electrical goods that they have decided to throw-away as part of a lockdown induced spring-clean at home,” he said.
“Non-essential clear-outs and associated trips to the HWRC must remain just that for now and be avoided. With HWRCs and charity shops closed and bring banks full, it is time for people to think before they discard, and store or re-use items at home.”
“High priority”
The Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA) is calling on the operators of the HWRCs to put together a “plan of action” to explain how reopening recycling centres can be “safely and practicably achieved” and within what timescale.
Andy Hill, Chair of the WRA, said it is “crucial” the waste and recycling sector begins to plan ahead for when the UK moves out of lockdown and industry begins to go back to work.
It is asking Defra to give HWRCs a “high priority” in its exit strategy, and to carefully consider the flow of waste wood so that we can get the sector back up and running again “as soon possible after lockdown”.
The waste wood market has been hit hard by the closure of HWRCs, as well as the temporary shutdown of many industries that feed wood into the market place, including construction, the WRA says.
The waste wood market has been hit hard by the closure of HWRCs, as well as the temporary shutdown of many industries that feed wood into the market place, including construction, the WRA says.
A survey of WRA members last week found that wood recyclers have seen an average of 80% drop in feedstock supply since the lockdown commenced, causing what WRA calls “significant financial stress” on all parts of the supply chain, including the processors and end consumers such as the biomass plants requiring fuel.
The WRA is also asking that where some HWRC sites have remained open through the current lockdown, that best practice from these sites is shared with the other HWRC operators in order to enable the re-opening as soon as is practicably possible.
SUEZ webinar poll results
SUEZ recycling and recovery UK polled 128 local authority representatives during a webinar on safe operation of HWRCs.
Of those who participated in the polls during the webinar, the following results were obtained:
| Q1. Under current regulations, do you consider a trip to a Household Waste Recycling Centre a reasonable excuse to leave the home? (asked at start of webinar, repeated at end of seminar see Q6) | ||
| Yes | 11% | |
| No | 89% | |
| Q2. When could a trip to a Household Waste Recycling Centre be considered as accessing a critical public service? | ||
| If after 3 months of non-essential services are suspended | 3% | |
| If food and general waste can’t be collected from households | 90% | |
| Never | 6% | |
| Q3. In the event that you reopen a HWRC, are you confident in managing demand to maintain social distancing and avoid congestion? | ||
| No | 97% | |
| Yes | 3% | |
| Q4. If you do reopen, which TWO streams would you prioritise? | ||
| Bulky waste and garden waste | 72% | |
| Bulky waste and wood | 6% | |
| Garden only | 6% | |
| Garden waste and wood | 17% | |
| Q5. How long do you think it would take to remobilise one or more HWRCs? | ||
| 1-2 weeks | 48% | |
| 2-3 weeks | 24% | |
| 3+ weeks | 6% | |
| Less than 1 week | 21% | |
| Q6. Under current regulations do you consider a trip to a HWRC essential? | ||
| No | ||
SUEZ’s report Covid-19 and HWRC operations can be downloaded here.
