Residents praised for following guidance as Household Recycling Centres reopen
Aberdeenshire Council has praised all those residents who began visiting its reopened Household Recycling Centres on Monday.
More than 10,000 bookings have been made for the first 7 days of opening, which represents almost half of the 21,000 slots available in the first week across the region.
Westhill has proven to be the busiest in this initial phase with 1,322 slots booked (99%) with Fraserburgh, Inverurie and Laurencekirk seeing 60% booking of their available spaces.
Visitors have been heeding all traffic management advice on how to access the centres and have been disposing of their waste carefully in the new physically-distanced layouts.
Thanks to the introduction of the booking system, there were no queues reported at any of the centres which are initially operating from 9am to 6.30pm.
Council waste manager Ros Baxter said: “The partial re-opening of our HRCs has gone very smoothly and I would like to thank all of our staff who have made this possible.
“I would also like to thank all those residents who have booked online and clearly followed the instructions we have provided.
“The very positive feedback we have received on both our booking system and the way in which we have approached the disposal of general waste and garden waste has been very favourable and we appreciate everyone’s help and patience.
“We are aiming to remove the restrictions on materials and vehicle types as soon as the initial rush is over, however we expect the booking system to remain in place as long as physical distancing is required to prevent the spread of Covid-19.”
You can make your booking at http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/recyclingcentrebookings
For those who do not have access to a computer, telephone booking can be made by calling Aberdeenshire Council’s Wasteline on 03456 081207.
Peterhead Household Recycling Centre is now available for slots to be booked for next Monday and Tuesday initially, however other slots will be released on a daily basis.
Vehicles permitted entry to the centre initially include cars, pick-ups and car-derived vans. There will be no access for trailers or vans at this stage, however these will hopefully be accommodated in the second phase in due course.
In this initial phase, only bagged general waste, garden waste and electrical items will be accepted. No other materials – i.e. cardboard, glass, wood, metals, textiles, rubble and bulky items – will be accepted at this stage.
For more information on the Household Recycling Centres which are open and their operating times, visit https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/apps/news/release.aspx?newsID=579