recycling centre
Aberdeenshire Council seeking more feedback on household recycling centre trial
Aberdeenshire Council is seeking more feedback on its trial of changes to household
recycling centre bookings, which has been ongoing since November 2022.
Aberdeenshire residents can have their say online via the council’s engage platform.
As well as the online survey, paper copies can be requested from household recycling
centres to ensure that as many people as possible are engaged, and all feedback is gratefully
received.
Any complaints or compliments throughout the trial are included among the criteria for its
assessment—as is car counting data, the tonnages of materials deposited, the cost of the
materials being disposed of, and feedback from additional customer surveying such as this.
There will be a review of all the data with a report due before committee in the autumn.
The survey will run until Sunday 6th August 2023 and any queries should be sent to
recyclingcentrepermits@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.
The booking system was first introduced as a traffic management tool and as a protective
measure for customers and staff when centres opened after the covid lockdown in March 2020.
Since then, the booking system has been used to implement the permit system that
was approved by committee before covid—by applying limits to the number of times trade
type vehicles can access household recycling centres in a year.
You can learn more about the trial on the Aberdeenshire Council website.
The booking system trial can be summarised as…
- No booking is required for any vehicle at any time at Alford, Banchory, Fraserburgh,
Huntly, Macduff, Peterhead, and Portsoy household recycling centres; - No bookings on Wednesdays or Saturdays for cars, pickups, camper vans, and
mobility adapted vehicles at Ellon, Laurencekirk, Portlethen (not open on Wednesday),
Stonehaven, and Turriff. Please note, booking is still required for vans and trailers; - Booking is always required for Insch, Inverurie, and Westhill.
Regardless of the trial, residents should check the website before visiting a recycling centre in
case of closure, information or alterations to what is accepted, and opening times:
bit.ly/AbshireHRCs
Pedestrian access is removed at times when the booking system is not active at a site as they
can no longer be safely separated from vehicles.
Online booking system for Aberdeenshire Council Household Recycling Centres goes live
An online booking system enabling Aberdeenshire residents to start making trips to Household Recycling Centres is now live.
Residents of Aberdeenshire will be asked to book a slot online to control the volume of vehicles accessing the centres when they reopen from Monday, June 1.
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.
The slots will initially be released for the first week 1st to 7th June, and slots for the following days will be released daily seven days in advance, so customers should keep on checking back if they don’t manage to get a slot initially.
Having listened carefully to comments from the public, residents who own car-derived vans will also now be able to visit an HRC along with cars and pick-ups.
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.
General waste – i.e. waste that would normally go in your black bin – will only be accepted if it is bagged, with no loose items being accepted.
All garden waste must arrive bagged or in a suitable container before these are emptied in the appropriate skip, again no loose items are being accepted.
No other materials – i.e. cardboard, glass, wood, metals, textiles, rubble and bulky items – will be accepted at this stage.
There will be clearly-marked areas to deposit white goods and electrical items.
Only one adult should unload a vehicle – unless two adults are needed for heavy items – and staff will be unable to assist with any unloading.
There will be no pedestrian access and no children will be permitted outside vehicles.
The decision to re-open some of the facilities has been taken in accordance with Government guidelines and is based on measures being put in place to protect both visitors and staff and the agreement of traffic management plans.
The Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) opening from Monday, June 1 are those at Macduff, Fraserburgh, Ellon, Inverurie, Huntly, Turriff, Westhill, Banchory, Laurencekirk, Portlethen and Redcloak at Stonehaven.
Peterhead will reopen on June 8 following the completion of essential repairs.
These facilities will operate seven days a week as usual and have extended opening hours from 9am to 6.30pm.
Portlethen will retain its usual 5-day operation with the same extended hours as elsewhere and while opening from Monday, June 1 will close for two days before re-opening on Thursday, June 4 so as not to delay the reopening.
They will have clearly-defined unloading bays to ensure strict physical distancing is maintained at all times.
Council Waste Services manager Ros Baxter added: “The reason for introducing this system is to control the number of visitors to a manageable number each day to ensure social distancing on the sites is observed and the volume of traffic off-site does not cause traffic problems on the local access roads.
“It is important to stress that this is about a phased return to full services, with this initial phase focusing on allowing as many people as possible to get rid of their excess waste under a managed approach. All of our current restrictions will be kept under constant daily review and consideration will be given as to how quickly we can move to phase 2 and lift some of the conditions.”
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