Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) Network Re-Opening

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Parent Category: Notice Board

Category: Coronavirus COVID-19

Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 May 2020 12:43

Published on Thursday, 07 May 2020 22:39

Written by Parish Clerk

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On 28 April Robert Jenrick MP, Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government, announced in Parliament that he was asking Councils to open HWRCs within the coming weeks and confirmed that they would issue Local Authorities with further guidance on the approach they should take.
The guidance which was received late yesterday, makes it clear that the Government considers a visit to the HWRC as an essential journey where the resident is unable to dispose of waste by any other legal means and cannot store the waste without causing a risk of injury, health or harm to the resident or other members of their household. The guidance has now been published by Government and includes the following text setting out their position from a legislative perspective;

“However, some households do not have enough space to store unwanted items safely and this build-up of waste could in some circumstances create a risk of illness injury or harm, including impacts on mental health, or a fire risk. In these cases, having a legal outlet, such as an HWRC, in which to take these items is essential. Under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 (the Social Distancing Coronavirus Regulations), it would be a reasonable excuse for residents to undertake a journey to an HWRC if the waste or recycling could not be stored safely at home. By this we mean the waste/recycling could not be stored without causing a risk of injury, health or harm to the resident or other members of their household.”

HWRC Service Provision

The main principle for opening the HWRCs is to operate as normally as possible to keep the communications straightforward and minimise the number of changes that residents need to deal with. This will ensure that we focus the communications effort on the key differences that customers will see, namely the need to maintain social distancing.

HWRC will re-open at 10am on Monday 11 May 2020, with the following measures in place:

• Use of sites is only for essential disposal of waste whereby storing such waste causes a risk of injury or to health
• As per government guidelines, residents in the specified vulnerable category (those who are clinically extremely vulnerable, people over 70 and pregnant women) are strongly advised not to visit a site
• Restricted numbers of vehicles will be permitted to access the site at any one time and site staff will enforce this at the site entrance.
• There will be staff at the entrance to each site, wearing a body camera, to manage the flow of vehicles. Security staff will be deployed at all sites and there will be a zero-tolerance approach to any form of abuse.
• New temporary barriers will be in place at the entrance to each site and used to mark out new parking arrangements with site staff guiding vehicles, from a safe distance, into spaces
• As far as possible, only one person per household should visit the HWRC.
• Due to social distancing measures, site staff will be unable to provide any assistance with unloading material or carrying material. Residents are asked to bring only the amount of waste they can comfortably carry and empty into containers
• Trailers are not permitted. Enforcement of social distancing on site means severely reduced capacity for manoeuvring trailers. Vans should be bringing no more waste than that which would fit in an average saloon car boot
• Everyone must always keep at least a two-metre distance from others at all times.
• Sites will accept all waste material streams, except for chargeable waste – soil, rubble, asbestos and plasterboard. However, some processors have shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic and it is likely that some materials outlets may not be available in the short term. Please check the website before your visit to check if any specific material is not able to be accepted temporarily.
• Reuse sales areas will remain closed. Where possible, please continue to store items of furniture which could be reused, donate to local furniture charities, or use online platforms (e.g. Freegle / Facebay / Gumtree). Please see the Smart Living website for more information on furniture reuse.

Where residents or members of their households have had COVID19 symptoms in the last 14 days, they should not travel to or enter a HWRC. After this period, any COVID-19 contaminated waste should be double bagged and put aside for 72 hours before being brought to a site.

The start date for the HWRC vehicle registration scheme has been postponed in light of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. However, the online vehicle registration system remains open in readiness for implementation later this year.

More information at: https://www.hants.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling