Shropshire Council has declared, on no more than anecdotal evidence, that the five household recycling centres (HRCs) in Shropshire are being abused. The council asserts that waste is being brought in to Shropshire by people living in other local authorities (this is known as waste tourism), especially to the HRCs in the north of the county. Some waste is not household waste but is being tipped by traders. Here Shropshire Council points the finger at self-employed businesses and builders without providing any evidence for that.
Despite the lack of any data on the size of the waste tourism and tipping on commercial waste, Shropshire Council has decided to impose a booking system for those wishing to visit their local tip from Monday 4 November. Residents from Telford and Wrekin will be able to use Shropshire HRCs and vice versa. This will be reviewed after five months.
The council hasn’t demonstrated whether this measure is either necessary or proportionate. Neither has it provided information on costs, savings or potential income.
You can book a time online or by ringing 0345 678 9007 between 9am and 3pm, Monday to Friday. You will be allocated a 15-minute slot so let’s hope the traffic doesn’t snarl up in Craven Arms. You must bring proof of your home address with you. Appointments can be booked up to six days in advance up to two hours before your arrival. Vans and trailers can book longer visits. If you don’t have or don’t wish to use a car, you can walk or cycle to the HRC.
This change was presaged in the council’s draft Waste Prevention Strategy. This brings Shropshire Council in line with many other councils which have long had a booking system for use of HRCs.
Processing waste for reuse, recycling or incineration costs money. The complex contract Shropshire Council has with Veolia dictates that the more waste that goes to HRCs, the more the council pays. But there is money to be made from waste which would help partly counterbalance this. However, Shropshire Council doesn’t know how much money Veolia makes from our household waste and doesn’t seem to be getting a share of the profits, except for a share of the proceeds from energy produced at the Battlefield Incinerator.
The percentage of waste tipped at the HRCs, at 16.1% (25,300 tonnes a year) is higher than the national and regional average and that for similar counties. The draft waste prevention strategy thinks that this is due to the lack of a booking system for visiting the HRCs (except for vans and large trailers).
The council also speculates that this is due to self employed people, especially builders, using the HRCs:
“The council’s waste services provider anecdotally advises that, reasonable quantities of commercial waste is deposited at the HWRC sites under the guise of it being domestic waste.”
“The council’s waste services provider also anecdotally advises that waste ‘tourism’ occurs whereby waste, both from domestic and commercial sources from out of the county is deposited at Shropshire’s HWRC sites due to there being relatively low controls in place for accessing Shropshire’s HWRC infrastructure.”
This is why, the council asserts, Shropshire’s HRCs receive a greater proportion of waste than elsewhere. This, as the draft waste prevention strategy acknowledges, is based on no more than speculation and anecdotes. There could well be another reason. In 2019, Shropshire Council abruptly withdrew bring banks from car parks across the county, forcing people to take excess recyclables to the HRCs.
Some waste taken to HRCs can be recycled. There is however very limited totting, sale of reusable items such as cycles, at the moment. How much income the council can gain from this and recycling waste is “untested and unknown”. Shropshire Council doesn’t even know how much it costs to run each HRC!
The amount of waste taken to HRCs suddenly shot up in 2019. Shropshire Council says it does not know why this was so. It also says it does not know why Shropshire households produce more waste than average. It speculates this might be due to our older population reading more newspapers, our rural population drinking more at home than in pubs and restaurants and having more home deliveries. As before, there is no data to support this.
The case for a booking system at the HRCs hasn’t been backed up by evidence. If this was being introduced as a pilot with close monitoring of its impacts it would make sense. But permanent policies should be evidence based and not speculative.
“Shropshire Council says it does not know why Shropshire households produce more waste than average.”
Might thus be because we have mire elderly, better educated population than elsewhere that is conscious of environmental issues, has the time on its hands to recycle, and is therefore generally more conscientious in this regard.
Frankly I can’t see what you are getting excited about Andy, booking is not hard and helps avoid waits at busy times. Obviously the county will be able to release staff and reduce costs when there are no bookings. The only thing that worries me is if the council uses the booking system to effectively reduce the number of hours that the centre is available for booking (because they have reduced that staff or not covered vacations etc) – but some sort of VISIBLE cost benefit trade off to ensure the centre is open when it is required should be possible,
You are only taking into account your perspective. An operative will have to staff the gates at all times to check booking and turn away those not booked. The idea of releasing staff is fantasy. Have you seen how busy the HRCs are in the north of the county? The council is already warning it will reduce hours next year.
I wonder whether, in the absence of any proper research, Shropshire Council might also consider that Shropshire people could just be more environmentally responsible than elsewhere in the country, and therefore use their HRCs more often, thereby setting an example to the rest of the country?
Put it another way: if you were trying to increase fly-tipping, what might be a good strategy? How about closing local sources of recycling so people have to travel further to dispose of their waste, then charging people to collect their green waste, then make it more difficult for them to use the recycling centres that were left. And then close some of those recycling centres..
Roll on next May
Stand by for an increase in fly tipping in our rural lanes, lay-bys, farm fields and beauty spots. And remember that waste dumped on private land (including National Trust properties is cleared at the expense of the landowners. The Council is acting against rate layers by discouraging the use of HRCs.
This system is causing a lot of difficulties for my older gardening customers. For those who cannot afford the green bin, or do not have a computer or a car it’s a nightmare, and they are complaining. Today I carried bags of garden rubbish to a client’s car who was really not healthy enough to do this.
I was told by someone that this system was to prevent the aforementioned abuse, and then when I sat down and reflected I realised that if this abuse was going to happen it would have done so a while ago.
I know it has not happened because I spoke to the guys at the tip, and they said if it’s not broken don’t try and fix it, that the current system was working fine.
Upon my most recent visit, a number of tip users were of the opinion that this is yet another way of monitoring and controlling people.
More and more people are become awake and aware that something is not right and that things are moving in a more totalitarian direction.
Unfortunately there is a great deal of evidence out there to support this, although cognitive dissonance usually takes hold.
I hope you will stand up for the people Andy, as it appears the servants have taken over the big house.