Signs go up for new Hartcliffe Recycling Centre

The first sign for the city council’s new Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) in Hartcliffe has been erected today, 8 August, with the help of cabinet member for waste strategy, Cllr Gary Hopkins, and the council’s HWRC manager, John Whelan.

Funding for the development of the new HWRC in Hartcliffe Way was allocated in the Cabinet’s £50 million Investing in Bristol’s Future package as part of this year’s budget.

The new centre will be the city’s third HWRC and will help increase Bristol’s recycling rates even further. It means South Bristol residents will not have to travel halfway across the city to Avonmouth or St Philips to visit an HWRC.

Cllr Hopkins says: “This will make a real difference, particularly to people in South Bristol and we hope it will also reduce the pressure on the two existing centres, which can get extremely busy. The feasibility work and site survey have already been completed for the new centre and we’ re now working on the initial site design. Work should begin next year and the centre will be open for business in 2014.”

Signs are also going up today at the two existing HWRCs advising people of future changes, in another measure the council is taking to make the centres easier and quicker to use for Bristol residents.

From 29 October,, the centres in Avonmouth and St Philips will begin enforcing a policy of ‘Bristol residents only’. Currently, no checks are made on visitors to the site, and the council estimates up to approximately 20% of users could be coming from outside of Bristol to take advantage of the free, 7 day a week facilities.

People using the sites will be spot-checked and need to show their driving licence, utility bill or council tax bill to show that they live in Bristol.

The number of bags of DIY and construction waste brought to the HWRCs will also be limited to one car boot load or six 25kg bags. This type of waste is classed as industrial waste even if it is generated at home, which means the council doesn’t have a statutory responsibility for collecting it. Limiting how much people can take will bring it in line with other local authorities and ensure that it is a service for  householders, rather than for traders trying to dispose of their waste for free.

Cllr Hopkins says: “This is good news for Bristol residents. At the moment, Bristol tax payers are footing the bill for the recycling and disposal costs of non-Bristol residents and traders, who are taking advantage of the great facilities we have at our two household waste recycling centres. By making sure the centres are only being used by the people that live in the city, it should cut down the queues and save us money, which we can use to help fund the operation of the new Hartcliffe HWRC.”