Nottinghamshire County Council is working on preparations to reopen six of its 12 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) from Monday, 18th May – including the one at Newark.

Beeston, Bilsthorpe, Calverton, Hucknall, Newark and Worksop HWRCs (managed by Veolia) will reopen seven days a week, from 10am–6pm, apart from Newark, which will be open from 10am-4pm to avoid causing additional congestion on the Brunel Drive Industrial Estate and around the A1/A46/A17 junctions during the evening traffic peak.

The council said this was the first phase of reopening and plans to reopen the remaining sites are under way.

Strict social distancing will be enforced and a one car in one car out system will be employed; no trailers or vans will be permitted.

The sites will be running a reduced service and only the following materials can be taken:
•garden waste,
•wood
•carboard
•metals
•waste electrical and electronic equipment
•general waste

Staff will be onsite, but they will be unable to help unload due to social distancing. Residents are reminded that if they have coronavirus symptoms, are self-isolating or at a high risk of contracting the virus they should not travel to the sites,

The council added that it is also working with district councils to support them to re-establish bulky and green waste domestic collections.

The leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Coun Kay Cutts said: “At the start of lockdown, the Government gave very clear advice to only make necessary journeys and a trip to the recycling centre was not identified as an essential journey.

“I know residents are keen for recycling centres to reopen but we must do this safely and within Government guidelines around essential travel, and I would reiterate that where possible your waste should be stored safely at home in the first instance.

“For people who cannot do that, and their waste cannot be stored without causing a risk of injury, health or harm to themselves and or their family we have chosen six sites to reopen. The first sites which will reopen provide the best balance of location to provide coverage across the county, on-site space to allow social distancing and ease of access to allow off-site queueing – minimising disruption on the county’s roads.

“As we start to consider steps for coming out of lockdown, I ask that people remain patient and remind them that whilst a limited number of recycling centres are reopening, they should only visit the sites if absolutely necessary.

“If the queues are lengthy at the sites when they reopen, we may have to ask residents to come back later if those queues are dangerous. We would ask people to be patient – we understand how some properties may have great difficulty storing waste during the lockdown and thank people for their patience and understanding.”

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