South Gloucestershire Council has announced that three of its four Sort It recycling centres will reopen on Saturday 16th May after being temporarily closed due to the coronavirus emergency.
Sort It recycling centres at Mangotsfield, Thornbury and Yate will open with some restrictions around the type of waste that can be disposed of, and essential social distancing measures in place to keep people safe.
There will also be a temporary change to opening times with sites operating from 6am to 6pm until further notice. The sites will be open for essential use and will only accept non-recyclable black bin waste and large items such as furniture and mattresses to begin with.
Any other waste, including garden waste, soil, DIY, recycling and plastics cannot be brought onto the sites and will not be accepted.
Limits on the types of waste are necessary so the site operators can cordon off certain areas and implement social distancing measures. This will enable people to unload their vehicles at a safe distance from others in the current circumstances.
Each vehicle will have the use of two parking spaces to unload waste and two disposal bays to use; one for black bin waste and one for large items.
Residents planning to visit the sites are warned that staff will not be able to help unload vehicles, so if necessary, they should take along someone from their own household to assist.
The council’s Little Stoke Sort It recycling centre will remain closed until further notice as will the re-use shop at the Thornbury Sort It recycling centre.
Cabinet member for communities, Cllr Rachael Hunt, said:
“It is fantastic news that we will be reopening three of our recycling centres at Mangotsfield, Thornbury and Yate on 16th May to allow people to dispose of some of the troublesome black-bin and bulky waste that may have built-up at home over the lockdown period.”
“It is important to note that we will have to apply some restrictions around the type of waste that can be disposed of in order to implement appropriate social distancing measures and we urge people to only use the sites if absolutely necessary. We will be providing updates on this and other important information on our website which I encourage residents to check.”
“After these sites have opened, we will be reviewing the measures regularly and additional types of waste may be added if it is possible to do so. I’d like to thank our residents for their patience and understanding over the past few weeks.”
Black bin waste and large items are being prioritised at the Sort It recycling centres as they are most likely to build-up at home and are more likely to be fly-tipped.
The sites are likely to be very busy initially, so to avoid long queues and to prevent traffic building up in the areas around the sites, the council asks that you only visit if you cannot manage your waste at home.
Details on the reopening of the Sort It recycling centres can be found at www.southglos.gov.uk/sortit and www.southglos.gov.uk/servicedisruption
There are no changes to collection days for garden waste, black bins or recycling, so please put your containers out by 7am on your normal collection day. You can check your next collection date at www.southglos.gov.uk/collectionday
Update (25th June 2020)
From an SGC briefing note seen by the South Glos Post:
“The re-opening of Little Stoke [Sort It Centre] is dependent on the reduction of social distancing from 2m to 1m. This is because of the distances required to ensure social distancing with a parallel parking site. Plans are now being made to reopen Little Stoke from Monday 6th July.”
