Council reviewing two-day closures at Lincolnshire tips as demand soars

People have been encouraged to stay away from recycling centres on Fridays and Saturdays as demand soars – and the council looks to review their weekly two-day closure.

Vast amounts of green waste is expected to be received during the summer months.

Lincolnshire County Councillor Daniel McNally, executive for waste and trading standards, admitted the surge of people visiting recycling centres on particular days sometimes led to skips being full.

He urged people to look at alternatives for garden waste, such as green bin collections, composting, or visiting on quieter days.

Warnings will also be put out on social media when the centres are experiencing particularly high demand.

Councillor McNally said contracts which meant the centres were closed for two days a week, on Wednesdays and Thursdays, were being reviewed.

“The contract [review] is still in the early stages, it hasn’t gone out yet,” he told the county council’s AGM.

“We are seeing high levels of traffic at Spalding, Lincoln and Boston predominately on a Friday and Saturday. We don’t seem to have these sorts of problems on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.

The Boston Household Waste Recycling Centre

“This is having a knock-on effect of the skips being emptied, so sometimes when people arrive they are full. We have three or four haulage crews and they’re trying to get to 11 different sites around the country.

“What we are seeing in Spalding is a vast amount of green waste going there. One month last year, it received 263 tonnes of green waste, Boston had 44 and Bourne had 65.

“Councils should urge residents to use green waste collection service from the district council, or composting, and visit on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday when it is quieter.

“Also keep an eye on social media as we do say when it will be busy or not.”

The council has previously defended closing the household waste recycling sites for two days a week, saying there was “no proven link between fly-tipping and recycling centre provision”.

A petition had called for extended opening hours.

However, Councillor McNally said at the time: “It’s insulting to suggest law-abiding residents who would usually go to their local recycling centre would instead fly-tip just because they can’t visit on a Wednesday or Thursday.”

He said the authority had invested £2.2million a year into recycling centres, but “Unfortunately, there simply isn’t the money to build more, bigger sites everywhere that are open 24/7; it’s not realistic.”

Details on recycling centres’ opening times and what they accept can be found online.