Hazel Court waste site queues

To understand the real reasons behind why queuing traffic is causing congestion problems at York’s central waste collection site you have to go back a few years.

Until 2012, York operated three civic amenity (recycling) sites that residents could use to dispose of unwanted items. One (at Beckfield Lane) was located on the west of the City, as second (Towthorpe) was located in the east with the third being Hazel Court.

In 2009 the Council announced a plan to create a salvage and reuse centre. It was likely to be located at the existing waste transhipment centre at Harewood Whin. It aimed to go a step further in encouraging the reuse of items that had not reached the end of their lives. Reuse/salvage has less environmental impact than either incineration (or even recycling)

Residents opposed the closure of the Beckfield Lane recycling centre

A new Labour administration – elected in 2011 – made two mistakes. It scrapped plans for the salvage centre and simultaneously announced the closure of the Beckfield Lane site.

The site was subsequently developed for housing.

In effect, 75% of the City now tries to funnel its waste through the Hazel Court site.

There are some alternatives. So called “bring” bins are located in car parks. They typically provide facilities for recycling paper, cans, glass, clothes, and shoes.

The web based “freecycle” group seeks to put item donors in touch with potential users. (The service closed down for much of lockdown but is now operating again). Private scrap dealers also tour and collect in some areas, but it is a largely uncoordinated service. In some areas “surplus food” is distributed by volunteers to those in need.

For many years, ward committees funded visits by skips to estates. These provided an option for those without personal transport to dispose of items. In some wards the vehicles toured the area on a particular day picking up discarded items. This service has also largely disappeared.

The Council should publish details of the amount of waste being deposited at Hazel Court by type.

That will provide them with valuable information on what needs to be done to ease further the demands on Hazel Court and surrounding roads.

Hazel Court HWRC opening hours extended for essential visits

City of York Council is extending the opening hours of Hazel Court Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) from Monday 8 March.

This will bring forward the later opening hours, which were due to start in April – for strictly essential journeys only. The new opening times will be:

  • Mondays to Saturdays: 8.30am to 7pm
  • Sundays: 8.30am to 4pm

In recent weeks, there has been a huge demand for the HWRC site, with an increase of around 30 per cent in visits, which has resulted in queuing problems in the area.

The extended opening hours hopes to address this issue and in addition to this Yorwaste, who manage the sites, have made further adjustments to make on site bays clearer and have increased the number of garden waste and cardboard skips.

Traffic monitoring will be in place at sites and due to safety concerns regarding queueing outside of the sites, residents may be asked to leave and return at another time.

Kerbside garden waste collections will also resume from 29 March. Check your garden waste collection dates via our online waste collection calendar.

In addition to this, traders are permitted to use Harewood Whin to dispose of their waste too. For more information on this visit www.yorwaste.co.uk/commercial-waste/ . Commercial waste tipping times are will remain the same Monday to Friday, between 8.30am to 4.30pm, not at weekends.

Coronavirus York updates; 6th July 2020

Deaths and test results

The number of positive virus test results in York continues to edge up.

It has now topped 900 cumulative cases.

Better news on deaths where no more have been recorded at York Trust hospitals.

The total remains at 214.

Household waste sites – appointments still needed.

Just a reminder that the York Council is still asking residents to make an appointment if they wish to use the household waste site at Hazel Court. The Council said that they would be phasing out the requirement in the light of low user numbers.

Mansion House reopening to public

The Mansion House will be reopening for guided tours on Wednesday 22nd July.

The managers say, “From next week, we will be launching an online booking page, where it will be possible to book onto a 45 minute guided tour, which will run throughout the day from Wednesday to Sunday. On each tour we will allow no more than six people, so we can stay in complete control of distancing, and deliver the best experience possible”.

Recycling facilities under pressure in York following festive break

Long queue today to get into Hazel Court recycling centre

1/4 mile long queues developed on the route into the Hazel Court recycling centre earlier today.

The post Christmas rush also resulted in  the paper banks at Acomb Car park overflowing. There is space in the adjacent bottle banks.

Fly tipping has steadily increased today. The issue has been taken up by Cllr Andrew Waller

We think that the Council needs to do more – perhaps using social media channels – to tell residents where there is spare recycling  bank capacity and when  the full banks in other locations will be emptied.

Fly tipping at Acomb Car park

 

UPDATED Delays in recycling collections – Residents urged to use “bring” recycling banks

No need for fly tipping. Space in all the recycling bins at Acomb Car park today

The Council has issued a statement today (Tuesday) saying,

“We have been so busy today collecting all the festive waste that we were unable to collect the recycling from the following streets:

  • Askham Grove
  • Robinson Drive
  • Acomb Green
  • Askham Lane (from Askham Grove to Foxwood Lane)
  • Yearsley Crescent 
  • Ashville Street 
  • Oakville Street 
  • Park Grove (from alley end of Eldon Street)

If you are affected please put your rubbish out by 7am tomorrow and we will return and collect. Apologies for any inconvenience this has caused”.

Residents are being urged to use the network of recycling banks across the City.

The plea comes after street collections fell behind scheduled last week.

The Council reported that very large amounts of, post festive season, waste were being presented for collection.

You can follow York waste collections on Twitter @CYCWaste

Their Facebook page can be found at City of York Council Waste Services

Recycling bank locations – click the map, then the click “street care” then “Recycling banks”

 

Have a Merry ‘green’ Christmas say Council

City of York Council’s Recycling Team is helping residents to have a ‘green’ Christmas this year by providing festive dos and don’ts to make it even easier to recycle and re-use Christmas waste.

Greetings cards, wrapping paper and crackers are just some of the items that can be recycled through the council’s household waste and recycling collections.

Councillor Andrew Waller, executive member for environment, said: “Christmas is a time of great joy and celebration for most people, but it’s also a time when we create lots of extra waste.

“Just giving a bit of ‘One Planet’ thought to how we can recycle, re-use and compost Christmas waste can make a huge difference to the amount we throw away.

“Re-using items such as wrapping paper and gift bags can also be a great way to help keep costs down next Christmas.”

Festive ‘dos’ to recycle include:

  • Greetings cards
  • Wrapping paper (non foil)
  • Cardboard
  • Crackers (remove all the embellishments, such as bows, first)
  • Bottles
  • Tins

Real Christmas trees and wreaths (with tinsel and decorations removed) can be recycled at Hazel Court or Towthorpe Waste Household Recycling Centres. Lots of food waste can be composted and re-used in the garden. Visit www.getcomposting.com for more information.

Festive don’ts to recycle:

  • Heavily glittered items
  • Tinsel
  • Foil wrapping paper
  • Plastic Christmas trees and wreaths

For some tasty recipes on using up festive leftovers and hints on how to reduce food waste visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Residents can check their recycling collection days using:

the  calendar which the council distributed to households across the city in October and November

online at www.york.gov.uk/refuselookup

get free alerts to smartphones or tablets by downloading the OnePlanetYork app from itunes or google playstore.

The city’s household waste centres are open every day except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s day (with Towthorpe also closed on Wednesdays).  To check what can go in your recycling boxes, visit www.york.gov.uk/waste

For more information on festive waste and recycling visit www.york.gov.uk/festivereycling

Extra waste collections over the Christmas period

All households will get extra household waste collections (grey bins/black sacks) during weeks commencing 18 December 2017 and 2 January 2018… Put your waste out by 7.00am for collection! click  CHECK YOUR COLLECTION DAY/DATES: WWW.YORK.GOV.UK/REFUSELOOKUP

Reuse and salvage – Questions about York approach

One of the most short sighted decisions of the York Council’s Labour administration between 2011 – 2015 was their decision to scrap plans for a “reuse and salvage” centre.

The facility could have been located at Harewood Whin and – as well as replacing the Beckfield Lane recycling facility which was closed in 2012 – would have provided 21st century salvage facilities for surplus items in the City.

Electrical equipment skip at Hazel Court.

Electrical equipment skip at Hazel Court.

More important, it would have introduced a more professional approach to the re-use of unwanted, but still serviceable, items.

That need is currently partly met by the internet based Freecycle and similar groups but large numbers of usable objects still find themselves in the land-fill stream.

Today, visitors to the Hazel Court amenity site witnesses a good example of the issue. One resident arrived with a set of perfectly serviceable wooden dining chairs. They would have  found  their way into the timber recycling skip had not another visitor offered them a new home. But that was down to luck not planning.

Recycling is more costly, and energy intensive, than simply reusing items…..even if some need repair or a coat of paint.

The Council still persists in asking residents to drop electrical goods into a steel container from a height of 3 metres jeopardising any opportunity to reuse the computers, printers, phones and other potentially valuable items which fill the skip each day.

The Council must take an independent look at the range of re-use services that are available in the city.

They then need to expand them and make sure that the options available are communicated regularly, and effectively, to local residents.