Further Household Recycling Centres to Open

Published: 27 May 2020

All Buckinghamshire Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) will be open from next week – Friday 29 May. The sites at Amersham, Aston Clinton, Buckingham, Beaconsfield and Wycombe are already open and the HRCS at Aylesbury, Burnham, Chesham and Langley will re-open from Friday 29 May, 9am-6pm. Please remember that Aylesbury, Burnham and Chesham are closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

All sites will operate with social distancing measures and ID will be required to prove residence in Bucks. As it’s harder to manage long queues safely at some of the sites to be reopened, please avoid visiting at busy times and only visit if you really need to.

With garden waste and bulky waste collection back, alongside general waste and most recycling collections, Buckinghamshire Council's Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, Bill Chapple OBE said he hoped people would only use the household waste sites if they absolutely have to.

"Things have gone really well since we took a lead and reopened five of our nine recycling centres, however they have been busy and long queues have formed, particularly before sites have opened in the morning.

"What people might not realise is that while sites are open, the social distancing measures we've had to install have reduced the number of people that can visit at one time. We have made some tweaks on-site to improve things where we can, however it is still leading to long waits at busy times.

"My plea to residents is to only visit sites if their waste cannot safely be stored at home or by using the kerbside collections. Much of what we are seeing coming in is green waste, which is understandable as people focus on their gardens, trees and plants, however it may not require an essential trip. If you can continue to store or compost at home, please do. Obviously, now that garden bin collections have restarted, that also gives residents extra capacity as an alternative to venturing out to a waste site."

Buckinghamshire Council say that queues at some sites have been in excess of an hour so offers the following advice:

• make only essential trips to waste sites for the time being.
• check the council website in advance.
• Use the garden and bulky waste collections where possible as they restarted on 11th May.
• Bring proof of address as some non-Buckinghamshire residents have been turned away.
• Try not to make repeat trips to give everyone a chance to visit.

For further information on all waste services and to check waiting times at HRCs before you visit, please visit Buckinghamshire Council's website.