PEOPLE will soon have to book whenever they take rubbish to one of South Gloucestershire Council’s Sort It recycling centres.
The council says a new law means it has to limit how much DIY waste, such as rubble and plasterboard, people can bring to recycling centres. This means it has to record how much is being disposed of, and it believes a booking system is the best way to do this.
When the government announced the new law, it said it would ban fees for depositing DIY waste and help cut fly-tipping.
But the council says the new law “requires all local authorities to regulate the disposal of household DIY waste, and the easiest and most cost-effective way to do this is by introducing a booking system”.
Up until now the council has had a registration system for residents’ cars using Sort It centres, but non-registered cars are seldom turned away.
A spokesperson said more than 40% of councils already have booking systems and introducing one will help to stop people from outside the area disposing of their waste in our Sort It Centres, and commercial waste, which costs our residents significant amounts of money to dispose of”.
The council has launched an online engagement survey on its consultations website, “to help explain how the scheme could work and to give you an opportunity to provide feedback”.
But it has stressed that the booking system will be introduced this year, saying: “This is an engagement exercise, not a consultation and your feedback will help shape how (not if) we introduce a booking system.”
The survey can be found at tinyurl.com/yc3fxj3u. Anyone who is not online can call 01454 868009 for help in making a response, before the deadline of April 1. The council is also consulting on a new “draft plan” to shape its priorities for the next four years, which can be found at sgcouncilplan.commonplace.is