Significant cost savings achieved following changes at Household Recycling Centres in Buckinghamshire

The recycling centre service in Buckinghamshire is achieving significant cost savings following the introduction of changes earlier in 2019.

Ahead of a meeting of Buckinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet on Monday 9th September 2019 a report has been published showing the early results of changes to the Household Recycling Centre (HRC) service in Buckinghamshire that were brought in on Monday 1st April 2019.

The changes, which included the closure of some HRC’s, reduced days of operation and charges for certain items of non-household waste, were introduced to achieve cost savings for the County Council.

According to a report published on Friday 30th August 2019 there was a big rush in March 2019 to dispose of non-household waste at the HRCs before charging was introduced. This meant there was a reduction in the volume of waste being received over the following months.

The amount of waste is now beginning to return to expected levels and financial forecasts show the HRC service is on target to make the necessary budget savings.

As a result the Cabinet Member for Planning & Environment at Buckinghamshire County Council, Bill Chapple OBE, is able to make the recommendation to the County Council’s Cabinet that the planned closure of Burnham HRC no longer takes place. The actual decision to cancel the closure will be made at the meeting on Monday 9th September 2019.

It has also been revealed fly tipping has not increased significantly following the introduction of charges for non-household waste and the reduction of opening days at Burnham, Chesham and Aylesbury (Rabans Lane) HRCs.

Bill Chapple commented: ‘It’s still early days, but the indications are that the changes that we had to make to the county’s household recycling centre service are having the desired result in terms of cost savings achieved. That’s why I’m really pleased to be able to make the recommendation to Cabinet that the closure of Burnham recycling centre is no longer required in order to meet our financial targets.

Although the introduction of charges for non-household waste is not something we wanted to have to bring in, the process of charging is bedding in well, and not leading to inconvenience for visitors to the recycling centres. And although people to now have to pay to dispose of their non-household waste, the cost isn’t onerous – 75% of the waste brought to our sites counts as household waste and is completely free to dispose of, and the average transaction for the chargeable waste is just £8.

And of course I’m pleased to be able to report that the changes haven’t led to an increase in fly tipping – though this is something we’ll continue to keep a close eye on.‘

The report on can be read and download on the Buckinghamshire County Council website at the following link : https://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=11084.

*Source of article : Press release from Buckinghamshire County Council.