Recycling centres set to reopen on June 1st
COUNCIL recycling centres across Scotland are expected to reopen within weeks.
It follows concerns about flytipping, with illegal dumping at beauty spots and on roadsides doubling during the pandemic.
Yesterday, council umbrella group Cosla confirmed recycling centres are set to reopen to the public on June 1.
Steven Heddle, Cosla’s environment and economy spokesman and a councillor in Kirkwall, Orkney, said: ‘The reopening of sites depends on receiving assurance that this will not negatively impact the Covid-19 infection rate and will be consistent with national travel advice.
‘There will also be local considerations, including the need to maintain physical distancing for staff and [the] public, which will determine whether and to what extent individual sites will be able to reopen.
‘The intent behind this decision is to provide a level of co-ordination across Scotland, to avoid a disjointed approach which could lead to confusion, and to ensure access to household waste recycling sites is managed to best ensure the safety of both staff and the public.
‘We are working closely with the Scottish Government and partners on this and are drawing up guidance.’
Yesterday, we told how flytipping cases hit a high of 261 last month – up from 95 in the initial weeks of the Covid-19 social distancing measures.
The figures from Zero Waste Scotland revealed how many times rubbish has been dumped at the roadside and in the countryside between March and last month.
A slowdown in refuse collections by councils and the closure of recycling centres fuelled a spike in incidents.
Zero Waste Scotland has run its ‘Dumb Dumpers’ reporting programme for a decade, to offer a simple way for the public to report flytipping. The information is passed to local authorities and the Scottish
Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).
There has been a steady rise in the number of incidents being reported.
The 261 cases reported last month is well above the rate recorded in April last month and the same month in 2018.
Official data indicates reported cases of flytipping rose from 140 in March 2018 to 187 during the same month last year. However, it is feared these numbers are only a fraction of the true figure, because many people report flytipping directly to their local authority and other incidents go unreported.
The release of the figures comes only two weeks after Sepa urged householders to shun rogue rubbish collectors, who are being blamed for the surge in flytipping.
It advises Scots not to be ‘tempted’ to hire unlicensed firms which advertise on social media. The cowboys charge families a fee for the collection of their rubbish before unloading it at isolated beauty spots around the country.
Instead, Sepa advises householders to stockpile their rubbish until council-run tips are able to reopen.
Officials suggest families store waste ‘on their property’ for the next few weeks until it can be collected by local authorities or formally registered waste collection firms.