OT'ish Trailer size limit for recycling centre

Not uncommon, but 1.3m seems smaller than two councils I'm aware of ... Can't you register a longer one?

Nope. Above 1.3m needs a permit, which can only be used 12 times per year

register for a permit was what I meant, isn't once a month to the tip enough?

Different councils or authorities have different rules and have different restrictions on what can be used to transport waste. This is probably more to do with rejecting commercial waste. Where friends live the council have just introduced a very bureaucratic scheme where you first have to sign up on-line and then get an appointment to use the recycling tip. Unfortunately no-one seems to be able to sign-up :(

My council's recycling tip, run by a third party contractor, allows trailer sizes of 1.8m without question. They allow trailers between 1.8m and 3m as long as you complete a household waste declaration form. You are declaring that you are not dumping commercial waste. The declaration form is available on-line and must be presented when turning up at the tip. The waste can be examined prior to entry and rejected if deemed to be commercial.

Trailers over 3m are banned and commercial type vehicles with trailers are also banned. "Commercial Vans" (without trailers) are allowed entry for a few hours on a Sunday but with no commercial waste - a completed household waste declaration form must be presented.

The recycling tip requires proof of address (driving licence, passport, council bill etc.) which they check on a random basis before you can enter. They also have number plate recognition cameras and software. There is small display where you can see the number plate details of vehicles entering. I assume with the number plate recognition they could determine that someone turning up once a week is unlikely to be disposing of "household" waste.

We have that, introduced during lockdown. It was so successful that they kept it (I am not being sarcastic). Few queues, it's not overcrowded and you can usually get in the same day.

There was a period, long ago, where they had a ridiculously low height limit. I had an original Ford Galaxy (VW Sharan, Seat Alhambra) and I couldn't get it. But enough people cmplained that they fixed that.

During Covid access to my local recycling tip was very restricted due to distancing rules. They closed down 66% of the vehicle parking bays and policed the access to the large skips. Only one person at a time was allowed on the stairs to reach the top of the skip and you had to stand in line, suitably spaced away from others, to await your turn to recycle rubbish to land fill. This made a trip to the tip very slow.

An appointment scheme that works well possible has more to do with a persons life style. If you are working all week then perhaps your only opportunity to go down to the tip is at the weekend. If you are retired then it may be easy to book an appointment during the less busy times.

With my local tip it's just turn up. Go at the weekend and I'm likely to always join the back of a large queue. Go Monday to Friday and I'm likely to go straight in with no waiting. One proviso: On week days too many people think that they "beat the queue" by turning up just before the gates open which actually results in a long queue they were trying to avoid. On weekdays wait until the tip has been open an hour and the early bird queue has completely disappeared.

The local tip(s) have CCTV cameras showing the queue to enter the tip. The images from the cameras can be seen on-line in real time.

One of their justifications was that it reduces queuing - which I suppose it might on a Saturday (partly by causing reduction in visitors since a proportion of the former users now offload their waste in the nearest country lane!)

I have not yet mustered the enthusiasm to try - it seems to take a whole load more planning and organising that I would like!

My son works, and finds it pretty good. I'm retired, and it's also pretty good.

It would be great if they had a couple of evening openings, though.

Waste disposal is getting more difficult everywhere, as councils try to monetise it as far as possible. Councils must themselves pay a landfill tax, even on their own land. Unfortunately, the more difficult it gets, the more fly tipping there will be. Here's our rules:

That's a ridiculous limit - with 5'x3' trailers being an extremely common size.

Our council's rules don't bother about size, just whether it is single-axle or more.

It really is time that councils were obliged to deal with as much non-trade waste as a household has, delivered in whatever way the household has available.

I suppose there was too much lucrative trade waste being transported by non-trade vehicles, possibly on an organised freelance basis.

Or simply "I'll knock £x off the bill if you get rid of this stuff yourself".

It's fine for them to check up on that, but not to make it harder or more expensive for households to dispose of what they legimately should be able to.

No. It's always acceptable to punish the many for the sins of the few.

Road humps.

Here the recycling centres are operated by contractors working on behalf of Hampshire County Council who own them. The CC want to close 12 out of 24 of them though ours* has had a temporary reprieve while they go through the motions of of listening to objections. Fly tipping is bound to increase if the nearest tip becomes a 60 mile round trip but the County Council would indeed save money as clearing up fly tipping isn’t a County issue for most of the area, that falls on New Forest District Council whose costs would increase and landowners .If the waste is deposited on private ground it is the owner of he land that has pay for removal.

• It is actually located just inside Dorset and there have been periods where Dorset residents have had to drive past it to an actual Dorset operated tip some miles further away as Dorset would not contribute to its running cost, at the moment peace reigns and Dorset residents are permitted use it.

GH

Made me go out and check. Daxara 136 is just inside that.

Our local tip just says max .75 tonne un-braked trailer, which I assume allows a much bigger trailer in.

Cheers

Dave R

The nearest tip to me requires pre-booking.

We're seeing quite a lot of fly-tipping recently. Making it harder to use the tip might not be unconnected.

In practice I go past one in the next county once a week or so, and a diversion isn't that difficult.

Andy

The reason that my tip requires a proof of address is that the council only accepts items from local residents but one of the tips is on the geographical border with a neighbouring council area.

booking. You can't book anything except 'pre'!