A KINGSLEY woman is demanding to know why new working practices have been introduced at local Household Waste Recycling Centres. Promoted as heralding a new beginning at HWRCs across the county, a single contractor has come on board for most sites provided by Hampshire County Council. Hopkins Recycling has won the contract to run 23 of Hampshire's 24 HWRCs on behalf of HCC, following a formal tender exercise. And Alton's HWRC on the Omega business park off Wilsom Road and Bordon's Station Road HWRC are among them. But Kingsley resident Sylvia Wren says the changes should be questioned. A regular user of HWRCs at Alton and Bordon, Mrs Wren says that from January workers at the centres are prevented from breaking up and trampling down waste in the skips. Now instead of taking up to 7 tons of rubbish each skip now takes less than two, forcing centres to use three instead of one skip for the same volume of refuse. Since it costs in the region of £725 to remove the skip and empty it, the cost of disposing of rubbish could escalate threefold. And it will increase traffic to and from centres and the carbon footprint, in opposition to HCC and Government policy. Mrs Wren says the loosely packed rubbish will take up more landfill, or require more onsite compacting. In addition, it seems that users are no longer allowed to walk the plank and dispose of their own rubbish in the skips but have to wait for a centre operative to take it from them. And, unless users actually give recyclable items like furniture away to be sold, they too have to go into the skip and can no longer be retrieved by the operatives. "A lot of people buy second-hand furniture and goods from the tip sites – it is a good way of recycling them," points out Mrs Wren who also questions the need for onsite traffic. A Hampshire County Council spokesman said: "The new contract was based on customer research with the aim of improving the service for all householders to make it quicker and easier for them to use the sites. "It is a result of health and safety guidance from the Health and Safety Executive, which means site staff are no longer allowed to get directly into skips. "While this improves the personal safety of site staff, it also means that skips cannot be compacted in the same manual way as previously. However, trials are ongoing at four sites to use mechanical compaction. "Initial indications for mechanical compaction are favourable so it is hoped this can be introduced more widely across the HWRC network in the near future, which will allow a greater compaction than was achievable manually." The spokesman said it is difficult to quantify the exact cost of changing a skip as it would depend on the weight and material inside but, she felt, "an average figure of £725 is probably excessive. "While customers may request help to carry items if they need it they remain free to take things to the skips themselves. "Site staff are employed and incentivised to segregate as much recyclable waste as possible in order to divert it from landfill, so if they see an item of furniture for example that can be placed in the sales area, then please be assured that they will put it to one side." According to HCC, the new contract with Hopkins Recycling was developed with the primary aim of improving the service for all householders. Hopkins, which already operates 15 sites in the county, has signed up to providing a strong customer focus and to making the sites quicker and easier to use for local householders. HCC executive member for environment, Mel Kendal, said: "Hampshire's HWRCs are a very popular public service, receiving over four million visitors every year. Many sites achieve a recycling rate of 60 per cent or above, but the county council also wants this important service to be as user- friendly as possible." Mr Kendal says the new contract will herald changes for the better. These will include improved management of onsite sales areas and greater clarity over what qualifies as household waste and what will be accepted at the sites. From next month plans are in place to restrict trade waste, to make the site quicker and easier for householders to use.
