The big changeover from a number plate system to having to book in advance to visit one of Bristol’s household recycling centres will now happen next month, waste chiefs have revealed.
Bristol Waste and council leaders said the switch to a booking system will reduce the queues to get into the two recycling centres, and mean people won’t be heading off to the tip and waiting for hours to get in.
The booking system was first revealed by Bristol Live back in early April, with the news that it would be coming into force in May, but that’s been put back and won’t now actually begin until June 6.
People will be able to start booking slots to go to the recycling centres at St Phillips or Avonmouth from May 23. Until June 5, the odd-even alternate day car number plate system will continue.
Over the past couple of years - mainly because people didn’t have much else to do - queues at the recycling centres have been recorded at as long as four hours.
This not only caused issues for people needing to recycling their stuff, but also created problems for people living and working around the recycling centres, particularly the Days Lane one in St Phillips, with queues filling the streets around. The introduction of the odd/even number plate system was an attempt to reduce those queues, but now the council is switching to a booking system which is common in other areas around Bristol, as Cllr Kye Dudd explained.
“We have seen the system work really well in local authorities across the county, as well as neighbouring areas such as including Bath and North East Somerset and Gloucestershire and Swindon,” he said.
“The new booking system will help manage the heavy demand on the city’s Household Reuse and Recycling Centres. It will reduce queues, drive down emissions from queuing vehicles and ensure a smoother on-site experience for our residents.
“Making access to the site easier and reducing traffic pollution will help us achieve our environmental objectives and increase recycling rates,” he added.
A spokesperson for Bristol Waste promised that the booking website would be ‘quick and simple’, and done through the council’s website. You can book up to two weeks in advance, and as little as an hour before you want to go.
For people who don’t have the internet, you can call a special number to book over the phone - it’s 0117 9222100, and will be staffed between 8.30am and 6pm Monday to Friday, but is closed between noon and 1.30pm on a Wednesday.
Anyone bringing recycling to the recycling centres on foot or on their bikes won’t need to book at all. And a third recycling centre is opening up in South Bristol - on Hartcliffe Way in Bedminster - later this year.
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