Household waste recycling centres customer charter

Our commitment to you

We are committed to providing excellent and efficient local services and we have a duty to provide places for residents to dispose of their household waste. In North Yorkshire there are 20 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs), where we aim to re-use, recycle, compost and treat more than 95 per cent of all waste delivered to sites.

This charter sets out what you can expect from HWRCs based on our service standards and policies.

Location and accessibility

Household waste recycling centres are positioned to make sure that at least 95 per cent of residents live within a 20 minute drive of their nearest site. We have also planned the location of HWRCs so that no single site serves a population of more than 69,000 people.

Mobile HWRC services are provided for people in some areas where their drive to a permanent HWRC would be more than 20 minutes.

At least one site in each district council area will have a wider range of facilities and services than at other smaller sites. We call these ‘strategic’ sites. HWRCs are signposted from main roads and customers using our sites will find signage clear and easy to understand. We will also make sure that any new sites are designed to be fully accessible for all residents.

We will inform local people where HWRCs are, and what they are for, both at the sites and through the council website. Schools, local community organisations and other groups are welcome to arrange a visit to our HWRCs to find out more about what we do and how we operate.

Find your nearest household waste recycling centre.

Customer care and opening hours

We are committed to maintaining high standards at our HWRCs and will ensure they remain safe, secure and clean places to use, work in, or live near to.

HWRCs will be open at the following times:

• April to September - 8.30am to 5pm
• October to March - 8.30am to 4pm

Sites are open every day except Wednesday. We are closed on 25 and 26 December and 1 January.

You can expect there to be friendly, helpful staff available on site with appropriate skills and abilities to provide a high quality service. All members of the team will be wearing uniform, high visibility clothing and an identity badge and can help you if you need assistance while using the HWRC.

Re-use, recycling and recovery priorities

The main purpose of HWRCs is to divert waste from landfill by increasing the amount re-used, recycled, composted or recovered.

For this reason we will ask you to separate your waste into the appropriate containers so that we can re-use, recycle or compost as much as we can.

This includes:

• garden waste
• hardcore and rubble
• wood
• metals
• paper and cardboard
• many other materials

A large number of items that are delivered to HWRCs will still be safe to use and in good condition and we actively encourage the re-use of these materials.

Who can use the HWRC?

HWRCs are for the use of North Yorkshire residents to dispose of their own household waste. People who live outside the county can use our HWRCs but they will be charged unless mutual arrangements are in place with neighbouring councils.

We allow neighbours, family, friends and charitable organisations to deliver other resident’s household waste to HWRCs in accordance with published guidelines.

Children under 16 should not come to the HWRC unless they are supervised by a responsible adult and animals are only allowed on site if they remain in a vehicle.

Non-household, DIY waste and commercial waste

We provide a service for residents who deliver non-household and DIY waste including hardcore, rubble, plasterboard and tyres. A charge will be made for the disposal of tyres. Residents can dispose of waste created by their own DIY projects for free but there are restrictions on size and limitations to the amount that can be brought in.

See the costs of disposal of non-household and commercial items.

We also provide a service for commercial customers to bring waste to HWRCs. Commercial customers will need to pay for certain types of waste, however, some materials can be accepted free of charge.

Vehicles used to deliver waste

We may restrict the use of large vehicles delivering waste to HWRCs based on guidelines available on the website and on site.

Abuse of the HWRC service

We will take action against people who persistently abuse the service provided at HWRCs and anyone using threatening or abusive behaviour towards staff. This also includes trespassers, flytippers, vandals and thieves.

Comments, compliments and complaints

We welcome your compliments, comments or complaints about the service you have received. By letting us know how we’re doing you can help us to improve our service.

You can tell us what you think by contacting the waste management team by email, telephone or by writing to us.

If you have a complaint about the service we will deal with this in line with our complaint procedure.