Residents are usually banned from disposing of hazardous waste – such as paint, aerosols and household chemicals –at Norfolk HWRCs in order to make savings, but the county council holds ‘amnesty’ weekends every year at several HWRCs, on which visitors are allowed to bring hazardous waste materials for disposal.
However, nearly three times the average number of cars turned up at both King’s Lynn and Caister HWRCs during a hazardous waste amnesty on September 6-7, forcing the council to turn a number of customers away and temporarily close the sites just several hours after they opened.
The council said that although it expected to receive large volumes of waste and an increase in visitors at the HWRCs, the actual number “far exceeded all reasonable projections based on our previous experiences”.
According to the council, on an average weekend Caister and King’s Lynn HWRCs would normally be visited by around 350 and 500 cars respectively, but around 1,300 cars turned up at both sites on the recent amnesty weekend.
Kate Murrell, waste reduction and recycling manager at Norfolk county council, said: “In fact, we received as much hazardous waste in one weekend as we have in the past across all amnesty sites in the county.”
She said that despite contingency arrangements for an increase in visitors “it wasn’t possible to store the hazardous waste safely and we were unable to continue to accept deliveries”.
Tonnage increase
The council said that during the amnesty weekend at the two sites in 2013 it collected less than three tonnes of hazardous waste. This year, on the other hand, the council’s early indications suggest that around 70 tonnes was collected at the two sites, around 90% of which was paint.
Ms Murrell said: “Unfortunately, we had to turn a number of customers away at King’s Lynn during Saturday afternoon, in order to safely manage the material already brought to site. The sites reopened Sunday but again due to high demand we had to close both sites for amnesty materials from 12pm at Caister and 1pm at King’s Lynn. We remained open for people as usual for all other materials.”
She added: “I know some of the visitors who were turned away from our centres in King’s Lynn and Caister last weekend felt frustrated, and that was the last thing we wanted to achieve but refusing their deliveries was necessary for the safety of staff, visitors and the sites.
[testimonial id = “16” align=”right”]
“We will be investigating opportunities available to us once they are completed.”
Amnesties
Further hazardous waste amnesties are still planned at Norfolk HWRCs in Mayton Wood (September 10-21), Ketteringham (September 10-21) and Dereham (September 27-28).
During these amnesties, the sites will be able to accept: Garden pesticides and fertilizers; wood preservatives, treatments and varnishes; household chemicals and cleansers; fire extinguishers; photographic chemicals; paint; aerosols.
However, the likes of petrol; commercial hazardous waste; ammunition, explosives or marine flares; fireworks; and petrol are still not accepted at the HWRCs.
Norfolk council operates 20 HWRCs in the county, 19 of which are operated via a £5 million deal with its wholly-owned subsidiary Norse Commercial Services (see letsrecycle.com story).
Earlier this year, the council consulted on proposals to introduce a £2 public charge at nine of its HWRCs in a bid to cut costs (see letsrecycle.com story).
Register for free to comment