This follows an unusually high volume of bookings made by a single customer, who is suspected to be a commercial operator rather than an individual disposing of household waste.
The issue was brought before the council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee after figures showed one individual booked nearly 250 visits in the space of a year.
Council flags commercial-scale activity
Between April 2024 and March 2025 the customer made 247 bookings, of which 218 were completed, 25 cancelled and four resulted in no-shows.
Most of these trips (125) were to the Annan HWRC, with 90 logged in Lockerbie and a further three across other local sites.
A spokesperson for Dumfries and Galloway Council commented: “The customer highlighted in our Waste Strategy Update Report to the council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee was visiting with an estate car and trailer, sometimes making three or more trips per day.
“A typical household does not generate this volume of waste, which strongly suggests the material was from a commercial operation.
“This behaviour undermines the intended purpose of HWRCs, which is to support household waste disposal.”
While the broader review gets underway, the council has already introduced an interim measure for the individual at the centre of the incident. Their access has now been restricted to one visit per week, equating to 52 visits per year.
Potential misuse by companies
The surge in bookings formed part of a broader report tracking how the region’s online HWRC booking system is being used.
The council noted that while residents rely on the system to reserve time slots, the pattern of visits in this case appeared inconsistent with household waste generation.
According to the committee report, the findings pointed towards “potential misuse of our facilities by commercial operators.”
In addition to the example of 247 bookings, the council found that 254 other users had made more than 52 visits over the same period – effectively more than once a week.
The spokesperson said: “Although we currently have no restrictions in place limiting the number of visits or the types of vehicles permitted to use our sites, we are clear that these sites are for household waste only.”
Council launches wider service review
The council confirmed it is reviewing options to tackle potential misuse of HWRCs. A cap on the number of annual visits, or other forms of monitoring, will be considered as part of a wider review of the recycling service and the region’s Zero Waste Parks.
The spokesperson added: “Our planned review will investigate and benchmark against other Scottish Local Authorities to establish options and best practice to enable small traders to access our HWRCs and Transfers Stations to dispose of their commercial waste.
“The review will also establish the average number of visits we would expect an individual to make, based on our historical data and information from other Scottish Local Authorities.”
The strategy, approved by members in October 2023, is structured around five core themes: waste prevention, reuse and recycling; optimising kerbside collections; improving Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) operations; enhancing residual waste processing; and maximising service efficiency.
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