Powys' Household Recycling Centre booking system open

From 1 April, residents will need to pre-book a time slot to visit the Household Recycling Centres. 

Bookings for visits from 1 April can be made from today, Tuesday, March 25.

People can book a time slot up to nine days in advance, with bookings available for visits from April 1 available now. 

Simply follow the online instructions to book a time slot at your chosen Household Recycling Centre. You will need to provide your name, address, email address and the registration number of the vehicle you will be using for the visit. 

Book a visit to the recycling centre quickly and easily online now: www.powys.gov.uk/HRC     

Booking a time slot can also be made over the phone by calling: 01597 827465. However, if you can, using the online form is a much quicker way to book your visit and will allow you greater flexibility if you need to amend or cancel your booking. Other councils have reported that over 98% of bookings are made online and we would encourage Powys residents to do the same. This means that the council’s call centre won’t become overwhelmed and will be able to cope with those who genuinely need to book over the phone.

The booking system for the Household Recycling Centres has been introduced to reduce congestion and queuing times, to make visits easier and less time consuming, to allow staff more time to help visitors who may need advice and/or assistance on site, improve recycling rates and reduce non-legitimate use by commercial operators and users from outside the county

The introduction of the booking system also means the safety of users on sites will be easier to manage and, as a result, we will be able to accept bookings from resident’s wishing to visit as a pedestrian or a cyclist. 

“We appreciate that some people are still not looking forward to the changes at our Household Recycling Centres, but feedback gathered in resident’s surveys from other council’s confirm the systems work well and residents are very happy once it has had time to bed in,” said Councillor Jackie Charlton, Cabinet Member for a Greener Powys. 

“In fact, in a recent survey by a council in North Wales, 81% of residents ranked the new booking system as excellent, and 83% are in favour of keeping it in place. 

“Change is always a challenge to begin with. It will soon become second nature to pre-book a time slot in the same way we book appointments for many other things in life, and it will make your visit to the household recycling centre more efficient knowing that you have your own slot to recycle your waste with the help of the staff, if needed.

“There is still confusion around the new arrangements circulating on social media, and we would encourage everyone to check our website for the most up-to-date information and a full set of frequently asked questions: www.powys.gov.uk/HRC.”  

From April 1, you will also need to make a small payment to take some DIY waste to the Household Recycling Centres. 

An easy way to understand what is classed as DIY waste is to think about which items or materials you would not take with you if you moved house. 

For example, kitchen units, bathroom suites, windows, doors, patios, soil, fence panels, etc - if you would not take it, then it is likely to be DIY waste.

There will only be making charges for certain types of DIY waste (see  www.powys.gov.uk/HRC  for a full list), in particular for materials which incur a cost to process for recycling. The charges have not been introduced to make a profit and have been kept as low as possible.

More information and a full set of frequently asked questions can be found online: www.powys.gov.uk/HRC