News from Orkney Islands Council
The phased re-opening of Orkney’s Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) is set to begin early next month, June.
In line with the easing of coronavirus restrictions announced recently by the Scottish Government, the HWRCs at Hatston and Garson will open from Tuesday June 2.
To minimise the risk of Covid-19 infection, there will be changes to the way the two sites operate:
- They will accept only garden waste initially – with six skips available for this at Hatston and three at Garson.
- Access will need to be controlled in line with social distancing requirements, with no more than five cars at a time allowed on our Hatston site and three at a time at our Garson site.
- Visitors are asked to maintain a distance of two meters from all site staff and other users (if not a member of your household) at all times.
- Due to the need for physical distancing, no assistance can be offered by site staff. Users will need to be able to place their garden waste in the skips, assisted by another member of their household if required.
- When coming on site there should be no more than two people from the same household in each car.
- Only single-axle trailers up to 2.4 metres in length will be allowed.
- Both sites will operate from Tuesday to Saturday.
- Hatston will be open from 09:00 to 15:45 and Garson from 10:00 to 15:45. Both will be closed between 12:00 and 13:00.
- ‘Traffic marshalls’ will be present to provide advice about queuing and entering the sites, along with temporary information signs as you approach each site.
- Drivers are asked to avoid queuing on main roads near the sites, as this will impede other road users, including the emergency services, local businesses, public transport and the wider public.
- The advice is: if there’s already a queue directly outside the sites, please come again another day.
This will be kept under review and, when possible, the sites will start to take other materials as well.
Decisions on opening the other HWRCs – and recycling points in the isles – will be taken at a later date as part of the phased approach the council is taking.
