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Working in partnership with North Yorkshire County Council we operate and manage 18 household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs). Our current contract commenced in April 2010 and runs until 2017.
What can you recycle?
The materials you can bring to the HWRCs are: paper, card, telephone directories, books, green waste, glass bottles, cans, foil, scrap metal, plastic bottles, textiles and shoes, car and household batteries, fluorescent tubes, TVs and monitors, fridges and freezers, large and small electrical appliances, engine oil, tyres, wood, soil and rubble, plasterboard, LPG bottles, cement-bonded asbestos (at Harrogate, Northallerton, Seamer Carr, Selby and Whitby only), active/residual waste.
Our service
We operate compaction equipment for green and residual waste at all sites except Whitby, Seamer Carr and West Harrogate. Using compactors increases the volume of waste that can be accepted at the centres and means that fewer vehicle journeys are required. This minimises our impact on the local environmen by reducing the noise and congestion associated with transporting materials, and also reduces the carbon footprint of our HWRC operations.
To achieve a recycling rate of more than 70% we have improved the sites in the following ways:
• Redesigning, upgrading and improving each site so that it operates with optimal efficiency and with an emphasis on recycling reuse
• Training and developing our recycling advisors to increase morale and productivity
• Increasing the number of waste streams to improve recycling rates and service quality
• Increasing trade waste controls to drive out bad practice.
Our site staff are trained recycling advisors tasked with meeting and greeting the public, and providing customers with information and assistance to help them correctly sort their waste into the appropriate bank. This ensures low levels of contamination and diverts waste away from disposal in landfill.
This ‘advisory’ approach is underpinned by a customer service culture designed to give the public a more positive impression when they visit our recycling centres.
The council conducts customer satisfaction surveys at the HWRCs on a monthly basis and the survey for May 2011 recorded 100% satisfaction. While this was the first time the survey recorded 100% satisfaction, for the previous six months the figure was more than 90%.
We have recently started collecting used printer cartridges on behalf of The Rainbow Trust, which provides emotional and practical support to families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness. The Rainbow Trust relies almost entirely on voluntary donations and through the generosity of supporters is able to help around 1,000 families a year.
Our service
