Community recycling centres across the Scottish Borders have now been reopened, with a number of temporary restrictions in place. All seven recycling centres were closed by Scottish Borders Council (SBC) on 23 March in line with government ‘Stay at Home’ guidance to help combat the spread of Coronavirus.

The Scottish Government have now relaxed some restrictions, and have allowed recycling centres across Scotland to be reopened from 1 June.

With demand expected to be extremely high, the temporary restrictions have been put in place to ensure the safety of customers and staff and allow access for as many people as possible.

Residents are asked to play their part and follow the guidance, and only use the recycling centres if essential to help the facilities cope with demand.

The temporary restrictions will be reviewed and adjusted over time, with any changes communicated in advance.

Residents are strongly encouraged to visit SBC’s website, which will include live queuing times and full details of temporary restrictions
at www.scotborders.gov.uk/recyclingcentres (external link will open in a new browser window)

The temporary restrictions are:

• An odd and even vehicle number plate system will be in place, which means you can only visit on certain days. Full details on the link above

• Recycling centres will be open seven days a week, between 9am to 2pm

• Only cars and small vans weighing up to two tonnes accepted, such as car-derived vans and small panel vans. No large vans, trailers or horse boxes will be accepted

From Wednesday 10 June, wood as well as large general waste items which cannot be recycled will be accepted, in addition to normal household and garden waste. These include:

  • Mattresses
  • Plastic garden furniture
  • Kitchen units
  • Carpet
  • Wood
  • Wooden furniture

Large items not being accepted yet include:

  • Household electrical appliances such as fridges, freezers, TVs and microwaves
  • Metal objects
  • Cardboard – which can instead be flat packed and presented alongside kerbside recycling bin for collection.

Maximum of five bin bags or combination of bags and large items per trip and only one visit allowed per day

If possible, one person per vehicle should travel to the site and only one should leave the vehicle to offload waste

No assistance can be provided by site staff to offload materials due to social distancing guidance

Further guidance on usage of the recycling centres has also been provided:

  • Lengthy queues are expected
  • New traffic management systems will be in place and queue lengths willbe restricted

• Site users must continue to follow the government’s two metre social distancing guidance when visiting our recycling centres
• Waste should be presented in easily managed amounts that can be deposited quickly on arrival at site
• Recycling Centres may need to temporarily close at short notice in order for skips to be emptied

• Failure to comply with the temporary restrictions and social distancing guidance will unfortunately mean the recycling centres being closed again.

Categories: GeneralNews