West Lothian’s recycling centres could soon offer more places to customers, with plans to cut the current half hour visit slots down to 15 minutes.
Scott Anderson, the council’s Recycling and Waste Manager, told councillors that staff are completing pilot trials of the new timing and hope to introduce them across the five recycling sites soon.
He told a meeting of the Environment and Sustainability PDSP: “We are looking this week to introducing 15-minute slots.”
Councillor Alison Adamson said the booking process could be made easier and more accessible. She asked officers “Would it be possible to offer people a 15-minute slot? No-one seems to think half an hour is the time needed.
Mr Anderson replied: “We have to consider the increase in waste levels and moving that increase on to processors.”
A council spokesperson confirmed officers were considering changes. Currently when you book a slot at a (CRCs) you are allocated a 30-minute window to arrive, dispose of the waste and leave before the next slot begins.
Reducing the slot to less than 30 minutes, would increasing the number of vehicles that can access the site at one time. However, there are implications in making changes, and these need to be assessed by the team before any future decision is made.
These include the safety implications of having an increased number of vehicles onsite combined with the process to remove waste using heavy vehicles.
A representative of community councils said that one issue was that the booking system appeared at first site to be complex and time consuming to use, but he added that it is “relatively straight forward.”
Even with 30-minute slots thousands of slots were booked last year- and thousands were booked but not taken, Head of Operational Services David Maule told the meeting.
In total, 404,530 slots were available across the five centres over the last year. However, around 12% of available slots were not booked, at all.
West Lothian’s CRCs had 357,517 bookings last year. However, 7.5% of these bookings did not turn up.
Combining the number of ‘no shows’ and the number of slots that are not booked, and left available, over 18% of slots are not being used. The review will also consider this.
The booking system was introduced in October 2023. For the first two years of operation, it generated hundreds of complaints. These have fell away significantly as users have adjusted. Booking slots at Recycling centres is commonplace across neighbouring councils.
Booking systems are used for a number of reasons:-
- Fewer cars on-site at once make it safer for both visitors moving around vehicles and staff operating heavy machinery or unloading bays.
- Limiting the number of vehicles at any one time stops long queues from forming on nearby roads and keeps site entrances clear
- Checking vehicle registrations and home addresses ensures that free household facilities are only used by local residents, rather than commercial traders or people from outside the council area (given West Lothian’s location, this was a very common and expensive issue)
- Spreading visits evenly throughout the day helps staff manage waste compaction, keep bays tidy, and handle peak periods smoothly
West Lothian has a high number of CRCs in comparison to other councils of similar size. Falkirk Council has two sites that are both open part time and use a booking system.
Mr Anderson told the PDSP that new proposals for the CRC booking slots will be brought before the council Executive in the Autumn.
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
