Public thanked after ‘manageable’ reopening of dumps

The Orkney public are being thanked for their consideration and co-operation after the dumps at Hatston and Garson reopened this week.

Orkney Islands Council asked people to delay, if possible, their first visits to the sites this week, especially on Saturday — to help prevent queues from building up — and this advice appears to have largely been adhered to.

Both sites reopened on Tuesday morning, only accepting garden waste initially.

Both received a steady and manageable flow of cars on day one, with no queues of any significance at either site.

There were no trailers over 2.4 metres in length, helping to ensure that the maximum number of cars could be on site at any one time while maintaining physical distancing.

Both sites are open from Tuesday to Saturday each week. Hatston is open from 9am to 3.45pm and Garson from 10am to 3.45pm, but they are both closed between 12pm and 1pm.

There was also good news following the resumption of the kerbside recycling services which is working through the backlog by picking up one material each week.

Two months’ worth of glass — 60 tonnes — was picked up during week one, and five tonnes of plastic was put out for collection with little contamination.

Next week’s kerbside recycling collection will be tins and cans.

Councillor Andrew Drever said: “We very much appreciate the public’s efforts in working with the council’s guidance and ensuring that both kerbside and household waste recycling centres (HWRC) disposals work in a manageable way.

“We will continue collections and disposals on a single waste stream basis for now but will introduce additional streams as soon as practicably possible.

“Planning is ongoing in regard to our other HWRCs and Island collection points but at this time, I ask that the public bear with us and we’ll get there in due course and in the meantime please don’t use the isles recycling points.

“Our waste teams are doing a great job in managing collections and on-site disposals and I ask that they are supported in their role during this unusual time.”