Queuing to use the tip....

[Orangeanddemons]

Whenever and wherever I go to the tip, there is ALWaYS a massive queue. Got there today, and there were 10 cars ahead of me, and 9behind(causing hold ups on the road as they were queuing on the road).

When I left there were 18 people queuing. I have had to queue everywhere I've lived. Why are they so rammed? It's not exactly a tourist destination, but they seem as popular ad one.

Monday is always the busiest day. People spend the weekend gardening or clearing up their houses and then go to the tip on a Monday.

Good weather, encourages people to have a clear out and / or do their gardening (plus everything grows like wildfire in this weather so needs keeping on top of)

But it's the same on Saturday, or Friday

I was stunned that people queued for the tip when I was staying with a friend darn Sarf.

Oop North I have never, ever had to queue.

My local tip is the same, always rammed. It is one long strip so if you have a mixture of things (on Saturday we took some wood, metal, house hold rubbish and curtains to the tip), we had to put the metal in the metal skip, the wood in the wood skip etc, it all had to be sorted out and we had to walk the entire length of the skips to reach the metal one. So a would be 1 minute stop and skip turns into a 10 minute stop as we have to sort it all out and walk miles to the different skips.

Normally I try to go when it is pissing it down, tends to put people off.

Our tip shuts around 3pm or something stupidly early. I'm sure if they were open longer there would be less of a queue.

I'd like to know the answer to this, too. Particularly because it's so difficult to even get access to the wretched tip: round here, the council is so paranoid about people from neighbouring areas doing 'tip tourism' (I know, why would you?) that they insist that you apply for a special paper pass.

Also, woe betide you if you turn up to the tips near here in a van. We hired one to move some furniture to my sister's house and decided to drop a few things at the tip, including the Christmas tree, on the way. They wouldn't let us in, tip pass notwithstanding, because the tip guardians decided that we were "professional tippers".

Yes Nettletheelf, same here, no vans allowed, when we moved house we loaded it all into my dads trailer as there was no way a van would be allowed on. Unless you belong to a company who has staff who go through the skips, take out anything that can be sold, load it onto the vans and then it gets sold at car boot sales. It is not a council van or employee, but the money doesnt come back to the council.

Where I live there are always queues for the tip. Possibly due to the fact that general rubbish bin is only collected every fortnight. Which is so grim in the summer.

As an observation on numerous visits to the tip, time could be cut if people (usually men ) didn't reverse into the parking spaces. I know in their heads having two extra meters to not travel on foot with rubbish means time spared, but by the time they have faffed around parking queues just keep building up.

Never had to use one tbh being a stingey/hoarder bugger but I suppose it explains all the bloody sofas and flytipping everywhere make the tips more efficient then they'd spend less time and money cleaning that shit up.

Our tip has had its opening hours cut as the council tries to save money so it may be linked with that as well - same number of people trying to use it in less time.

The queues I've encountered are very much up north. Leeds Manchestet and Sheffield. Always like the January sales

We also have to get a permit for a van. They certainly got a result there. We have to cram it all in a car now, as we can't predict when we are actually going to be able to scrounge a van for said permit

No queuing round here. SW England, busy place. Our tip is U shaped, and most people stop with their cars at the various bins/containers rather than parking up and walking. In the summer it can get busy in the garden/green waste section though, with a small queue forming for that section but not the others. Decent opening hours too.

There's always huge queues at our tip.

They're so fussy about what they will and won't take that the workers insist on going through every single black sack before they let you put it in the skips so it takes forever. At least 50% they refuse to take so you have to bag it all up which takes even longer.

I've got a load of empty, cleaned out emulsion paint tins that I'm not allowed to put in the wheelie bin, but I can't get rid of them at the tip either.

I had some old radiators to get rid of when we had new central heating put in. You're only allowed to skip 5 large radiators each visit. I had 4 large and 2 tiny little ones, they wouldn't let me put the 2 tiny little ones I. Despite the fact that put together they weren't half as big as 1 large one. So I had to make another trip on another day, adding to the queue

You're not allowed vans at our tip either. We wanted to get rid of an old sofa a while ago so borrowed a friend's van to take it to the tip. Except they wouldn't let us in, despite the fact that we clearly had just one sofa, they decided we were trade and trade can only use the dump on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. We parked the van up the road and wheeled it in.

No wonder fly tipping is on the increase really

I agree it's always busy. My mum wants them to have a service where they take the car round for you dropping things off in the correct recycling zone, as she always gets it wrong and gets moaned at.

Our local recycling centre is always rammed, but our council, in its wisdom, has decided to close the tip on two days a week and reduce opening hours on the other days. No doubt we will see a corresponding rise in fly tipping.

They're not 'tips' not anywhere in the UK, they're Household Waste Recycling Centres. Councils are so strapped for cash that in many parts of the country the sites are on partial closure, ie. may be shut one day per week.

To the van-bringers, if you're a resident then a permit pass is often available to you, a bit of foresight and pre-application would save you time. The van-ban is necessary to prevent using household waste facilities FOC. You'd soon complain if they did... queues would be even longer, containers filled up before you could use them - and your council tax would go up a LOT.

It's not a difficult system to follow once you're on site; I've been on most in the UK and the signage is really quite clear. Ask staff if you're stuck.

Only scummy people fly-tip. No excuses there at all. Costs the rest of us an absolute fortune.

Our local one has got much worse since the opening hours were cut. Councils are really struggling in the current climate. I'm up north and I've sometimes had to queue for nearly an hour.

A LOT of people throw away stuff that could be Freecycled or Freegled to extend its life. I do not know why - I guess they just can't be bothered, but it's not OK really. I guess allowing queues to build up is that classic British way of pushing people towards doing the right thing (a bit like controlling parking in city centres) rather than providing an alternative that works really quickly and efficiently (e.g. having a facility on Freecycle like ebay, where you could 'rate' the people who respond, thus ensuring that those who don't bother to show are weeded out).

Mooney1 If they did not reverse in they would have to reverse out which is just as bad.

Ours opens at 9.00 on Sunday and is usually quiet till about 10.00. Vans by appointment only.

My council spent £1 million upgrading a local tip, then 4 years later closed it and it has stood empty for the last two years. The nearest ones to the closed tip are 20-30 minutes by car further away and are busy all the time. Now they are deciding whether to close one of the nearest ones (yes it was also upgraded for £1 million) because it causes traffic jams for the A & E hospital or the one that takes vans/trailers/ commercial waste but it a pain to get to from 3/4 areas of the city. We already have a flytipping problem and the rubbish bins are going from 240 litres to 120 litres soon which is costing £2.2 milion. The queues are going to get worse so people won't bother. Do you get the impression that my council are just wasting money and we will never meet the recycling targets and so will be fined. Sorry for the long post but the whole subjects makes my blood boil.

"Orangeanddemons Mon 29-Jun-15 15:24:56
We also have to get a permit for a van. They certainly got a result there. We have to cram it all in a car now, as we can't predict when we are actually going to be able to scrounge a van for said permit"

Why did they 'get a result'? and why is it the tips fault you cant always get a van?

Come to sunny Oldham. Never had to queue here.

No queues at ours, it is fairly new and well laid out, also quite big.

However the one in the next town, where I work (different county) always has a queue a mile long, no idea what it's like as I never try it, but drive past it on the way home.

Never queued for the tip (busy SE) . However it may help that there's always several very polite young lads who help you if you wish.

My dm's (north) is queues to get in, queues for each skip and even queues to exit. Bt there's nobody who helps.