We have to ‘click before we tip’ now.

[clickthat]

Anyone else’s council introduced this?

We can’t just turn up at the tip now, all has to be booked in. I hate that absolutely nothing in spontaneous anymore. It’s ridiculous.

How long before they’ll add a fee?!

Ours have been doing it for years - it’s ok but can be a pain if you randomly decide to have a clear out and then can’t get a slot of 4/5 days.

The weather is supposed to be windy but not raining over the next couple of days and I wanted to go and get the garden tidied up a bit but already checked and can’t get a slot till Friday afternoon and by that point I won’t want to put the soaking wet bags in my car 🤷‍♀️

The booking a slot started during Covid where I am and has never gone away. I’m on the border with another county which has a recycling depot much nearer my house but that’s recently required proof of living in that county so even though it’s a 5 minute drive I have to drive 30 minutes to the one that is in my county. I understand why but it’s annoying all the same!

Ours did this during lockdown. It's still in place for campervans and for one particular tip which is on the main road from Dundee to Fife, presumably to stop Dundonians from filling up the small recycling centre in Ladybank.

yep - very irritating indeed
they badge it as making tipping easier, but the reality is that this combined with bin collections every 3 weeks is just causing a waste nightmare.

When it actually is bin day, so bloody rarely, I scour around for waste worrying that if I don't dispose of everything possible then I will get a build up. I fill my bin and my neighbour lives on her own and lets me put a bag in hers if i need to.

a relative used to use one of those man/van waste services for anything from bags of household waste to a knackered sofa. This man was living the life of riley, christmas abroad etc. Until he got done for fly tipping everything he collected from his customers and went to jail.

often, you don't know when you need to go to the tip and don't have easy storage. I live in a cookie cutter older new build with a busy family. We don't have masses of space to store stuff or we would be falling over it. When I get something that needs disposing of, I need to do it quickly, immediately and efficiently. That means in the car and to the tip. Not have delays, organisation and fannying about. Many people driving green waste to the tip are cutting the lawn when the weather allows. Not on a planned basis.

Also I used to take stuff to the tip like metal that could be recycled in the scrap metal. Now, I shove that kind of stuff in my wheely bin non recyclable as I'm not fucking about with stupid appointments and timewasting when I need a job done.

A very stupid reduction in basic services IMO.

We’ve had it since Covid. I understand why they want the car registration but don’t know why they require your full name, postcode and house number. You also have to declare at the time of booking if there’s any DIY waste.

One tip in my local authority area still have a booking system, which they introduced in Covid, but they don't bat an eye if you are early and there is space (it's a reasonably quiet one - never had more than 5 minutes to queue before). No others do though. Tend to not use the one I need to book for, choosing my closest one (but in a different local authority area) most of the time.

glad we aren't restricted for number of trips either. Emptied my late aunts house last year and was a very regular visitor to that tip. Often several times per day when I was through

What utter stupid bureaucracy. They are contributing directly to fuel emissions by doing this as you won't be the only person impacted.

I think this would happen to people that live over the border near us who probably use our tip now, it will be further for them to go if you had to book only from your council

Our council has this. It’s so much better than turning up and there being a long queue. And it’s rare that we can’t get an on the day booking, even on weekends. I see no downsides to this system.

I'm in Somerset, we have to book in advance, it was introduced after Covid.
I think there's a limit of 3 visits a week.

It's OK, but sometimes it's annoying not to be able to just go when I've got someone around to help me, or when it's not raining!

Our council has just stopped this and now we can just go whenever again.

I think it was the huge increase in fly tipping that did it...

Ours closes for 2 days in the week!

Ours is also since Covid. Really bloody annoying!

with my local tip you can turn up any time, but your car's reg has to be registered (not that they check very often).

Ours has been like this since Covid and it's brilliant! The queues at times were horrendous- right out onto a main road which blocked it for anyone else who needed to go by.And you could sit there for absolutely ages.
Book a slot now and you're in and out!

We've had it since 2020. It's an absolute PITA, and we still have enormous queues because they don't block out times for the team to use the telehandler etc.

Also gets fully booked up on a BH weekend.

Gah.

I think it's good, you can go and not find yourself stuck in a long queue with a car full of rubbish. Ours is pretty easy to book so not much hassle and can save a lot of time.

Ours supposedly you can't go more than once a day but they don't register anything so more trips are possible. Absolutely essential to do more if you have just moved or are planning a move. My DH keeps an old (8 years?) water bill in the car as they want that or a driver's licence to prove you're local. I might understand a booking system on the weekends or bank holidays but during the week it's rarely busy maybe one car ahead to be checked in at most.

It's been like this since COVID for us. We don't mind booking and it means we don't have the wait.
The annoying part is that we have too book days in advance, I think our council closes the slots quite early. If we could still book 48h in advance that would be great, but usually it's at least a week.

We’ve had it ages and it’s much better than before

Been since covid here. Now the main tip is closed for ‘regeneration’ so it’s bloody impossible to get an appt in the two remaining smaller ones.

@clickthat are you in York (we are and I know booking tip visits is coming in soon with booking from today). Local feeling on it is that not having both local tips closed on Wednesdays hasn’t helped the traffic issues!

We have had this for a long time and you can’t get an ‘on the day’ slot can only book for the following day/ week

Ours has been like this since 2020.

I wouldn't mind because when it works it's fine...but...

The turning for the tip is on a nasty bend on in a main road. There's nowhere to queue, which is why the booking system is helpful. But they randomly close the whole tip for an hour every few days to swap bins or something (?), but don't block that time out or cancel anyone's existing bookings. So dozens of people still turn up but can't get in, the queue on the main road is worse than ever when this happens, and there's nowhere to turn round either. It's really dangerous.

Ours has had this since covid, and it's great - means there's always room in the different skips and no queue.

You can book for within the same hour if you want to, and if you are doing multiple runs you can book again as soon as you've left the tip.