Purley Oaks Recycling Centre re-opens for business

Purley Oaks Household Reuse and Recycling Centre (HRRC) re-opened as planned this morning (19 December) following a two-week closure to enable upgrade works to be carried out.

The site will look almost unrecognisable to frequent users, with a completely new layout and improved signage.

The new layout will enable the site to remain open to the public while recycling containers are emptied; the need for frequent 20-minute closures, and resulting long queues, that local residents had unfortunately got used to will be significantly reduced.

Councillor Stuart Collins, Member of the South London Waste Partnership Joint Committee and Deputy Leader – Clean Green Croydon, said:

“First of all, I would like to thank all the people who use Purley Oaks HRRC for their patience and understanding over the last two weeks while the site has been closed.  We know from the results of a major site-user survey that there was a lot of support for the works to be carried out, but I appreciate that the temporary closure must have been an inconvenience for many.

“I hope, when they visit the new-look site, residents will feel the short-term inconvenience was worth it.  The aim of the re-design is to significantly shorten the queue times, which have been longer than acceptable.  We will monitor the queue times carefully in the coming months to see if it has had the desired effect.

“Finally I would like to thank our contractors, Veolia, for completing the upgrade works on time and on budget.”

Christine Stacey, Contract Manager for Veolia in South London, added:

“Our team is very much looking forward to welcoming Croydon residents to the new site and helping them to dispose of their waste correctly. We hope that this improved layout will make it easier and more convenient for people to recycle household materials such as old electrical items, books, cooking oil or wood, that cannot go into standard collections.”

Ends.

Notes to Editors

• The South London Waste Partnership is made up of four London Boroughs (Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton) who are working together to provide improved and more cost-effective waste management services to their residents
• In October 2015, the South London Waste Partnership awarded a contract to Veolia to manage the six Household Reuse and Recycling Centres (HRRCs) – more commonly known as ‘the tip’ – located across the Partnership region
• On behalf of the Partnership, Veolia is responsible for:
  • General management of the six sites – staffing, equipment and site layout improvements
  • The transportation of all materials, and
  • The recycling, treatment, and/or disposal of waste collected at all of the HRRC sites (excluding green and residual waste, which is handled by Viridor)
• The Partnership monitors the contract with Veolia using three key performance indicators:
  • Site user experience (measured through satisfaction surveys)
  • Health and safety
  • Recycling rate achieved – the target is a 70% recycling rate at each of the six sites
• Information about your local HRRC, including location, opening times and what materials you can recycle/dispose of there, are available from your local council’s website.