The new booking system for people wanting to visit any of Shropshire Council’s five household recycling centers will come into force on Monday, November 2024, and people will be able to book from Tuesday this week.

From Monday, people visiting the centers will need to book in advance and bookings can be made up to six days in advance.

All residents living in Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council areas will be able to book a visit one of the centers – Craven Arms is located in Bridgnorth, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch.

Reservations can be made online Shropshire Council website – or by phone by calling the council’s customer service team.

Cars and vans/trailers can be booked. 15-minute slots will be available for cars and 30-minute slots for vans/trailers (or 60 minutes on weekends).

Ian Nellins, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for waste management, said: “Many other councils are already using booking systems at recycling centers or are planning to introduce one. Our contractor Veolia is already successfully running reservation systems in many recycling centres. These booking systems have led to a significant increase in recycling and helped smooth demand throughout the day, reducing congestion and queues and making sites safer. We are confident that this will be the case in Shropshire.

“Shropshire Council needs to make significant savings this year and introducing a booking system in Shropshire will help us save money by reducing the cost of disposal of commercial waste, non-recyclable waste and waste brought to sites from outside the county.

“It is also important to highlight that other councils that already have booking systems have not found any evidence that the booking process increases fly tipping levels.”

Shropshire Council says the new system will save money by reducing the cost of disposing of commercial waste, non-recyclable waste and waste from outside Shropshire.

It will also help the council reduce traffic congestion and queue times, increase recycling as center staff can better interact with visitors, and reduce the amount of commercial waste taken to the centres.

However, residents who pay council tax to Shropshire Council or Telford & Wrekin Council can use recycling centers in each other’s areas but will need to book to visit one of Shropshire Council’s five centres.

Although reservations are not required to use Telford and Wrekin Council recycling centers In Halesfield and Hortonwood, officials said they would ‘monitor the impact’ of Shropshire Council’s booking plans and may “review how we run” the sites if their own residents are affected by the changes.

To learn more about the reservation system and book online, visit: shropshire.gov.uk/recyclingcentrebooking

Residents who pay council tax to Shropshire Council or Telford & Wrekin Council can use recycling centers in each other’s areas but will need to book to visit one of Shropshire Council’s five centres.