THE majority of tips in North Yorkshire are now returning to their normal opening hours after working overtime to clear a backlog of waste.

North Yorkshire Council says that following the successful reopening of 19 of its 20 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) earlier this month, the majority of the sites are now reverting to their normal opening hours.

The centres have been open seven days a week, including Wednesdays, when they would normally close, for a temporary period to help clear the backlog of waste that accumulated in people’s homes during the lockdown.

Now, 18 of the sites will revert to their normal opening hours and days of 8.30am to 5pm six days a week and will close on Wednesdays from 27 May.

This change back to normal opening times will apply to all sites except West Harrogate, which will continue to be open seven days a week as a further temporary measure while the Harrogate Stonefall site remains closed.

Harrogate Stonefall and all mobile household waste recycling centres remain closed for safety reasons.

Cllr Andrew Lee, executive member for waste management, said: “I would like to thank the North Yorkshire residents for their understanding, and for playing their part by continuing to recycle and dispose of their waste responsibly and only visiting the sites when they can’t store their waste at home.

"All the sites that have reopened have been managed well by our contractor Yorwaste with new controls to keep the public and staff safe.”

“We encourage everyone to continue to reduce, re-use and recycle all they can, and to stay alert, control the virus and save lives.”

Measures are still in place to adhere to Government guidance on social distancing aimed at controlling the spread of the virus and people are being encouraged to store waste at home if they can.

To maintain social distancing, staff will not be able to help members of the public dispose of waste so managers are asking visitors to only bring what they can manage to lift themselves.

People are also being reminded not to put masks, gloves or other personal protective equipment (PPE) in their recycling, as these items cannot be recycled.

Instead, they should be thrown in the bin.

Anyone who has coronavirus symptoms, or who lives with someone who does, is being told to take extra precautions before throwing away PPE.

All the recycling centres were closed in March as part of the county council's response to the Government's restrictions to protect the public during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The full details of opening times and days can be found at www.northyorks.gov.uk/CovidHWRC.

Visit the Recycle Now website – at www.recyclenow.com – for more information about recycling responsibly during the coronavirus outbreak.