Household recycling centre gets a major upgrade in time for spring cleaning

Gloucestershire County Council’s Oak Quarry recycling centre is getting a new Reuse Shop onsite, as well as a new equipment upgrade.

Oak Quarry Household Recycling Centre (HRC) near Coleford will temporarily close from 18 March to 5 April for the upgrade.

When Oak Quarry reopens before Easter, the Reuse shop will start to take in donated good quality second hand items and sell them on to those looking for a bargain.

Oak Quarry will also be the next site to get a modern ‘squashing’ machine which will offer Forest of Dean residents the same efficient services as Pyke Quarry and Hempsted sites. Currently, fixed compactor skips are used to squash and compress waste before it is transported for recycling, or disposal. This system is now old and becoming unreliable, and this can cause delays to residents visiting the site as well as making maintenance costly.

To solve this, and help the busy site run more smoothly for visitors, Gloucestershire County Council is bringing in a mobile compactor. Last year Pyke Quarry and Hempsted HRC’s received this upgrade and the council is investing more than £1.2million to continue to modernise their sites.

Cllr Nigel Moor, cabinet member for environment & planning, said, “The county council are determined to step up our eco-friendly agenda, and the new Reuse shop will help encourage people to think before they throw away perfectly good items. It will compliment the one available at Fosse Cross in the Cotswolds.

“The new equipment will give the site a more modern and flexible system. Squashing what’s in the skips will not only save money in maintenance costs, but it’ll be more efficient and reliable too. I’d like to thank local people for their patience while Oak Quarry temporarily closes for the improvement work.”

Cllr Terry Hale, local county councillor for Drybrook and Lydbrook, said: “This upgrade to Oak Quarry will improve the service to the Forest of Dean. I’m really pleased to hear about the new Reuse shop, hopefully it will help prevent needless waste. I know the temporary closure isn’t ideal but new kit to speed up the service will be welcomed. I think we will all welcome the different opening hours going into the summer too.”

What is a “squashing machine”?

Mobile compactors are heavy plant vehicles with hydraulic attachments that can squash the waste in the skips more tightly leaving fewer gaps and making the best use of space. If a skip becomes full a mobile compactor can easily move waste to other empty bins. These improvements will help make it quicker and easier to recycle household waste at Oak Quarry in future.

To make the switch to the new machines the existing fixed compactors will be removed and new open top skips will be provided.

During the closure staff will have a chance to familiarise themselves with the new mobile waste compaction machine. New and improved signs will be installed so visitors know which materials go where.

The Oak Quarry site is planned to re-open on Saturday 6 April with summer opening hours, 9am to 5pm.

During this time residents are asked to take their bulky household waste and recycling to their closest alternative centre:

• Hempsted HRC near Gloucester, GL2 5FR (Closed on Thursdays)
• Wingmoor Farm HRC in Stoke Orchard, GL52 7RS (Closed on Wednesdays)

However residents may prefer to plan their visit before or after the closure dates to avoid potential queues at other sites. There is a full list of household recycling centres in Gloucestershire online here

From 31 March all Gloucestershire recycling centres will be open during the summer hours of 9am – 5pm six days a week including bank holidays. Find out the opening hours and more information online at www.recycleforgloucestershire.com