West Lothian residents using a van or trailer to transport waste from their own home can now access the recycling centres by booking a visit.
All five recycling centres have time slots available from Monday to Friday for vans, pick-ups, flatbeds and vehicles towing a trailer to visit.
Householders can still bring their own waste in cars without booking a slot.
Bookings can be made a minimum of two days in advance by visiting www.westlothian.gov.uk/vansandtrailers.
Residents should ensure they attend within their time slot, and bring their booking confirmation, photo ID and proof of their home address in West Lothian with them, or they may not be allowed access to the site.
This system is for household waste only, commercial access for recycling is not yet permitted and general waste from businesses, traders or charities is not accepted at any time.
Executive councillor for the environment Tom Conn said: “I’m delighted that we are now able to welcome vans, pick-ups and trailers with household waste back into our recycling centres.
“The re-opening of our recycling centres in June has been very popular, with visitor numbers a third higher than the same period for the previous year. I’d like to thank residents for making the reopening of our recycling centres a success by following the site rules, our staff have greatly appreciated the positive messages we’ve received.”
“We increased the opening hours of all five recycling centres, which are now open seven days a week from 10am to 6pm and put in a number of changes, such as traffic management, to ensure we could cope with demand.”
He added: “We were unable to accommodate vehicles bringing larger volumes of waste initially, but we are now in a position to do so once more.
“The booking system will allow us to limit the numbers of larger vehicles accessing our recycling centres at any given time, ensuring access is maintained for all residents.”
The current model of each parking space having access to two skips- one for bagged waste and the other for bulky waste will continue, with all the waste sorted through to recover materials for recycling offsite.
This means that specialist recycling such as electrical equipment, oil and gas cylinders will remain unavailable at present.
Anyone using our recycling centres should follow social distancing signage on site to protect themselves, our staff and other visitors.
Do not visit a recycling centre if you or anyone you live with has symptoms of Covid-19, have tested positive for it or have been asked to self-isolate following close contact with someone who has tested positive.
