Cornwall's tips are set to reopen on Tuesday (May 19th) but people have been asked to only take essential waste.

The household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) have been closed in recent weeks after concerns were raised that they could not operate under the coronavirus restrictions around social distancing.

And in the first days of lockdown, they were overrun with people who had used the extra time at home and good weather to embark on DIY and gardening which created extra waste.

Rob Nolan, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for environment and public protection, has urged people to use them sensibly when they reopen next week.

He said:

"They will be open for garden waste or general waste. Please don't bring your recycling as we will not have facilities for it. Any recycling will just go into general waste and to the incinerator.

"Please don't just go up with one bag of grass cuttings. This is for essential waste only – that is waste which cannot be stored or is posing a risk.

"Our kerbside waste and recycling collections are continuing so if you can get rid of your rubbish that way then please do."

To help reduce the amount of people going to the tips at any one time the council has introduced a system which determines when you can go using car number plates.

People with registration numbers where a last digit is an even number can go on even dates – ie: if your number plate is WK66 GBA then you can go on May 20, 22, 24, etc – and those with the last digit is an odd number can go on odd dates – ie a number plate of KP13 BFG can go on May 19, 21, 23, etc.

Cllr Nolan said:

"I would rather that we had a booking system but that wasn't possible and this has been used elsewhere.

"However I would warn people that there are likely to be queues – in Manchester when they reopened the tips they had 100 cars there at 6am waiting.

"We have had to introduce a one-way system at some centres like Newquay and we will have stewards and parking wardens who will be working as well to manage the traffic."

The council also operates a garden waste collection service which residents can subscribe to and has also restarted its bulky items collection service which people can use to book collection of large items such as furniture and white goods.

There are 14 HWRCs in Cornwall and all but three of them will reopen on Tuesday to the public.

The three which will NOT open are Tintagel, Saltash and Dudnance Lane.

These HWRCs will open from Tuesday:

Bodmin

Connon Bridge

Helston

Newquay

St Day (United Downs)

Truro