Cambridgeshire recycling centres will accept sofas and cushions six days after ban

Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) has apologised to residents after its “sudden” announcement that sofas, beanbags and cushions would no longer be accepted at its recycling centres from January 1.

Household waste recycling points throughout the county stopped accepting upholstered seating on this day, leading to concerns about the potential for fly-tipping.

But from 7 January, all nine centres will once again accept these items, CCC has confirmed.

The short-lived rule change followed new direction from the Environment Agency (EA) which states that all domestic seating containing certain poisonous chemicals should be incinerated rather than put into landfill where they would be slow to break down.

Councils were first made aware that this rule could be implemented by the end of the year last August.

But the EA’s final guidance wasn’t published until 19 December, before which operators “were not willing to enter into agreements” to process waste differently, CCC says.

Now a temporary solution has been found, however, and bulky waste collections offered by the county’s District Councils can resume.

“We don’t underestimate the concerns last week’s sudden announcement will have caused many of our residents, and we would like to apologise to them for that, and thank them for their patience and understanding,” Steve Cox, CCC’s Executive Director of Place and Sustainability, said.

“Changes to the way we are allowed to safely dispose of these items meant we were given an extremely short timeframe to deal with waste that could no longer be put into landfill, which had to be stored separately from any other waste before being incinerated.

“As a county council that traditionally doesn’t use incineration for its waste, we didn’t have an easy or immediate solution to hand.”

CCC says that staff will be available at each recycling centre to show residents how to dispose of their sofas and other upholstered seating.

A spokesperson clarified that it will be stored separately to other items which are destined for landfill in order to avoid contamination.

Before the solution was found, Fenland District Council (FDC) said that they were concerned the change could lead to fly-tipping

Cllr Peter Murphy, FDC’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, added: “It was extremely unfortunate to learn that this direction was coming into force on 1 January before alternative arrangements could be put in place.

“We also fully understand residents’ frustration at this news.”

The change, however, left Peterborough unaffected.

A Peterborough City Council (PCC) spokesperson said: “We continue to accept upholstered domestic seating products as the Peterborough Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) means that we do not landfill this material and alongside other non-recyclable waste it is used to generate electricity.”

At the facility, operated by waste company Viridor, non-recyclable waste is already incinerated and turned into heat and electricity.

With £14.5 million Government funding, Peterborough City Council (PCC) which owns the facility plans to begin heating businesses and public buildings in the city with energy generated at the ERF.

Once this is a reality, they will also look at using the heat to power homes.