Residents give the thumbs-up to household recycling centres in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire residents have been giving their views on the council’s household recycling centres as part of the annual customer satisfaction survey.

The survey is carried out every year to gain a greater understanding of how residents are using the sites, what they think of them and where they think improvements could be made.

In the latest survey, carried out in June 2021, 99% of respondents said they were satisfied with the service overall with just over half (52%) saying they were very satisfied, and 100% said they felt safe when visiting the sites during the pandemic.

The survey also revealed:

Two out of every three respondents said they were satisfied with staff at the site.

The most popular items to bring to the recycling centres were paper, cardboard and glass, closely followed by garden waste.

Ninety per cent of visitors know about charges for non-household waste.

One in 10 visitors to the sites have brought chargeable waste.

Two thirds of respondents were very satisfied with the way the council ran the site during the pandemic.

Most people (60%) experience no queue at any of the sites, whilst for those who had queued, 30% said it was for less than five minutes.

Most people (63%) visit a household recycling centre once a month or less.

Peter Strachan, cabinet member for Climate Change and Environment said: “I’m really proud that satisfaction with our household recycling service is so high.

"It’s also heartening to know that the aspect of the service that people liked the most was the site staff.

"They work really hard through all weathers and I wish to express my own thanks to them for their excellent customer service to our customers, particularly during the pandemic.”

He added: “Our household recycling centres are a really important part of how we manage waste in Buckinghamshire, recycling more than two thirds of the waste that comes in.

"Some areas of the service scored lower than we would like, such as awareness of the reuse that we do at all sites.

"So we will work on those areas and make what is currently a good service, a great one.”

The survey gathered 2,300 responses from across the nine council sites, with at least 250 responses from each site.

More information on Buckinghamshire’s Household Recycling Centres can be found online.