County Council U-Turn On Sofa Recycling

All nine county household waste recycling centres now accepting upholstered household seating again.

The council has apologised to residents affected by last week’s sudden temporary restriction on accepting upholstered seating while it worked at pace with its partners on a safe disposal method.

An interim solution for accepting waste items such as sofas, upholstered chairs, cushions, and beanbags at all the recycling centres, will also allow bulky waste collections offered by all of the county’s City and District Councils to 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,” said Steve Cox, Cambridgeshire’s Executive Director of Place and Sustainability.

“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.”

“We are extremely grateful to our partners across the whole system including our contractor Thalia who has worked with us at pace over the past week, from the date it was confirmed to us by the Environment Agency that we would be in breach of legislation from January 1st, “ said Cllr Lorna Dupre, Chair of the Council’s Environment and Green Investment Committee.

“This has meant we now have safe and compliant temporary solutions to allow us to continue to accept this waste until we are able to dispose of it safely by incineration.”

Staff will be available at each of the recycling centre sites to advise and show residents where they can dispose of upholstered household seating

Residents are also reminded that there are alternatives to taking upholstered household seating to recycling centres.