Dispose of garden waste whenever it suits you: recycling centres open round the clock

Autumn is peak season at the recycling centre. By providing a self-service garden waste drop-off point, local authorities give their residents the freedom to drop off garden waste round the clock – without the need for extra staff.

The hedge has been trimmed, the leaves raked up, the trailer is full. Now all that’s left is to get rid of the garden waste. But the recycling centre has just closed, or there’s already a long queue of cars outside the gates. This is a situation familiar to many residents – and just as many local authorities.

When opening hours reach their limits

The garden waste season highlights just how restrictive traditional opening hours are. People usually do their gardening after work or at the weekend. That is precisely when everyone wants to go to the recycling centre at the same time.

The result is peak times with long queues, traffic jams at the entrance and stressed staff. The obvious solution would be longer opening hours and more staff. But skilled workers are in short supply anyway, and every extra hour of operation costs the local authority money.

The real question, therefore, is: why does a garden waste collection point need to have opening hours at all?

The autonomous recycling centre: open 24/7

With wiegon, local authorities can open their recycling centres round the clock for their residents. Operations run completely autonomously, with no on-site staff required:

• Access: Residents gain access to the site via the app or through number plate recognition.
• Recording: Every drop-off is automatically documented.
• Billing: Billing takes place digitally in the background, with no cash and no paper.

For residents, this means: no more checking the time, no queues, no waiting. For the local authority, this means: drop-offs are spread throughout the day, and peak times are naturally smoothed out.

Case study: Zams local authority

The local authority of Zams in Tyrol demonstrates just how well this service has been received. There, residents make use of the self-service access to the garden waste collection point around 25,000 times a year. And they do so whenever it suits them: early in the morning before work, late in the evening after gardening, or on a Sunday afternoon. The site is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Digitalisation does not replace staff
Self-service recycling centres are not a cost-cutting measure at the expense of staff. Staff remain where they are needed: providing advice, handling difficult waste fractions and at the regularly staffed recycling centre.

Above all, digitalisation creates one thing: freedom. Residents decide for themselves when to drop off their garden waste. And local authorities offer a better service without having to recruit additional specialist staff.

Your recycling centre can also be open round the clock

Would you like to run your garden waste collection point or recycling centre independently? We’d be happy to show you how this works in your local authority and what experiences other local authorities have already had.

Please get in touch. We’d be happy to advise you.