Opening date announced for Sunderland's new £5million Household Waste and Recycling Centre - here's when you can start using it

The state-of-the art centre on the former Rolls-Royce site at Pallion will officially open for business this Tuesday, February 1.

At 16,000 square metres – roughly the size of two football pitches – it is more than five times the size of the current site at Beach Street and capable of handling 3,000 vehicles a day and more than a million visits annually.

With solar panels, rainwater harvesting and low energy lighting, the new facility is much more energy efficient than the current site and will contribute towards the city's low carbon ambitions.It will also feature a re-use shop which is due to open this summer where people can donate things they no longer want, to be recycled and resold, rather than going to waste.

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The new HWRC will handle everything from bagged household and garden waste, cardboard and wood, small and small domestic appliances, TVs and computers, small fridges, metal, soil, rubble, plasterboard, fluorescent tubes, engine and vegetable oil, textiles to household recycling including plastic, cans, glass and paper.About 53.7 per cent of the 9,600 tonnes of waste currently delivered to the Beach Street site is recycled. The remainder is sent to an energy from waste facility on Teesside.Planning permission for the new centre was granted in October 2020 and work began on-site in the following December.

The city council previously allocated £5million for the Pallion scheme and a mini-recycling centre in the Coalfields area as part its budget setting process in 2018.

Speaking at the time, city council leader Coun Graeme Miller said: “Residents have told us that they want to see better household waste recycling facilities and that’s something we’ve taken on board with our plans for this fantastic new centre.

“Beach Street desperately needs replacing with something that is both bigger and better.

“The new household waste and recycling centre at Pallion will offer much improved facilities and better access, which for the first time will include a recycle and re-use shop.

“It will also provide for Sunderland’s bulky waste and recycling needs well into the future as the city continues to grow, including any future recycling opportunities.”

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