Facilitating Gosport’s new Community Skip Service

TJ Waste has won a contract to provide waste management services for Gosport’s new Community Skip Service which was launched in May. The scheme involves the provision of skips to local neighbourhoods in the borough, enabling residents to dispose of bulky household rubbish safely and responsibly.

This initiative aims to give residents a convenient waste disposal option and to deter people from fly-tipping. In recent years fly-tipping has increased substantially. The Countryside Alliance reported a 300% rise in fly tipping in some areas of the UK following the closure of Household Waste Recycling Centres during the initial Covid lockdown periods.

Thankfully fly-tipping stats have fallen a little since then; for the 2021/22 year, local authorities in England dealt with 1.09 million fly-tipping incidents, a decrease of 4% from 2020/21. The percentage of fly-tips involving household waste fell in 2021/22 too, dropping from 65% to 61%. 

The scheme is being managed by Gosport Borough Council, who have organised a number of events in the area to take place over the early summer months. More events will be scheduled for later in the summer and on into the rest of the year in a bid to make waste disposal more accessible and to keep the local communities cleaner.

Skips will be placed in key locations around Gosport, with residents being invited to bring along their household waste and unwanted items for disposal. Locations include:

20 May – Gosport Leisure Centre

27 May – Walpole Park Car Park

3 June – Alver Valley West Car Park, Lee on the Solent

17 June – White’s Place Car Park (subject to confirmation)

1 July – Green Lane Car Park

TJ is supplying the skips for the events, utilising their vast stock of skips, which are ideal for this type of disposal. TJ’s fleet of skip lorries and accompanying drivers will deliver a number of skips to the event location the day before and collect and remove them as they become full. We can organise more skips to be delivered as and when needed depending on demand.

Five TJ staff will work at each event, managing people/car traffic to ensure the day runs smoothly and supporting the correct use of each skip (assisting with direction/guidance).

Prior to the launch of this event, a trial was conducted to gauge demand and over 90 tonnes of waste was collected! During the first event, which took place on 20 May at Gosport Leisure Centre, 10 skips were filled.

All the waste we collect is transported to our Portsmouth Materials Recovery Facility for sorting, segregating and onward recycling. We’re dedicated to diverting as much waste as possible from landfill and endeavour to recycle up to 100% of the waste we handle. 

We process all waste in line with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) protocol. WRAP’s mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable, resource-efficient economy by re-inventing how we design, produce and sell products, re-thinking how we use and consume products, and re-defining what is possible through reuse and recycling. 

These events have been subcontracted to us in their entirety meaning that we are supplying the skips, the vehicles, our staff to man the events and our insurance to cover them. This all-in-one service is just one of the many versatile service options that falls under our comprehensive waste management services offering.

Many different waste types are welcomed at these events, including a number of traditionally tricky items to dispose of such as POPs (unwanted sofas, armchairs and upholstered furniture), mattresses, WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) and rubble. Other items permitted include:

• Wood
• Metal
• Glass
• Electrical cabling
• Flooring and carpets
• Batteries
• Tiles, bricks and cement
• Paving slabs
• TV and computer screens
• Items from kitchen and bathroom refits including sinks and baths etc
• Garden toys, equipment and furniture
• Garden waste including branches, soil and turf
• Clearance items such as furniture tools, buggies and camping equipment

Items not accepted include:

• Asbestos
• Plasterboard
• Clinical waste
• Fridges or freezers
• Liquid waste (including paint)
• Creosote, oil, petrol or diesel
• Pressurised containers (including gas canisters)
• Fluorescent tubes
• Car engines or tyres
• Japanese knotweed

TJ Waste General Manager Luke Haskell said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have secured this contract and excited to be working with Gosport Borough Council to help keep local communities clean. Fly-tipping is an issue close to our hearts and we assist in many incidents of this kind, so anything we can do to help prevent such incidents will always be amongst our top priorities.”

Find out more about fly-tipping incidents we’ve assisted with, and about the waste management services we offer…