BUILDING work on a new £400,000 household waste recycling centre in Thornbury is set to get underway later this month.

The purpose-built Sort It centre on the former Dairy Crest site on the Thornbury Industrial Park will enable residents from the town and the surrounding to area take their bulky items of household waste for recycling or disposal.

The facility is part of a 25-year waste management partnership between South Gloucestershire Council and waste operators SITA that began five years ago.

Cllr Shirley Potts, executive member for communities, said: "This new Sort It centre in Thornbury will make it easier for local people to dispose of their rubbish in an environmentally-friendly way.

I would encourage everyone to do their bit and help the council and SITA reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by reducing, reusing and recycling."

James Pike, general manager for SITA South Gloucestershire, said: "This new facility is a major improvement for residents in and around Thornbury and will help to recycle even more household rubbish. It's a major step forwards in our plan to provide South Gloucestershire residents with the best rubbish and recycling facilities in the region."

The centre will be the fourth facility of its kind in South Gloucestershire when it opens in the spring. It will cut round trip journeys to the tip by as much as 12 miles when compared with existing recycling sites at Yate or Stoke Gifford.

Open seven days a week and fully staffed during opening times, the split level facility will allow people to park their cars on a higher level so that they can drop their recyclables and waste down into separate sorting bays. A one way traffic system will also be introduced to ease traffic congestion.

It will accept all types of household rubbish including paper, cans, glass, wood, scrap metal, cardboard, garden waste, car batteries, textiles and engine oil. There will also be collection points for sheet asbestos and items of hazardous household waste.

It is predicted that between 55-60 percent of the waste delivered to the new centre will be recycled. With landfill tax due to rise to £35 per tonne within the next six years, the money invested in the site will reap financial as well as environmental benefits.

The other three Sort It sites are at Collett Way, Yate; Carsons Road, Mangotsfield and Station Road, Little Stoke.