Waste Disposal and how you can help us. October 2019

Dart Harbour currently spends over £30,000 per annum on waste disposal excluding our staff time and the cost of using our heavy lifting barge, Hercules.

Sadly, we are experiencing an increase in the misuse of our waste disposal services. Hazardous waste is being put in general waste skips and bins, hazardous waste is being left on pontoons and non-river waste (Household, garden, builders commercial, other commercial, fridges, and tyres) is being put in the general waste skips and bins.

The net effect of this unhelpful behavior is the contamination of general waste that can no longer be sorted, an increase in the risk of pollution and an increase in the danger to our workforce and to our customers.  Our river team is having to spend more time dealing with this issue which means that other essential work is delayed.

We take this issue very seriously, not least because of the environmental damage this may lead to. If as one of our customers you spot anybody misusing these facilities, we would like to hear about it. It is a difficult issue to police ourselves but with your help, we may be able to identify the offenders and take appropriate action.

The information below provides a reminder of our waste disposal services and the advice for the disposal of hazardous waste.

The skips we provide at Dartmouth, Kingswear and Dittisham and the bins ashore at Stoke Gabriel and on the town jetty are for river users general waste only, the skips at Dartmouth are also for fisherman’s commercial waste . Customers can segregate cans and glass in separate bins at Dartmouth, Dittisham, and Kingswear and the general waste in our skips is further segregated by our waste contractor.

Hazardous waste such as batteries, waste oil, oily waste, waste fuel, contaminated fuel waste,  paint and paint waste should not be put in any of the skips or bins, we collect small amounts of this waste at Hoodown where it is segregated and a specialist waste contractor takes it away and deals with it correctly. If any hazardous waste is put in the general waste skips or bins our general waste contractor will not accept it.

Hazardous waste should not be left on pontoons, this is dangerous and risks environmental damage.

Household waste, gardeners waste, builders commercial waste, other commercial waste, tyres, fridges,  and any other non-river waste should not be put in the skips or bins and will not be accepted at Hoodown.  This type of waste should be taken to your nearest recycling centre.

Our image above shows some of the rubbish pulled out of the river over the last few months,  you can see all sorts of things which have been dumped,  including the kitchen sink!  Some of this can be recycled including the ground chain, but much of it we have to pay to dispose of.