Recycling centres across Essex have been closed due to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus.

The centres have been closed until further notice.

People hoping to visit centres to recycle parts of their waste have been told to “hold on” to the items until they re-open.

In a statement, Love Essex said: “Following careful consideration and Government guidance on coronavirus, we have taken the difficult decision to close all Essex recycling centres until further notice.

“The decision to close sites has not been taken lightly but it is essential to encourage residents to stay at home and limit the spread of coronavirus.

“Recycling centres were becoming extremely busy and the increase in visitors meant keeping people a safe distance apart was becoming impossible to manage.

“If you were planning to visit a recycling centre, please hold on to the items you were planning to take until they are reopened.

“During this time we ask residents to act responsibly and not place items such as DIY waste, or recycling into their kerbside general rubbish collection.

“This will take up space in the collection vehicles needed for general household rubbish.”

The authority said it had taken the decision to focus on “matters of public health, safety and community support”.

It will prioritise its core waste and recycling service and will still collect paper, plastic, cans, glass and textiles recycling.

The council urged people to compost at home.

A spokesman said: “Whether it’s vegetable peelings and eggshells, compostable products, shredded paper or the cuttings from the lawnmower, add it to a compost bin and it will gradually break down to produce environmentally-friendly compost.”

Colchester Council suspends recycling collections due to coronavirus

Due to the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19), Colchester Borough Council has made the difficult decision to suspend all its recycling collections, other than food waste, from 25 March 2020 until further notice.

The outbreak of coronavirus has led to reduced resource within the service as well as an increase in the amount of rubbish and recycling households are putting out for collection as they spend more time at home.

Martin Goss, Portfolio Holder for Waste, Environment and Transportation, said: “This is an incredibly difficult time for everyone and as a council we have to prioritise and resource our critical services, which include household rubbish and food waste collections.

“We know from our growing recycling rates, that our borough does a fantastic job of recycling and we would encourage residents to reduce and reuse their items as much as possible at the moment and where practical and possible to do so, hold on to their recycling until this service resumes.

“Our crews are doing a fantastic job at helping us to maintain this critical service for our residents and the more residents can do to help our communities and our crews, the more we can do to help our local communities during this national emergency.”