From December upholstered furniture can only be disposed of at certain recycling centres in Devon.

This change follows a new requirement from the environment agency which instructs recycling centres to have segregated facilities to handle upholstered furniture.

Examples can include sofas, sofa beds, armchairs, upholstered kitchen and dining room chairs, upholstered garden furniture, stools and foot stools, office chairs, futons, bean bags, and sofa cushions.

These items contain large quantities of pollutants and other hazardous chemicals in the textiles and foam.

Councillor Roger Croad, Cabinet Member responsible for waste services said: “The Environment Agency requires that waste upholstered furniture is incinerated in order to safely destroy the chemicals contained within them.

“We have been successfully doing this for some time, but they are now requiring that we provide separate skips and collect and transport this waste separately from other residual waste streams despite it all going to the same waste plant for incineration.

“Many of our recycling centres are too small to accommodate additional large containers without impacting on other recycling services.  As such, we can only provide one upholstered furniture accepting recycling centre in each district council area and regretfully this will mean that residents may have to travel further to discard their items.”

The recycling centres that will be able to accept upholstered furniture from December 2024 are:

East Devon; Knowle Hill in Exmouth

Exeter; Pinbrook Road, Exeter

Mid Devon; Ashley, Tiverton

North Devon, Seven Brethren, Barnstaple

Torridge; Bideford

South Hams; Ivybridge

West Devon: Okehampton

Teignbridge: Brunel Road, Newton Abbot

Upholstered furniture cannot be accepted at any other Devon HWRC after December 1 and residents will need to ensure that they take their furniture to a site that can accept them or book a bulky collection with their district council who will charge for the service.

For more information visit Devon County Council’s website.