Buying new home close to Household Waste Recycling Centre

olgadapolga

Our local HWRC is just for recyclable stuff and it does smell. Also, for some reason there are hundreds of seagulls there, which are pretty noisy. Lots of vans and lorries going in/out plus there are a couple of heavy duty machines to move the recycling from the bays to the skips. But it's  open for six days of the week, after all. 

There's no way I'd buy a house anywhere near it.

ArbitraryRandom

My view would be that if you are asking the question then future buyers will ask the same question. 

You're already buying a new-build (which will depreciate, somewhere in the region of 10%, as soon as it's not 'new' anymore) and you've said in the OP this house is not meeting all of your other expectations/wants - so as this isn't your dream house, unless there's nothing else remotely suitable in the area/your budget, I'd be inclined against. 

Not a complete no, but certainly a 'keep checking for new things to market'. 

Jan/Feb are slow months for new properties, combined with the uncertainty re the economy, so you might find something else pops up in the next few weeks that's just as good/better. 

user1977

For context, we are talking about something a quarter of a mile away, not next door.

For people who have trouble visualising that, you can go to Rightmove's search options and set a quarter-mile radius. Do that for a property you know, and then figure out whether you can hear/smell etc the stuff on the perimeter of that circle.

gingercordial

olgadapolga said:

Our local HWRC is just for recyclable stuff and it does smell. Also, for some reason there are hundreds of seagulls there, which are pretty noisy. Lots of vans and lorries going in/out plus there are a couple of heavy duty machines to move the recycling from the bays to the skips. But it's  open for six days of the week, after all. 

There's no way I'd buy a house anywhere near it.

Are you sure the whole site is just for recyclables?  Often there will be the "public side" which is the HWRC for recyclables, but another part of the same site might be a transfer station where smaller (normal residential street-sized) bin lorries drop off, for bulk pick up by bigger lorries that go on to the landfill or wherever.  So you might know it as just the tip for household recycling but there could be much more going on behind the scenes with black bag waste.  I'd be surprised if gulls were interested in pure recyclables otherwise, there's nothing for them to eat in those.  

(Also in the waste industry, with a particular niche hobby relating to gulls!)

ArbitraryRandom

user1977 said:

For context, we are talking about something a quarter of a mile away, not next door.

For people who have trouble visualising that, you can go to Rightmove's search options and set a quarter-mile radius. Do that for a property you know, and then figure out whether you can hear/smell etc the stuff on the perimeter of that circle.

I have a train station about that distance away and I can definitely hear/see the traffic to and from the station at commuting time. The difference being that a commuting route is (generally) seen as an asset. 

Niv

ArbitraryRandom said:

user1977 said:

For context, we are talking about something a quarter of a mile away, not next door.

For people who have trouble visualising that, you can go to Rightmove's search options and set a quarter-mile radius. Do that for a property you know, and then figure out whether you can hear/smell etc the stuff on the perimeter of that circle.

I have a train station about that distance away and I can definitely hear/see the traffic to and from the station at commuting time. The difference being that a commuting route is (generally) seen as an asset. 

I am pretty sure the noise people are referring to is that of the activity i.e. people putting stuff in skips. If you live near a HWRC you are likely in a town and so avoiding traffic going about its business is unlikely to be avoidable where ever you move to in the vicinity. 

user1977

ArbitraryRandom said:

user1977 said:

For context, we are talking about something a quarter of a mile away, not next door.

For people who have trouble visualising that, you can go to Rightmove's search options and set a quarter-mile radius. Do that for a property you know, and then figure out whether you can hear/smell etc the stuff on the perimeter of that circle.

I have a train station about that distance away and I can definitely hear/see the traffic to and from the station at commuting time. The difference being that a commuting route is (generally) seen as an asset. 

But can you hear the station?

bramptonbrew

Our landfill site is probably the same distance from our house. If the wind blows in the wrong direction there's sometimes a bit of a pong but it's nothing I can't deal with - plus, we are in the countryside and we often get farm smells as well. I have a strong stomach!

dariakruk

Thank you everyone for your replies. I wasn't expecting so many, that was very interesting. 

We visited this centre over the weekend and it's really tiny. Maybe 6 skips in total, not many people visiting. I don't think this will be a problem either in terms of noise or smell. 

FreeBear

dariakruk said: We visited this centre over the weekend and it's really tiny. Maybe 6 skips in total, not many people visiting. I don't think this will be a problem either in terms of noise or smell. 

So more of a collection point rather than a site where they are sorting & processing recyclables. In which case, a bit of noise during daylight hours would be the worst of your problems. A pub or Tesco Express (other stores available) a similar distance away would likely be a bigger nuisance.