Recycling

Recycle for Oxfordshire - District and County Councils are working together to reduce our waste. The Oxfordshire Waste Strategy 2018 is out for consultation with closing date Sunday 18th February - so have your say now.

West Oxfordshire District Council are responsible for collecting our household recycling.  They have published a guide Your recycling service explained and an online A-Z comprehensive list of what you can and can't recycle in West Oxfordshire.

WODC also provide the Community Recycling Banks at the Spendlove carpark, if you find these banks full then please contact WODC on 01993 861020.

Oxfordshire County Council provide the Household Waste Recycling Centres where there are also energy from waste and landfill skips. The closest one to Charlbury is Dix Pit  at Stanton Harcourt which is about 5 miles south of Witney. OCC have published an A-Z to explain what to put into the various recycling containers and what has to be go into the landfill or energy from waste skips. The general rule is that general waste items larger than a suitcase go into the bulky waste skip for landfill and smaller items go into the energy from waste skip.

DIY waste from householders is accepted at the County Council Household Waste Recyling Centres, such as Dix Pit, but under the non-household waste charging scheme (pdf, 675Kb), items are charged at £1.50 each. An example of one item is a bag (equivalent of 25Kg) of rubble, one kitchen unit, one fitted wardrobe, one window frame etc. For this type of waste, you need to talk to one of the site operatives.

West Oxfordshire District Council no longer collects plastic bags for recycling and they have to be put in the light-grey bin for incineration, however, many supermarkets have bins for recycling plastic bags by their entrances so these can also be used. 

Please Note: Oxford City Council collects plastic bags, cling film and bubble wrap  from households for recycling and they also have community recycling banks with bins for plastic in various city locations.

24/01/18 - UK opposes strong EU recycling targets despite plastics pledge Government accused of hypocrisy as documents show opposition to urban waste plan. The UK government is opposing strong new recycling targets across the EU despite its recent pledge to develop “ambitious new future targets and milestones”, confidential documents have revealed.

01/01/18 - UK faces build-up of plastic waste The UK's recycling industry says it doesn't know how to cope with a Chinese ban on imports of plastic waste. Britain has been shipping up to 500,000 tonnes of plastic for recycling in China every year, but now the trade has been stopped. At the moment the UK cannot deal with much of that waste, says the UK Recycling Association.

20/11/17 - Reduce, reuse, reboot: why electronic recycling must up its game With global e-waste projected to hit 50m tonnes next year, consumers need to put pressure on technology firms to make their products more repairable.

11/03/17 - Zero waste living: 'You regret not starting earlier - you see your whole life as a waste of money and time'  Together with her family Bea Johnson doesn´t produce more than one jar full of junk each year. In her bestselling book "Zero Waste Home" she explains the five principles of a home without waste: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot (and only in that order). Anyone who follows those principles will not only save more time, but also live a healthier life.

21/02/17 - Japan’s ‘zero waste town’ is so good at recycling that it is attracting foreign visitors Residents of Kamikatsu diligently sort their waste into 45 different categories so it can be recycled, reused or composted. Since the video was produced in late 2015, the categories have been increased from 34 to 45.

22/07/16 - Call to coffee chains to reuse cups as 2.5 billion dumped every year Coffee shop chains must go “further and faster” to develop recyclable cups as new research reveals more than 2.5 billion are thrown away in the UK every year - enough to go around the world five-and-a-half times.

14/02/13 - UK screwcap recycling rate half that of Germany’s  Germany disposes less than 20% of all aluminium screw bottle tops used, while the UK discards as much as 60%, and some countries around 80%. Re-using aluminium requires 95% less energy than would be used in its primary production.

07/02/13 - The circular economy: big in Japan  When it comes to the ways in which stuff is made, consumed, and disposed of, there’s a lot the UK could learn from Japan.

03/12/12 - VIDEO: Lord de Mauley announces 'Rags to Riches' campaign.  Speaking at the Lawrence M Barry (LMB) Clothes Recycling Centre in Canning Town, London, the minister said he wanted to draw attention to the economic and environmental potential of recycling and reusing clothes that are no longer wanted as part of the Government’s commitment to a zero waste economy.