Waste collection: Major shake-up
2:40pm Tuesday 7th October 2008
A MAJOR shake-up of household waste collections across West Oxfordshire is to be implemented, with general household rubbish collected once-a-fortnight.
Just a week after Conservative Party leader and Witney MP David Cameron pledged to allow councils to revert back to weekly waste rounds if they wanted, Tory-controlled West Oxfordshire is ploughing ahead with controversial changes.
The new system will be a mixture of weekly and fortnightly collections, but the major new elements are separate containers for waste food and garden clippings at every household.
West Oxfordshire District Council is pressing ahead with plans to implement the shake-up by April 2010 at the earliest, despite a rethink announced last week about controversial fortnightly collections in neighbouring Oxford.
Under the proposed changes, each home will have the following: * A 240-litre wheelie bin, emptied once a fortnight, for non-recyclable waste.
* A 25-litre caddy for food waste, emptied weekly.
* A 240-litre green wheelie bin for garden waste, emptied fortnightly.
* Two 55-litre black recycling boxes for cans, bottles, plastics, paper, and cardboard, emptied weekly.
Variations in the size of bins and boxes would be provided for larger families and smaller households.
The overhaul of the current weekly system is being made to meet demand for an increase in recyclable material and to reduce the amount going to landfill.
A 'carrot and stick' approach has been set out, with councils receiving financial benefits from the Government for cutting landfill waste and penalties for making no progress.
The current green bin system costs £30 a year for those who take it up — more than 3,000 homes have them.
In future, it will be free for everyone.
David Harvey, the district council's cabinet member for the environment, said: "There may well be a capital outlay for us to make the change. But we do not expect to have to scrap the existing bins dished out to households.
"We have targets to meet, so have to change. We will be telling contractors who bid to take on the service that it has to be in place in 2010. We have always maintained that here in West Oxfordshire, unlike some other authorities in the country, we would want to stay with weekly collections for food and recyclables."
The council is Tory-controlled, but Mr Harvey said last week's Conservative Party pledge to reinstate weekly collections to every household in the country was not applicable to West Oxfordshire because of its commitment to stay weekly on its major part of the service.
Barry Norton, leader of West Oxfordshire District Council, said: "The only items that will be collected fortnightly are those that can't go in the other bins, for example garden waste and things like non-biodegradable nappies.
"Food waste will be collected weekly. "We would like to implement this by April 2010 at the earliest. Depending on events, September 2010 at the latest. We are trying to enter into the spirit of the Conservative promise, and do everything we can not to annoy the general public and produce some of the best recycling rates we can."
Outside contractors will start bidding for the service in December.