RECYCLING IN WEST OXFORDSHIRE IS RUBBISH (Debate)

Tue 31 May 2022, 20:16

I am beyond frustrated!

I have been having a sort out of my shed & loft (long overdue). This has meant that I have quite a few largish (but not enormous) cardboard boxes which I have disassembled & flattened down & sandwiched between my Recycling bin & Household waste bin, ready to be collected with this week’s ‘Recycling’ run. In the past, when I had a similar amount of cardboard waste, it had been collected, there had never been a problem.

I was, therefore, furious to discover that this time not only did they not collect it, but because it had been raining heavily it was left scattered across my drive & pavement & was subsequently now extremely difficult to prop them up between my bins again.

I immediately contacted WODC with my complaint, only to be told that the reason might have been that the lorry was full?!!! I was told that a ‘missed collection’ would be booked & a vehicle might be back in a couple of days. In the meantime her solution was for me to try to break them all down and put them in my Blue Recycling bin! I told her that if I were to do that it would completely fill it and if they didn’t come around to collect it in the next couple of days, I would have absolutely no room to put my normal household recycling rubbish, bearing in mind that it would be further fortnight (well actually slightly longer due to the Jubilee Bank Holiday).  She then suggested that she would send me out one of their lovely Black Recycling boxes (this made me laugh - so now they are manufacturing more plastic items - which are non-recyclable - to put items which previously could be easily stacked between the bins and taken away and are recyclable). I declined the offer stating that this situation was a one off and would not have any use for it in the future. It was left that (hopefully) a lorry might appear by the Thursday.
You guessed it by late Thursday afternoon, it was obvious that my cardboard collection was not going anywhere. I called WODC again. This time the Customer Service Rep. informed me that that the previous information I was given was incorrect that in fact if there was more than a black box worth of cardboard, it would need to be flattened down and added to the blue bin over a matter (in my case months)with recycling collection now down to every fortnight. I was however given some nice clear plastic bags (again more non- recyclable items, great for the environment). These I have managed to fill with my now micro-disassembled cardboard boxes. I told the lass that there was absolutely no joined-up thinking in all of this. Why when previously my bin men had quite happily taken my cardboard boxes was this now a problem? The Council are meant to be encouraging people to recycle! With the removal of the small recycling centre behind the Co-op and the closure of Dean Pit - even if I could drive, it is a journey and a half to get across to Stanlake (and I understand many have gone across only to find the bins full there!). It is no wonder there is an epidemic of ‘Fly Tipping’. It is shocking but how do we change things?
I, for one, do not want our beautiful country lanes blighted by this plague and just want to be able to put my rubbish out and have it collected.
Rant over!