Chipping Norton and villages urged to check Christmas refuse collections

As the countdown to Christmas gets underway, householders in west Oxfordshire are being encouraged to check when waste collections are due over the festive period to prevent containers going un-emptied and to maximise the amount of waste going on to be recycled.

All households, plus businesses signed up to West Oxfordshire District Council’s (WODC) trade waste service, will experience changes due to no collections taking place on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. To catch up, the council will follow a revised collection schedule, which will run over three weeks, starting from the week commencing Monday, December 25.

Details of how collections are changing are already advertised on the District Council’s website: https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/binday

Councillor Lidia Arciszewska, Executive Member for Environment at West Oxfordshire District Council, said: “With the additional waste created at this time of year we’re urging residents to check their collection timetable over Christmas and New Year by visiting our website where they can also download a copy of their property’s waste calendar which lists all the dates residents can expect their collections to take place not just at Christmas time but throughout the year.

"Inevitably many households will have extra recycling to dispose of, particularly cardboard. To maximise space, we’re reminding residents to squash their recyclables before putting them in their blue-lidded bin. But should households have a bit more this can be left neatly beside the bin. To be collected, excess cardboard needs to be reduced in size, flattened and kept loose while other recyclables - with the exception of glass and food waste - can be left inside a clear plastic bag.”

The council has again taken the decision to suspend its garden waste service so that crews and vehicles can be redeployed to clear the extra rubbish and recycling created. The garden waste service will finish on Friday, December 22 and resume on Tuesday, January 9 when the council will also begin the process of picking up real Christmas trees for all households - including for those without a current garden waste licence. Collected trees will go on to be composted.

Christmas trees which can be recycled may be turned into compost or wood chippings that can be spread over local parks or woodlands.

To use the service, residents need to put their tree out on their scheduled garden waste collection day between Tuesday, January 9 and Monday, January 22 2024, making sure to remove all decorations, fairy lights and tree stands first.

To assist the crews, larger trees should be reduced down to sections of 1-metre lengths.

Real Christmas trees, along with excess recycling and rubbish created over the Christmas break, can also be taken to one of Oxfordshire’s local Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC).

The HWRC sites will open between 8am to 3pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and will be shut on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.