One ton of roadside rubbish collected in just five days in West Oxfordshire

Crews collected roadside rubbish along the A40 in West Oxfordshire
One ton of discarded rubbish has been collected from a five mile stretch of the A40 carriageway running through West Oxfordshire in just one week. (Image from West Oxfordshire District Council)One ton of discarded rubbish has been collected from a five mile stretch of the A40 carriageway running through West Oxfordshire in just one week. (Image from West Oxfordshire District Council)
One ton of discarded rubbish has been collected from a five mile stretch of the A40 carriageway running through West Oxfordshire in just one week. (Image from West Oxfordshire District Council)

One ton of discarded rubbish has been collected from a five mile stretch of the A40 carriageway running through West Oxfordshire in just one week.

Council contractor Ubico was asked to collect the waste discarded along the road on behalf of the district council. Over a five day period (January 31 to February 4 inclusive), one ton of rubbish was collected.

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Councillor Norman MacRae, cabinet member for environment at West Oxfordshire District Council, said: “Waste discarded from vehicles causes damage to our local area, Roadside litter is a threat to wildlife and the environment as well as being unsightly. It can also pose a hazard to drivers, farm animals and can block drains which can cause flooding.

“This clean up effort shows just how much waste people are illegally throwing away along our roadsides, and is not just an issue for main roads, but smaller lanes as well.

“Cleaning this rubbish comes at significant cost to the council tax payer as staff have to be redeployed from their normal duties to enable them to collect the rubbish discarded from vehicles. This also means other services which would normally have been undertaken are delayed.”

Cllr MacRae added: “ Thoughtless actions from lazy drivers who drop litter from a moving vehicle are so easy avoided if those people were to just take their litter home with them and put it in a bin. If everyone were to do that our area would look much better and our wildlife would be protected.”

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Everyone has a 'duty of care' to ensure waste is disposed of in the correct fashion. Throwing waste from a vehicle is littering which carries an £80 fine.

West Oxfordshire District Council collects between 400 and 500 tons of street litter each year.