Overall levels of recycling across Cherwell District increase during pandemic

Cherwell District Council is once again supporting the campaign, which is being run by The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) from Monday September 21 to Sunday September 27. Councils and other organisations up and down the country will be echoing their thanks to householders for recycling properly despite the disruption to their lives caused by coronavirus.

Between April and August, Cherwell’s bin crews have collected 30,851 tonnes of waste and recycling. That is 10 per cent more than they did during the same period last year. However, contamination in the blue and brown bins dropped by three per cent.

Overall levels of recycling in the district increased by 15 per cent. The biggest increase was in glass recycling. Recycling went up by the same percentage – seven per cent – in both the blue and the brown bins.

Cllr Dan Sames, Cherwell’s lead member for clean and green said: “Coronavirus is causing big changes in the way people shop and run their households. We believe that that has had an impact on the amount and type of recycling they are doing.

“It has meant more work for our waste and recycling crews, but they have adapted remarkably, with some fantastic support from local people.

“Putting things in the wrong bin can risk entire loads of recycling being rejected by our processing plant and creates extra work for the people whose job it is to remove contaminants by hand.

“But our latest statistics show that the majority of householders understand this. If anything, they are becoming even more diligent about doing the right thing for the environment.

"Recycling Week is a chance to celebrate this, and we will be sharing information designed to inspire people to keep improving throughout the week itself.”

During Recycle Week, the council and its partner organisations will be providing updates, tips and information using the #recycleweek hashtag.

Anyone who is not sure which bin to put commonly-confused materials in can look it up on Oxfordshire County Council’s Waste Wizard search tool: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wastewizard