Our role in waste management

Oxfordshire County Council's responsibilities as a waste disposal authority.

Our Waste Management Group is responsible for the disposal of household waste collected across the county.

In 2021/22, we spent a total of £27 million on waste management services.

The waste hierarchy

We follow the principles of the waste hierarchy.

  • Refuse
  • Reduce
  • Reuse
  • Repair
  • Recycle

First, we try to encourage and ensure Oxfordshire residents avoid producing waste in the first place by refusing and reducing what they buy and repairing what they already have.

Where waste is unavoidable, we maximise material recycling, composting and anaerobic digestion. 

We send the majority of the waste we can't recycle or compost to Ardley energy recovery facility. We divert at least 95% of non-recyclable waste from landfill and generate electricity for about 38,000 homes.

The waste wizard

As an Oxfordshire resident, you can use the waste wizard tool to search for an item you no longer need. The wizard will use your postcode to provide local information, including:

  • repair or reuse options
  • which wheelie bin to use at your home for kerbside collection
  • your nearest recycling centre. 

Through tools like this, we hope to educate residents, prevent contamination and increase repair, reuse and recycling.

Waste treatment services

We provide seven waste recycling centres where householders can deliver waste for recycling or disposal. 

We hold contracts with private waste companies who provide waste treatment services on our behalf, including:

  • an energy recovery facility
  • waste transfer stations
  • landfill sites
  • green waste composting sites,
  • anaerobic digestion facilities. 

Our team helps households and communities across Oxfordshire reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible.

Oxfordshire's Resources and Waste Strategy

The Oxfordshire Environment Partnership (OEP) developed the strategy on behalf of all Oxfordshire local authorities. The strategy runs from 2018-2023 and focuses on local authority collected waste.
 

Waste collection

The five district councils across Oxfordshire are waste collection authorities. Your district council is responsible for:

  • kerbside recycling boxes
  • collecting waste from your household, including bulky household waste collections.

Your local authority takes this waste to recycle, treatment or landfill facilities.

Oxfordshire recycles

We are a partner authority in Oxfordshire recycles

Oxfordshire recycles is a partnership of Oxfordshire's county and district councils. We are working to improve waste management services for residents.