Our responsibilities as a waste disposal authority
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
During 2018, the then Oxfordshire Environment Partnership (OEP) developed the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy on behalf of all six Oxfordshire local authorities. The strategy focuses on the collection and disposal of household waste by the six local authorities in the county.
In 2020, the six local authorities in Oxfordshire reformed the collaborative partnership under the Oxfordshire Resources & Waste Partnership (ORWP), to focus on waste management and the changes coming in as a result of new legislation and policy expected under the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy (2018).
The strategy was originally set to run from 2018 to 2023, in line with the original timetable for the national Resources and Waste Strategy. Due to delays in implementation of the national strategy, the ORWP Member-led Partnership Board agreed at their meeting of 9 November 2023 to extend the Oxfordshire strategy to 2025; to better align with the national programme. The two-year extension also covers the interim recycling target of 65% by 2027 for the Partnership.
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.