Refuse collection and recycling in Headington, Oxford

Refuse, recycling, and nuisances in Headington

Full details of collection days are on the city council’s Household waste and recycling page, which has a link to an online collection day search.

The city is divided into two collection zones, and the whole of Headington and Marston is in the north (BLUE) zone.

It is an offence to leave rubbish on the pavement earlier than the night before collection.

Headington has an Area Streetscene Team responsible for collecting refuse, the maintenance of minor roads, recycling, and public toilet cleaning. The area managers are often present at the area committee meeting each month.

City Works now has a new telephone number: 0800 227676. You are then offered a selection of numbers to get through to the department you need.

Recycling bin

Doorstep collection

Oxford has a fortnightly collection (except for food waste, which is collected weekly in the special caddy). Under the new system, waste is collected one week, and recycling the other.

Green wheelie bin for landfill

The wheelie bin (right) comes in three sizes. Rubbish that cannot be recycled must be put in the wheelie bin, which should not be overfilled.

If your property is assessed by the city council as being unsuitable for a wheelie bin, you will be provided with special lilac sacks.

Rubbish left out in ordinary bin-bags is no longer collected

Pictures showing how
wheelie bins are emptied

Blue wheelie bin for recycling

From 18 October 2010, most households have been given a blue wheelie bin for recycling, although people who do not have room for one are allowed to continue to use their old blue and green recycling boxes. The following (clean) items go in the blue bin:

• Glass
• Paper, card, and cardboard, including envelopes, newspapers, directories
• Metal cans and foil
• All plastic bottles and lids
• Plastic food pots, tubs, trays, punnets
• Plastic carrier bags
• Clean clingfilm, bubble wrap, plant pots, any plastic food wrapping
• Tetrapaks

There is no need to separate items, as they are all tipped together into a special refuse lorry and sorted later by machine. If you flatten plastic bottles, they will not take up so much room; but it is not essential. Cardboard too large for the box can be stacked beside it and will not be treated as “side waste”.

Note that there is a carrier bag and a battery collection box inside many shops, including Waitrose.

Garden waste

Since May 2011 the city council has charged to collect your garden waste. If you wish to subscribe to the scheme, you will have to pay a yearly subscription of £35 in advance for a brown wheelie bin. Biodegradeable Eco Sacks are an alternative or complementary to the brown wheelie bin and available to buy from Cowley Marsh or Horspath depot.

Green waste gets collected in the same week as the recycling:
• Grass cuttings
• Prunings
• Leaves
• Small shrubs
• Plants and weeds
• Cut flowers
• Branches no larger than 7.5cm in diameter

Cardboard, soil, and logs should not be put out for green waste collection

Large items

Up to three large items (e.g. fridges and furniture) can be removed by the city council free of charge: tel. 0800 227676

Re-use

Items that cannot be recycled can often be reused:

Charity shops. Headington has six charity shops (but beware of commercial organizations who collect clothes from your doorstep). Do not leave items outside the shops at weekends, as they get ransacked; and bear in mind that only good-quality items are acceptable
There is a recycling bank for shoes and clothes at the recycling centre in the carpark by Waitrose
Orinoco holds a swap shop in the Bullingdon Community Centre on the second Saturday of each month
Headington Community Centre host a swap shop and community café every third Saturday of the month
Paint The County Council refuse sites will now only accept certain paints.Orinoco will accept paint
Oxford Freecycle is a wonderful way of getting rid of unwanted items, especially ones that are too large for charity shops
Oxfordshire Materials Exchange: donate or receive unwanted office items

Nuisances

See the City Council Report it online page where you can report on just about everything, e.g. fly-tipping; defects in roads, pavements, traffic lights, street lights, street signs; flooding; dead animals; missed bin collection.

Dog waste