The Waste and Recycling theme aims to reduce waste and increase reuse and recycling. It encourages local recycling, water saving, and household composting.
Blewbury benefits from regular refuse services operated by the Vale of White Horse District Council. We are promoting additional schemes to reduce waste and to reuse or recycle.
Details of refuse services, what can be recycled and where, can be found on the main Blewbury website under Refuse Services or visit the Vale of White Horse District Council's rubbish and recycling website.
A new waste collection service will start on 4th October. Leaflets with full details will be distributed soon, but note that anyone signed up to Royal Mail's junk-mail exclusion service will have to request one or consult their website. Each household will get three new wheelie bins plus a small food caddy in August. Blewbury and Upton collection will normally be on Tuesdays, with rubbish and recycling wheelie bins emptied on alternate weeks and food bins emptied every week. There is more information about the arrangements on the Vale website.
Batteries: Recycling used batteries has just become easier, you can do it in many shops. For information on safe disposal, and why you should be using rechargeables wherever possible, see our page on recycling batteries and using rechargeables.
Home composting
Avoid giving valuable rubbish to landfill! Composting is an inexpensive natural process that transforms kitchen and other household waste into valuable food for the garden.
Compost needs a good balance between GREEN (soft plant material) and BROWN (woody and fibrous material).
IN: tea bags, grass cuttings, vegetable peelings, salad leaves, fruit scraps, old flowers, bedding plants, coffee grounds, rhubarb leaves, weeds. egg shells, egg boxes, cereal boxes, corrugated cardboard, toilet rolls, garden prunings, hedge clippings, straw, hay, vegetarian pets' bedding, wood ashes, sawdust, wool, natural fibres, feathers, vacuum bag contents, tissues, paper towels, napkins, shredded documents
OUT (do not compost!): cooked vegetables, meat, dairy produce, diseased plants, dog poo, cat litter, babies' nappies
Reuse
We often dispose of things we no longer have a use for, even though they still work or could be repaired easily. Don't throw them away – give them to a charity shop. This is a great way to recycle unwanted items, and the money raised can support many excellent causes. A useful Oxfordshire directory lists local charity shops and other organisations accepting a range of categories. Not all of the shops can take every item listed and sometimes they cannot take any donations at all, so please RING BEFORE YOU BRING.
Water conservation
Global warming is likely to lead to less predictable rainfall in our area. Water costs are going to increase in line with energy prices. Now is a good time to think about how we can conserve water in the home and garden.
Reducing water wastage
- Turn off tap while brushing teeth (running taps wastes over six litres per minute).
- Put a hippo in your toilet cistern.
- Purchase a dual-flush toilet or install an inexpensive conversion kit.
- Fix dripping taps.
- Use a full load in washing machines and dishwashers.
- Have a short shower.
- Use a shower regulator (in certain types of shower).
- Mulch the garden.
- Use a bucket and sponge to wash your car.
Use the rain
Invest in a rainwater tank.
Why not contact Blewbury's own water harvesting company: usetherain.com
