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City chews over food waste plan
8:41am Wednesday 9th May 2007
Comments (20)Homeowners in Oxford face the prospect of finding room for yet another recycling box, this time for food waste.
Almost every property in the city qualifies for six bins, boxes and bags, but Oxford City Council has revealed early plans to introduce a weekly food waste collection.
And with some households opting to buy extra recycling containers and boxes, it could mean some properties have as many as 10 receptacles to store waste in.
Oxfordshire County Council, the waste disposal authority, has gone out to tender to build a food waste composting plant - but it is unlikely to be built before 2009.
Chipping Norton-based company Agrivert is proposing to build a £5m composter between Yarnton and Cassington.
However, Town Hall chiefs said they wanted to eliminate the problem of rotting carcases, bones and problems of flies, maggots and vermin as soon as possible.
Environmental experts are now drawing up plans for a pilot scheme with the food waste collected taken to a processing plant outside the county.
City councillor Jean Fooks, executive member for a cleaner city, said: "Food waste is the thing people are most bothered about and it's a fairly high proportion of what is left over. It would mean another small container with it being collected weekly - but that has cost implications. The idea would be to mix green and food waste because that's what is needed to make compost."
New recycling arrangements were introduced in Oxford in November.
Most houses now have two green and two blue boxes for glass, paper and plastics, a green sack for garden waste and a green wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste.
Avid recyclers can buy extra bins and boxes.
In the space of a year the city's recycling rate has jumped from 19 per cent last year to 32 per cent as of March this year.
In real terms that equates to an average of 750 tonnes collected every month last year to more than 1,250 tonnes collected every month so far this year.
County council spokesman Jane Young said: "The processing of food waste requires a specialist facility.
"The county council is committed to providing this.
"A facility will be provided by April 2009 - this date has not changed."
Your Say Yourthisisoxfordshire
Liz, Oxford says...
10:07am Wed 9 May 07
We are a family of four who has no problem recycling all our waste in to the relevant containers and leaving them out on the street to be collected (and not all on the same day either - maybe you should check your collection schedule). If we can manage it, with toddlers, babies, nappies etc, why does everyone else have such a problem? Try using less, wasting less and then you will have less to worry about? Just a little thing really..
I will not be happy when my council tax bill goes up because Oxford's had a landfill charge slapped on it because you WON'T give it a try.
annie, east oxford says...
10:17am Wed 9 May 07
Bob, Oxford says...
10:53am Wed 9 May 07
annie wrote:In many parts of France, Italy, Spain, and Greece they manage to collect rubbish daily, or every other day.
Dear Liz please do not call me a whinger. our family does recycle and have done for years. Our concerns are about public health and the fact that there are 4500 households who cannot have wheelie bins means that there are at least 18000 refuse sacks in peoples homes, back gardens or on the street every fortnight. That is not pleasant in areas where there are many houses that cannot have the bins. They are an obstruction and are attacked by urban wildlife. The mess which is not just food waste - it includes for example tissues and sanitary products - spills onto the street and is disgusting. Incidentally we have been told by pest control not to have a food composter as we have had rats in our garden and this will encourage them. Why can't we have weekly collections of household waste? On the continent there are many cities that have more than one collection a week for household waste and have excellent recycling rates. The way these plans are going the extra expense may well outweigh the cost for weekly household waste collections anyway.
The improved re-cycling rates in Oxford are because of the increased opportunity to recycle (many things that previously weren't collected for recycling now are - ie plastic and card). For councillors like Fooks to try and claim success for her bullish attitude is pathetic. It may wash with the voters in Wolvercote, but it makes her despised in the rest of the city. Give people sensible opportunity to recycle and they will - bully them and they won't bother.
Also - if you charge for extra/replacement bins you will a) dissuade people from recycling all they can, and b) people will just pinch other peoples from outside their homes (it has happened a number of times to people I know - including the contents of the bin being emptied across their garden before the person made off with the box. We pay council tax already, why are we being made to pay again?
Eric, Oxford says...
11:09am Wed 9 May 07
As a dedicated recycler I now feel like throwing everything into landfill, I too am fed up with being bullied and ignored.
Tony Brett, Oxford says...
11:19am Wed 9 May 07
On the issue of collections in other parts of Europe, remember that there are also much, much better public transport systems in many mainland European countries. This, and the more frequent waste collections are both products of much higher taxation and hence much greater government spending on public services.
Kit, Oxford says...
11:34am Wed 9 May 07
Food waste comes from vegetable and fruit trimmings as well - I eat a lot of both, and with OCC's fortnightly collections these are going rotten and smell terrible. I live in a flat and only have a very hot concrete front yard to put the rubbish in - the alternative is putting it on our narrow street and having it run over by HGVs and vans that frequently drive on the pavement to get past poorly parked hospital staff cars.
I am moving out of Oxford this September - if stuff is this bad now, just wait till July when temperatures are above 90F and the whole city smells of rotting rubbish. I hope Fooks will take responsibility for the drop in tourism and public health problems as she is "not for turning"!
annie, says...
11:49am Wed 9 May 07
Tony Brett wrote:Tony - how can we keep wheelie bins in the shade when we have postage size front gardens? Please get an understanding of the situation. Many people do not have space to keep moving the wheelie bins out of the sun. Please don't forget the other products that go in household waste too. Plus the plastic packaging. Besides larger households will obviously generate more food waste. Everybody is different and has different needs surely you understand that? You seemed to miss the point about the continental cities having high recycling rates and more than once a week collections for household waste - it can be done - don't distract from the point.
Where does all this food waste come from? We normally cook stuff and then eat it. OK there are bones and fish skins but they hardly make up much of the rubbish, and if they are double-wrapped they are fine for a fortnight in the wheelie bin so long as it's in the shade. On the issue of collections in other parts of Europe, remember that there are also much, much better public transport systems in many mainland European countries. This, and the more frequent waste collections are both products of much higher taxation and hence much greater government spending on public services.
Tony Brett, Oxford says...
12:10pm Wed 9 May 07
I keep the wheelie bin at the back and carry it through the house once a fortnight. It's a bit of a pain but a VERY small price to pay for the massive increase in recycling.
Most of the waste in our bin is non-recylcable plastic food packaging. I'm quite pleased at how much space can be saved by stacking these things inside each other - but still dismayed that there are so many of them with food products these days.
annie, says...
12:21pm Wed 9 May 07
Eric, Oxford says...
12:34pm Wed 9 May 07
tim, abingdon says...
12:57pm Wed 9 May 07
Bob, says...
1:14pm Wed 9 May 07
Most of the waste in our bin is non-recylcable plastic food packaging. I'm quite pleased at how much space can be saved by stacking these things inside each other - but still dismayed that there are so many of them with food products these days.
Is this coming from the same person who just a couple of comments earlier is telling us to double wrap our waste?!!! Is this a suggestion then to reduce our packaging when we buy our food but double it when we dispose of it?!
What hypocrisy!
If the council were so concerned about recycling then they would be introducing weekly recycling collections. If this were the case I may be persuaded to listen to the rhetoric but as it stands this is plainly a cost cutting exercise resulting in poorer services and creating a dangerous public health issue as a result.
birdman, Planet earth says...
1:45pm Wed 9 May 07
Jan, says...
2:04pm Wed 9 May 07
C, says...
5:59pm Wed 9 May 07
birdman wrote:The smug, condescending and unwaveringly unhelpful attitude displayed by Tony and his ilk is what swung it for me to vote for anyone but the Lib Dems this time around. Happily we got rid of one of them, so it wasn't a wasted effort. I'm not exactly an avid supporter of the other parties but I know what I don't like.
Tony Brett,ever the whinger and always the negative voice. Whatever the subject you can be sure he's there whinging and moaning no matter what.Get a life!
Litter Britain, Llandewy Brevi says...
11:26pm Wed 9 May 07
Laraine Santagato, USA says...
6:57am Thu 10 May 07
Jane, Oxford says...
11:54am Thu 10 May 07
We don't have a gate so was it because they would have had to take about 3 steps up our path to collect it?
It was lined up against the wall with our normal rubbish, but sticking out so could be easily seen. If I had put it right on the edge then the rubbish bin collectors wouldn't have come up our path to collect the rubbish (has to be on "edge" of property. Can't put it on the pavement because its like an assault course down our street anyway with the wheelie bins and sacks and recycling bins, and as there's a primary school and nursery round the corner, mums with pushchairs are already having to walk in the road.
For goodness sake what can we do to get this madness sorted? Our streets stink, are now a haven for rats and foxes (and the foxes SMELL!) a total eyesore ... if I set up a website complaining about this would any of you be willing to email with your names and postcodes so I can add this onto the website as a list of those who wish to go back to weekly collections of household rubbish and then maybe Fooks and co will take notice?
Let's cause a STINK!!!!
Eric, Oxford says...
1:34pm Thu 10 May 07
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Ed, Oxford says...
9:55am Wed 9 May 07
How on earth did you get voted in AGAIN?
All the plastic used to make these boxes could have made large bottle-bank style bins for every street (like mainland Europe has). Cheaper collection costs, and helps build a sense of community. If you have 7 boxes for every house, then on collection day the pavements will be very obstructed.
This is LUNACY. Next election, I am standing. Sort this bloody nonsense out once and for all.