South Oxfordshire & Vale of Whitehorse District Councils

South Oxfordshire & Vale of Whitehorse District Councils

The South Oxfordshire and Vale of Whitehorse District Councils are the top two recycling counties in England, with recycling rates of 67.9% and 68.7% respectively. The pair have recently formed a joint-venture, South and Vale, to provide shared services to the 110,000 households within the area and streamline costs.

Food waste recycling is pivotal to their success to date, with more than 9,000 tonnes of food waste per year diverted from landfill and processed through AD at an average of 1.7kg per household, per week. The service has delivered savings to the partnership of £1.2m per annum.

A recent survey of 1,100 households in the area showed that about 50% of the residents were aware that the food waste collected is being treated at AD facilities and that there was an overall service satisfaction rating of 90%.

< Back
"We know that about 25% of our refuse bin is still made up of food waste and we need to get this into our food waste collection and away from landfill. We aim to achieve this by focusing on more promotion, especially around communal properties and looking to extend the collection service to schools within the area. We will also complete detailed analysis of the door-stepping responses to better understand why households may not be recycling and address any reasons identified." Ian Matten,
Shared Park and Waste Manager, South & Vale