Witney bins are collected fortnightly, food waste weekly, and crews work bank holidays. Garden waste costs £52.50 a year and a bulky collection £41.

West Oxfordshire District Council does not move Witney’s bin collections for bank holidays. Its own 2026 to 2027 waste calendars list Monday 25 May and Monday 31 August as ordinary collection days, and the same is true on every other round. The dates the council flags as liable to change are the four either side of Christmas and the new year.

That is the single thing most people want to know, and the council’s postcode checker will not tell you until the week itself. Below is the rest of the cluster: what goes in which bin, what garden waste and a bulky collection cost this year, how long you have to report a miss, and what the tip will and will not take.

The four containers

West Oxfordshire kerbside containers and how often they are emptied
ContainerWhat goes inHow often
Grey or black wheelie binNon-recyclable rubbish: nappies, sanitary products, polystyrene, crisp and sweet packets, dog and cat waste, tissues, carrier bags, coal ashEvery two weeks, grey week
Blue-lidded wheelie binPaper, card, tins, cans, foil, plastic pots, tubs, trays and bottles, cartons, empty aerosols, cling film and bubble wrapEvery two weeks, green week
Black boxGlass bottles and jars, plus small electricals with a plug or battery, kept apart from the glassEvery two weeks, green week
Food caddy, 23 litres outdoorsAll food cooked and raw, bones, fat, tea bags, coffee grounds, stale pet foodEvery week
Green wheelie binGarden waste only, by subscriptionEvery two weeks, green week

Sources: West Oxfordshire District Council, general waste, recycling and food waste.

Which West Oxfordshire bin takes what

Three things on that list catch people out.

  • Crisp packets and sweet wrappers go in the grey bin, not the blue one. So do black plant pots and hard plastics such as toys.
  • Batteries, vapes and textiles do not go in a bin at all. Batteries and single-use vapes go in an envelope or bag left on top of the recycling bin. Clothes, shoes, blankets, towels and curtains go in a tied carrier bag beside it. Rugs, duvets, pillows and carpets are refused.
  • Flexible plastics are accepted but not guaranteed. The council says it can collect film and pouches in the blue bin, and that it cannot yet promise all of it is recycled.

Food waste is taken to Cassington and turned into electricity and fertiliser. Rubbish goes to the energy recovery facility at Ardley.

Finding your collection day

Enter your postcode on the council’s bin day checker. It gives the next date for each container and a printable calendar.

Rounds run Monday to Friday and alternate between a green week and a grey week. The council also publishes a one-page PDF calendar for each of the ten rounds, which is more useful than the checker if you want the whole year at a glance: Monday 1, Monday 2, Tuesday 1, Tuesday 2, Wednesday 1, Wednesday 2, Thursday 1, Thursday 2, Friday 1, Friday 2. The round reference is printed at the foot of the calendar the checker gives you.

Bins must be out by 6am. In hot weather the council warns that crews may start earlier than usual, so the night before is safer.

Bank holidays and Christmas

On every one of the ten calendars, the bank holiday Mondays sit in the ordinary run of dates with no note against them. The Monday rounds show Monday 25 May and Monday 31 August 2026 as normal collection days.

The Christmas and new year period is different, and the council marks it. Each calendar shades four consecutive dates in amber under the heading “please check online to confirm seasonal changes”. On the Monday 1 round those dates are 21 and 28 December 2026 and 4 and 11 January 2027. On the Friday 1 round they are 25 December, 1 January, 8 January and 15 January.

The shading does not appear in the text of the PDF, only in the colour, so anyone reading the file as plain text would conclude nothing changes at Christmas. It does. The revised dates are published nearer the time.

One green week in that window is also marked with an asterisk meaning no garden waste collection. The subscription terms confirm the garden waste service is suspended over Christmas and new year, with no refund.

Garden waste: £52.50 a year

A garden waste subscription costs £52.50 and runs from 1 April to 31 March, whenever in the year you join. There are no refunds and no part-year price.

  • Collections are fortnightly, in the green week.
  • The scheme went stickerless in 2026. Crews check subscriptions on in-cab screens instead, so you need your house number visible on the top of the bin.
  • If you cannot fit a bin, the council will assess you for sacks instead, at 50 sacks per subscription.
  • Gardeners and grounds maintenance firms cannot use it.

The council froze the charge for 2026/27 and says that makes West Oxfordshire the lowest-charging council in the county for garden waste. Subscribe on the garden waste page.

Windfall fruit picked up in the garden counts as garden waste. The same apples brought into the kitchen count as food waste. Contaminate the green bin with food and it will not be emptied.

Bulky collections: £41, and a trap in the pricing

A bulky waste collection costs £41.00 for up to four standard items. Book it through the council’s bulky waste page. Items are taken from 6am and must be somewhere the crew can reach without going into the house.

The trap is the second price list. Non-standard items cost £41.00 each, not £41 for four. That list includes a bath, a boiler, carpet, a single door, an extractor hood, fence panels, fitted furniture, a garage door, hot water cylinders, kitchen units, plastic guttering, radiators, a dismantled shed, a sink, storage heaters, taps and pipes, and a toilet.

The council says most of those can go to a recycling centre more cheaply, and it is right by a wide margin. Oxfordshire County Council charges £2.50 for a toilet pan, a bath panel, a bathroom sink, a fitted wardrobe or a bag of tiles over your free allowance, on its DIY waste charges page. One toilet is £41 at the kerb and £2.50 at the tip.

Missed collections

Report a miss after 4pm on the collection day, and within two days of it. The council aims to return within two working days.

Before you report, the council checks:

  • the bin was out by 6am
  • there was no extra waste beside it
  • recycling was in the right container
  • the garden bin had a valid subscription
  • the lid was closed

There is one page worth bookmarking. The missed collection page carries a live table of the day’s known service failures, listed by street. On 28 August 2026 it named streets in Brize Norton and Clock Lane in Filkins as refuse rounds not completed, with every other waste type marked complete. If your road is on it, leaving the bin out is enough and there is no need to report anything.

Dix Pit and the recycling centres

The nearest household waste recycling centre is Dix Pit, Linch Hill, Stanton Harcourt, OX29 5BB, run by Oxfordshire County Council.

  • You must book. Booking became compulsory on 14 January 2026. Slots open up to two weeks ahead, or 30 minutes before, subject to availability.
  • Open 8am to 5pm, seven days a week. Last vehicle entry is 4.55pm.
  • Bank holidays are normal. The site shuts on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, and closes at 3pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
  • Fridges and freezers are rationed. A national shortage of disposal capacity means slots show only one week ahead, one visit per household every three months, maximum two units.
  • Dix Pit cannot take engine oil at the moment. Its oil tank is out of action.
  • Vans and larger trailers need a free permit, and nothing over 3.5 tonnes is admitted.

Full detail on the county’s Dix Pit page.

The bring banks have gone. West Oxfordshire has removed every recycling bank site in the district permanently, blaming overflowing bins, contamination, trade misuse and fly-tipping around them. Waste left where a bank used to stand is now treated as fly-tipping.

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