What happens to – your bulky waste

Depending on what items are collected, bulky waste is taken to different places for disposal.

Electrical items

We take these to Oakley Wood household waste recycling centre.  Any precious metals and hard plastics are then removed for recycling.

Sofas and chairs

Follow a change to the law, items such as sofas and chairs now have to be handled and processed separately to other bulky waste.  This is because they may contain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long period which could be harmful to people’s health or to the environment.

We therefore take them to the transfer station at FCC Environment in Sutton Courtenay.  At the transfer station the items are shredded under a controlled environment and then sent for incineration at the Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) in Ardley.

Other items

Any other bulky items, including beds, wardrobes and desks are currently sent to landfill.  This is due to fact the many items are simply too large to go into the incinerator and it is not cost-effective to break them down.  Oxfordshire County Council, the authority for waste disposal in this area, is currently investigating possible alternative methods of disposal.