Vale of White Horse, in Oxfordshire, alternates a green recycling bin and a black rubbish bin, adds a green food caddy every week, and offers a brown garden bin only with a paid permit. Biffa does the collections. Black-bin waste is not landfilled: it is burned at Ardley near Bicester. Soft plastics do not belong in the green bin.
Last checked against 6 sources (www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk).
What goes in each bin
Black wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste · General waste
Bin · Every two weeks
Yes please
Soft plastics the green bin turns away, such as crisp and sweet wrappers
Polystyrene, bubble wrap and plastic wrapping
Coffee cups, kitchen roll, tissues, sandwich boxes and food-stained card
Photographs and toilet paper
Window glass, Pyrex, spectacle lenses and broken drinking glasses
Cooled ash, wood, and compostable plates, cups and cutlery
Metal coat hangers, picture wire, kitchen knives, pots and pans
Collection frequency by bin for Vale of White Horse
Bin
Collected
Black wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste · General waste
Every two weeks
Green recycling wheelie bin or clear sack · Mixed recycling
Every two weeks
Green food caddy · Food waste
Every week
Brown garden waste bin · Garden waste
Every two weeks
Food waste and the national recycling rules
Vale of White Horse collects food waste every week. The Vale empties the green food caddy every week. A small kitchen caddy is for day to day scraps; the larger outdoor one is what the crew takes. Liners can be a couple of sheets of newspaper, a carrier, a pedal-bin liner, a bread bag or a compostable liner. Black bags are out. Cooking oil is accepted only in plastic, up to 1 litre, inside the caddy or next to it if the bottle will not fit. The load goes to an anaerobic digestion plant at Benson, near Wallingford. The council says the process takes 85 days and the energy powers 4,800 homes, with the leftover sold to local farmers as fertiliser.
Garden waste is a paid-for service. A 2026/27 permit bought from 1 April to 30 September, lasting until 31 March 2027, is £76. One bought from 1 October to 31 January, also lasting until 31 March 2027, is £38. The permit is posted and has to go on the lid. How many collections that buys is set out in the service terms, not on the price list. The brown bin usually goes out in the same week as the green recycling bin, and garden rounds start at 6am. Permit holders may add extra garden waste, at most four ordinary sacks, on the normal day between 20 April and 1 May 2026 and again between 2 and 13 November 2026. Outside those fortnights, anything beside the bin is left.
Report online, or email admin.vale@biffa.co.uk, or ring Biffa on 01235 422123. Ask next door first: if the rest of the street was emptied, yours may have been missed. Also check the day has not moved for a bank holiday. When snow, ice, high wind or extreme heat stops a round, do not file a report for each bin. Have the bin out before 6am, which is when rounds begin. If it has not been emptied by 6pm, you have until 5pm on the next working day. In bad weather, leave it out for two days so the crew can catch up.
Green-bin recycling has to be clean, dry and loose, or in a clear sack. Black or coloured sacks get rejected. The mix includes plastic bottles, tubs, black trays, cartons, glass, cans, aerosols, foil, paper and card. Soft plastics, from bread bags and cling film to crisp packets and bubble wrap, are turned away at the kerb and pointed at supermarket take-back. Food, nappies, textiles or black bags in the green bin can cause the sorting plant to refuse a whole street. That plant is a materials recovery facility in St Albans.
The black bin is for what the green bin will not take, and the lid has to be fully closed or the bin stays. Ardley, the energy recovery facility near Bicester, is where this rubbish is burned. The council says the electricity from it supplies over 60,000 homes in Oxfordshire.
Food can go in loose, in newspaper, or in a plastic or compostable liner, never a black bag. Oil and fat are a special case: a plastic bottle no larger than 1 litre, and not a glass jar. Compostable packaging is refused because the Benson plant needs the fertiliser to stay usable, and those products need oxygen they will not get there.
Garden permits for 2026/27 are £76 from 1 April to 30 September, or £38 from 1 October to 31 January. Both run to 31 March 2027. Leave the old sticker on until the last collection in March, then stick the new one on the lid, or over the old one if it will not peel. A household without a brown bin should be delivered one within 15 working days. The garden line is 01235 422422. Biffa, for a broken bin, is 01235 422123 or admin.vale@biffa.co.uk.
On two short runs, 20 April to 1 May 2026 and 2 to 13 November 2026, permit holders can set out up to four standard 60 litre sacks or an equivalent box beside the brown bin. Builders' bags and anything over 60 litre are too heavy and will not be taken. Sacks must be left open. The rest of the year, only what is inside the bin is collected. Gardeners and grounds firms cannot use the household round. Schools and places of worship sometimes can, because the council treats some of them as household waste, and extra charges may apply.
Garden material has to be loose. Even a compostable sack is refused, because the composting is an outdoor windrow near Wallingford and bags blow onto farmland. Knotweed and ragwort are refused too. A note is left if the bin is wrong, and it waits until the next garden day once the problem is taken out.
A few homes that cannot store a wheelie bin can ask to use sacks instead. Rounds normally start at 6am. The bin collections page also points people to a Vale WhatsApp channel for collection updates and weather alerts.
As of 3 October 2026 the pages read did not set out a dated Christmas collection list. They do say to check whether a bank holiday has moved the day before you report a miss.
Bin questions in Vale of White Horse
How often does the Vale of White Horse collect bins?
Food waste is every week. The green recycling bin and the black rubbish bin take turns, each once a fortnight. Paid garden waste is usually the recycling week, and those rounds start at 6am.
How much is a Vale of White Horse garden waste permit?
£76 if you buy it between 1 April and 30 September, or £38 between 1 October and 31 January. Both last until 31 March 2027. The number of collections is in the terms and conditions, not in the price table.
When do I report a missed bin in the Vale?
Put it out before 6am. If it is still there at 6pm, report it by 5pm the next working day, online or to Biffa on 01235 422123 or admin.vale@biffa.co.uk. If the weather stops the round, leave the bin out for two days instead.
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