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Last updated 2 September 2010

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Aerosols

• Put in your black box. Where possible use pump sprays as these are more friendly to the environment.

Aluminium (drink) cans

• Rinse and put in your black box. (Recycling aluminium cans saves 95% of the energy used to make aluminium from its ore - bauxite).

Aluminium foil

• Put foil (milk bottle tops/pie dishes/take away cartons) in your black box after rinsing but squash small bits like milk bottle tops together and wrap in larger bits of foil to make an aluminium bundle which will be easier to handle in the recycling process.

Architectural salvage

• Cox's Architectural Salvage Yard, Morton in Marsh (01608 652505).

• Cotswold Reclamation Company, Little Rissington (01451 820 292) for good quality slates, bricks, doors, timber, beams, radiators, pipes.

• Martin Dodds, Spelsbury (01608 810 944) buys and sells old pine doors, old floorboards, quality timber and furniture.

• Oxford Salvage, Bell Lane, Cassington, Oxon (01865 883030).

• Pathway Workshop, Blackbird Leys, Oxford (01865 714111) may take good quality wood for their community woodwork project.

• Restore Elder Stubbs, Rymers Lane, opposite Florence Park, Cowley (01865 747176) is a charitable organisation for people with mental health issues - their wood recycling project makes flat-pack and garden furniture from good quality wood (available for sale).

Asbestos

• Do not try to remove or use asbestos yourself, as it is a hazardous, toxic substance. Call Oxfordshire County Council 01865 816043 for advice as to its disposal.

• If  you do remove something like asbestos guttering, then it can be wrapped securely in polythene and taken to the asbestos container at Redbridge (phone 01865-721464 beforehand).

Ashes (coal or clinker)

• Makes good paths, but bad for the garden due to tar.

Ashes (soot)

• Useful garden nutrient and slug deterrent.

Ashes (woodstove)

• Compost - sprinkle woodstove ash on compost heap or bin. The valuable potash in the ash is easily washed out by rain so don't leave it outside to get wet before doing something with it.

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Bags (leather/fabric)

 • Take unwanted leather and fabric bags to a charity shop or to a textile bank for reuse.

Bags (plastic bags)

• Reuse bags as many times as possible - any bag used only once, whether made of paper or plastic, is a waste of resources.

• Refuse plastic bags in shops (carry a 'Bag for Life' with you, keep some in your car).

• Buy a £2 CAWAG jute shopping bag  showing faces of 60 children at the school - proceeds go to the school's Eco-Project..

• Take plastic bags back to supermarkets and put them in their collection bins - usually by the entrance. This is better than putting them into the mixed plastic waste in your black recycling box.

• Use paper bags for light vegetables (mushrooms) if the shop provides them, which can then be recycled as paper.

• Reuse the little plastic bags used for loose fruit and veg (or don't use a bag at all).

• Use biodegradable bags if possible (Co-op, Summerfield and other supermarkets are starting to produce these) but this isn't the answer, best not to use them at all.

• Pick up plastic bags when you go on country walks as they can be accidentally swallowed by animals.

• Compostable 'plastic' bags don't break down in home composting bins but if you are lucky enough to have food waste collected in your area then they can be put in with the food waste for composting at a higher temperature than can be achieved in home compost bins.

Baths & bathroom fittings

• See Architectural salvage.

Batteries (car)

• Take to your Waste Recycling Centres.

Batteries (domestic)

• Use rechargeable batteries whenever possible and when they no longer work then recycle them.

• Put together in a separate bag in your black box so they can be taken out by the kerbside collection team and not end up jamming the conveyor belts in the separation process causing delay and damage.

• Take both household and dead rechargable batteries to a recycling box at any retailer selling batteries - in Charlbury, the Co-Op has battery collection boxes by the tills. Since February 2010, when it became the responsiblity of retailers to collect old batteries, CAWAG discontinued the battery collection boxes in Charlbury at the Post Office, the Corner House, and the Primary School.

Bedding

• See Textiles

Bicycles

 • The Oxford Cycle Workshop, 39 Magdalen Road, Oxford, OX4 1RB, 01865 204799 or email mail@oxfordcycleworkshop.org.uk takes unwanted bicycles and bicycle parts to make new bicycles).

• Put a 'for sale' advert in your local shop or post office window.

• Take to Redbridge Waste Recycling Centre, where they are taken for refurbishment.

• Save for a Charlbury "Bring and Take". These are held in the Memorial Hall on the second Saturday morning in both March and October.  Items can be brought along between 9.30am until 11am and taken between 10am and 12 noon. On 9 October 2010, the bike repair company Back On Trax will be on hand to take away old bikes or repair bikes that people want to get rid of.

Books

• Borrow books from libraries to avoid buying extra books.

• Borrow books from CAWAG's Bookshare Library.

• Save for a Charlbury "Bring and Take". These are held in the Memorial Hall on the second Saturday morning in both March and October.  Items can be brought along between 9.30am until 11am and taken between 10am and 12 noon.

• Donate to local libraries, charity shops, second-hand bookshops, jumble sales

• Give unwanted books to friends, or start a book sharing scheme.

• Take to Oxfam book banks: Summertown, Kidlington Sainsburys, and Banbury.

• Books, CDs, DVDs, videos, PC/video games can all be taken to the book recycling bins at Back Lane carpark in Eynsham, New Street carpark in Chipping Norton and Sainsbury's at Witney.

Bottles (glass)

• Put in black box.

• Take to a bottle bank.

Bottles (plastic)

• Put in your black box - but please squash them first so that the collection vehicles don't fill up so quickly and don't have to waste fuel making more journeys than necessary.

• Use a water filter instead of buying water in plastic bottles.

• Reuse bottles for storing cordial drinks, or to take with you on long walks.

• Cut bottles in half and put around young plants to protect them.

• Remove lids (put these in the bin or donate to junk art project, such as Orinoco).

• You cannot recycle contaminated bottles (bottles that have held pesticides, horticultural chemicals and hazardous chemicals, lubricating and motor oil) see Hazardous waste.

Bric-a-brac

• Donate to charity shops or jumble/car boot sales.

• Donate furniture and electrical goods (if they are in good order) to the Furniture Store, Oxford (call to arrange collection/delivery) 01865 763698 or email furniture@ocva.org.uk.

• Save for a Charlbury "Bring and Take". These are held in the Memorial Hall on the second Saturday morning in both March and October.  Items can be brought along between 9.30am until 11am and taken between 10am and 12 noon.

• See Crockery & cutlery.

Bricks

• Reuse old bricks for paths and small areas of hard landscaping in the garden.

• Put an advert in local shop if they are good quality reusable bricks.

• Make a rock pile behind a shrub, to provide shelter and attract insects for wildlife to eat.

• M&M Skips (01993 705020) recycle bricks if you use their skips for DIY house clearance.

• See Architectural salvage.

• See Tiles.