Recycling for Students

It is great that you have chosen to study, work and play in our beautiful city and we very much welcome you.

We are working very hard as a city to reduce the amount of rubbish going landfill and would like you to help us exceed our 50% recycling target.

Living in a Student House

Oxford has a fortnightly collection service of recycling and waste.

Please ensure you are aware of your collection days and your rubbish is presented in the correct manner for collection. Please contact us if you need advice or download the leaflet below:

 Recycling 4 Students Advice leaflet (1.4MB PDF)

Recycling and Rubbish Collection Services

Find your recycling and rubbish collection day

Apply for additional recycling containers

Report a missed recycling or bin collection

Find out what goes in which recycling container

Find your nearest recycling bring bank

Apply for a free bulky waste collection

Need a reminder?

To get free email or text reminders, email or text your collection day to:

You will get a reminder of what box or bin to put out the night before your collection.

To stop the text reminder service, simply text 'STOP' to 07786 200848 for Blue Calendars or text 'STOP' to 07786 200424 for Red Calendars.

To stop the email reminder service, simply email 'STOP' to blue@oxford.gov.uk for Blue Calendars or email 'STOP' to red@oxford.gov.uk for Red Calendars.

Moving In or Out

Please reduce, reuse, recycle or dispose of your waste properly when arriving and leaving Oxford.

Visit our Recycling for Students Moving Out page and our Reducing and reusing your waste page for more information or see the table below:

Living in Halls

• Recycling services will vary depending on your college or hall.  
• Materials generally recycled at college domestic sites include glass, tins, and paper. 

For useful information relating to recycling and other environmental issues at your university, see the following sites:

University of Oxford

Contact your domestic bursar or environmental representative to find out what recycling facilities are available at your college.

• Colleges listings
• Oxford City Council commercial recycling and waste collections

Oxford Brookes University

Contact your RA or hall representative to find out what recycling facilities are available at your hall.

• Recycling information
• Halls information
• Oxford City Council commercial recycling and waste collections
• Environmental Information Exchange

How we are helping students recycle

We have been working to strengthen our link with Oxford's universities, colleges and student groups to encourage students to engage students in recycling. There is an estimated 38,000 full time students in Oxford.

We have a Student Liaison Officer for recycling, whose role is to improve communication between us and the universities, to help facilitate and promote recycling at the colleges, and with students.

Recent activities include:

• Attending fresher fairs at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes to provide students with information about recycling.
• Advertising in magazines targeted towards students
• Visiting colleges to educate students and housekeeping staff about recycling.
• Working with college bursars, student environmental representatives, and university environmental groups to improve internal and external collection of recycling, and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Targeting students living in houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) through a door knocking and survey campaign. 

Contact us on 01865 249811 for more details or to get involved.

Page last reviewed 21 May 2012