The five simple steps are as follows:
Step 1 Use one black recycling box for paper and magazines. (If you only have room for one box - put the papers at one end and the glass at the other).
Step 2 Use a second black recycling box for all glass bottles and jars - no broken glass please. (Order a second box if you need one).
Step 3 - Use the white recycling sack for tins/cans, aerosols, plastic bottles, food trays, yoghurt pots and other types of mixed rigid plastics.
Step 4 Use the blue recycling sack for corrugated (brown coloured) cardboard or light (grey coloured) card.
Step 5 Use the green caddy for food waste.

From March 2020 there were some changes in the Willersey's rubbish collection.
The changes mean that you:
*** will get a new blue bag for cardboard to give you more capacity. (It will no longer be collected loose!)
*** can recycle extra items including textiles and shoes, batteries, cartons and small electrical items.
*** need to keep food waste separate and put it in your new outdoor food waste bin which is collected weekly.
Refuse and recycling will still be collected fortnightly. Garden waste will switch from weekly to fortnightly on the same day as your other collections.
Make sure that you have the right number of recycling containers. You will need two recycling boxes, one for paper and the other for glass.
If you do not have the right containers by 6^th March contact CDC on 01285 623123 or email customer.services@cotswold.gov.uk

You can now recycle plastic-lined paper cups thanks to an initiative by the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE UK), in partnership with Cotswold District Council and Gloucestershire s Joint Waste Team. This is only really useful for Willersey at present if you happen to be in Stow-on-the-Wold! Plastic-lined cups - the sort commonly supplied by coffee shops, fast food outlets and petrol stations can now be recycled by depositing them in any of the food and drink carton recycling banks within the district - see below. Ideally drink from re-usable cups where possible and it is good to see that most coffee shops are more than willing to fill a reusable cup if brought into the shop. People in Britain are currently responsible for binning 25,000 tonnes of beverage cups every year.
Carton banks in Cotswold District are located at:
Andoversford Village Hall
Bourton-on-the-Water (Rissington Road Car Park);
Cirencester Waterloo Car Park
Fairford Hatherop Road
Stow-on-the-Wold Maugersbury Road Car Park

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You can also take bottles etc to the bins in Childswickham Road, Broadway (see picture at the top of this page) but curiously you can recycle everything there except plastic bottles!
The UK recycles only 52% of its plastic bottles. (September 2021). You can now recycle coffee pods and water filters at the same site.
The nearest Gloucestershire recycling bins are in Weston sub Edge by the Village Hall.



You can take any glass jam jars to Dorothy Hart 840869 at Chipping Campden lower town hall for reuse any Friday between 9:00 and 11:00 am.
Flatten cardboard and paper and please remove any internal plastic and external plastic wrappers. Black plastic food trays are not too welcome as the automatic sorting machines cannot see them. The council will not collect extra refuse from you but it will usually collect extra recycling. There are also bins for bottles, cans and paper at Weston sub Edge village Hall.
This is the comprehensive list of Wychavon recycling banks.
Waste plastic accumulating in the oceans has a devastating effect on wildlife. Here is one possible solution.



If you buy a plastic bottle of water, do refill it from the tap multiple times before you discard it. Each family uses an average of 440 bottles a year. Each bottle takes 7 litres of water to make. In the UK we use a staggering 38.5 million single-use plastic bottles and a further 58 million cans every day! Only half of these are recycled, so it's no surprise that many of these end up on our beaches and in our oceans. Plastic bottles take 450 years to break down, killing marine life, harming the coastal ecosystem and ruining our beaches. Placing a small deposit on plastic bottles and cans would dramatically increase recycling and reduce marine plastic pollution. For full information on deposit return systems please visit Surfers Against Sewage's Message in A Bottle campaign site. The UK lags behind many other countries. The UK may have a bottle charge soon.
As of October 2020, plans are in place (finally) to put a 10p deposite on plastic bottles by 2023. Plastic straws,cotton buds and coffee stirrers are alearady banned in the UK.

Some unnecessary plastic items.



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Plastic Bags



England has at last caught up with the rest of the UK from October 10^th 2015 by charging 5p or 10p for one trip bags. Under the government's rules shoppers are not charged for plastic bags which are used for uncooked fish, uncooked meat and poultry, takeaways, loose seeds and flowers, unwrapped blades (including axes, knives, and razor blades), prescription medicine and goldfish.
The rules also list a series of bags which should not incur a 5p charge, including woven plastic bags, paper bags, re-usable bags-for-life and bags used by service providers such as dry cleaning or shoe repair shops. Under the new rules a bag can contain multiple items from this list and not incur a charge but if the bag contains any other items then it must be charged. Here are some of the official rules. (Is the government really trying to reduce red tape?)
Demand for plastic bags has dropped dramatically. Do reuse any of your bags you do buy. At the checkout bags cost 5p, are convenient, easy to dispose of and then someone else's problem. In the world, they use oil to make, take decades or longer to decompose, are poisonous if burnt without precautions, are a wildlife hazard and are everyone's problem. Had Henry VIII used a plastic bag it could still be around today!

An even more troublesome form of plastic pollution are microbeads found in mostly cosmetic products. They are not trapped by filters at the works and end up in the oceans where they enter the foodchain and come back to us when we consume fish. Longterm they will severely reduce the health of the oceans (and maybe ours). Does the product you use use contain microbeads?
Because of plastic pollution in the oceans, both the one-use coffee cups used in coffee shops, and cotton swabs are in line for a redesign to eliminate their plastic components. Drinking straws are now plastic. It replaced paper in the 1960s. Do recycle all your plastics if possible. If not, make certain it goes in your waste bin. Ultimately all plastic (except perhaps PVC ) should be burnt for total disposal - most is made from oil so it burns well with good heat to produce water and carbon dioxide.
Every year eight million tonnes of plastic are being poured into our oceans. It affects over 600 different species of sealife with at least 1 million seabirds dying each year. By 2050 its estimated if current trends continue, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Plastic was originally welcomed as being stable and indestructable but that is its problem!



Global Warming Clock (scroll down) .


Jumble Sales
Donating to any local jumble sale or bring and buy sale is a useful way of supporting local organisations and recycling.

Large items
You can take these to the Wychavon household recycling centre
but do note that it is over 12 miles away so maybe its good to accumulate enough items before making the journey.
Larger trailers over 1.3m internal size will require a permit and you are limited to 12 trips a year.
They accept the following items - but see their website:-

Bikes	Asbestos	Batteries	Steel and Aluminium Cans
Car Batteries	Cardboard	Chemicals	Textiles and Shoes
Clothes	Textiles	Engine Oil	Fluorescent Tubes
Aluminium Foil	Fridges and Freezers	Garden Waste	Gas Bottles
Glass	Low Energy Light Bulbs	Mobile Phones	Paper
Plasterboard	Plastics	Printer Toner Cartridges	Ink Jet Printer Cartridges
Scrap Metal	Garden Soil	Televisions	Tyres
Small Electrical Appliances	General Waste	Wood	All paints

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The nearest Gloucestershire household recycling centre is 25 miles away at Fosse Cross.
Here is a list of what you can recycle there:-

Batteries	Books	Cans	Cardboard
Catalogues and brochures	DIY waste / rubble and building materials	Electronic and electrical equipment	Flat glass
Fluorescent tubes	Foil	Garden waste	Gas bottles
Household and garden chemicals	Junk mail	All Light bulbs	Newspapers
Cooking oil	Glass bottles and jars	Waste engine oil	Plastic bottles
Scrap metal	Shoes	Spectacles	Telephone directories
Televisions	Computer monitors	Textiles and clothes
White goods - washing machines, fridges/freezers	Wood and timber	Yellow Pages	Magazines

Curiously they take used cooking oil whereas the Wychavon one does not!
Trailers must be under 4ft by 6ft in size. (Wychavon is metric, Gloucestershire imperial!)
No Car parts are accepted, except batteries and up to four tyres.
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Gloucestershire Household Recycling Centres also accept items for reuse, as well as recycling.
Currently it is piloting a reuse shop and invites members of the public to visit it during opening hours.
Every site also collects bikes for the Gloucestershire Bike Project which is a not-for-profit social enterprise.
It has a continually changing stock of adults and children's bikes, which are offered for sale at its Barton Street workshop. Tel: 01452 690797.
If you pay £14 then bulky household waste can be collected.     Here is the official list of Cotswold Recycling Centres.

Printer cartridges
Some charity shops take them.

Unwanted Mobile Phones
Register with Recycle for Charity. They also take used ink cartridges.

Smoke Detectors
Ideally remove the batteries and recycle as above. Remove the top plastic cover and recycle with your other plastics. Take the rest of the smoke detector to the shop where you purchased it. If they will not accept it, just put it in your usual waste. It is not illegal to throw your smoke detector in the waste but it is just better for the environment if you don't. A common misunderstanding is that the crossed-out wheelie bin on the back of the alarm means that they must not be placed in a normal waste bin. This symbol just means that the alarm falls under the WEEE regulations.
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Skip Hire
Should you need one, the local Skip hire company is Budget Skips.

Unwanted Computer Equipment
Try charity shops as well as EcoIt which is a good starting point for this.
Which? has a comprehensive guide. Before parting with your old computer make certain you completely delete your data (or trust the recipient to do it for you).
The Royal Mint will start recovering gold from electronic waste to use in its coins and bars. It hopes its new plant in Llantrisant, South Wales, will start in 2023 salvaging the precious metal from the circuit boards of laptops and mobile phones. This now also applies to some smart phones.

Remembrance Poppies
The British Legion has redesigned its poppies so they are made entirely of papaer and thus totally recyclable.




Coffee Pods
Used coffee pods.

Old Tools
The RNLI lifeboats will find a good home for old tools and the money raised will add to their funds. Contact Sue White on 01386 841987. Workaid collects and refurbishes old tools (and hand sewing machines) in any condition. These are then sent to vocational training projects in poor communities around the world. Don't bin those tools no matter what their condition; let them have a new life.

Dead Animals
These of course can be any size from a mouse to a horse.
Animals which are normally domestic pets can be buried in your garden but for others, different rules apply.
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Fly Tipping



Fly tipping is totally unnecessary as the rest of this page demonstrates. In 2020 there were over 1,000,000 reported flytipping incidents in the UK. At a conservative £120 to clean up each one, this is a clean up cost of £120,000,000 this year. This is money that could more usefully be spent elsewhere. This has risen from 936,090 reported cases on public land. There were more on private land which is the land owner's responsibility. As well as being unsightly, it also costs time and (essentially your) money to clean up but can carry large fines. Some statistics on fly-tipping. Fly tipping pollutes our countryside, looks totally unsightly and threatens wildlife. Fly-tipped rubbish attracts more tipped rubbish.
Here is an example of some rubbish abandoned on Willersey Hill.



Cotswold District Council reminds householders to dispose of their waste responsibly and to only entrust their waste to an authorised waste carrier following a rise locally in the number of fly-tipping reports (in September 2022). The warning comes following a number of incidents of the illegal dumping of builders' waste - including materials such as asbestos and concrete, as well as fixtures and fittings in recent months, which have been centred mostly in and around Cirencester and the Siddington area.

Since the start of April until the end of September, the Council has recorded 531 incidents of fly-tipping across the district; an increase of 15% based on the same period in 2021-22. In particular incidents of construction and demolition waste have risen by almost half during the last six months, with 33 incidents reported.

Councillor Andrew Doherty, Cabinet Member for the Environment, Waste and Recycling at Cotswold District Council, said: Anyone having work done on their property should check that the person or company taking away their waste is operating legally. Residents have a Duty of Care for their waste, giving them a responsibility to ensure it is disposed of properly. This means people can risk prosecution if they haven t checked what will happen to their waste and it later ends up illegally dumped. Residents are advised to always ask for a Waste Transfer Note or receipt when their waste is taken away and familiarise themselves with their responsibilities when it comes to passing their waste over to someone else.
“Fly-tipping is unsightly, poses a risk to wildlife and can pollute our waterways - it's also expensive to clear. It's not just the number of fly-tips we are seeing which is of concern but the scale. Some of the most recent incidents have needed the hire of a grab truck to remove the waste, costing £300 each time. For asbestos, a specialist contractor will be brought in to ensure the material is collected and disposed of safely. All of this is at additional expense to the Council and you, our taxpayers.”

The Council also reports a significant increase in the number of tyres being fly tipped with 26 separate incidents being recorded since April, a rate of one fly-tip per week. Any individual or business removing waste from a premises should have a valid Waste Carriers Licence or exemption permit through the Environment Agency. Householders can face a £400 fixed penalty notice if fly-tipping is traced back to them.

Members of the public can check whether a person or company is legally allowed to carry waste by contacting the Environment Agency on: 03708 506 506 or by visiting: Waste carriers, brokers and dealers (data.gov.uk). Businesses who fail to register for or renew a licence, can face a fine of up to £5,000. Anyone witnessing fly-tipping or who finds dumped rubbish should not touch the items. Instead, incidents can be reported to the council online or by calling the customer services team on 01285 623000 during office opening hours.

Flytipping and the law and other useful information. Cotswold District Council does prosecute fly tippers.    Do report fly tipping here or on this free telephone number - 0800 807060 and here is the link for Wychavon.

Cotswold District Council issued three fixed penalty notices of £400 each to individuals following investigations of reports of fly tipping in January 2022 . Fly tipping is a criminal offence and those involved in the activity face fines and/or prosecution.
Cllr Andrew Doherty, Cabinet Member for Environment, Waste and Recycling said:
“We are seeing more illegitimate waste removal services offered to residents. These services offer unrealistically low prices by avoiding licensing and cutting corners to dispose of waste dangerously and illegally. Please make sure you check any service you use is registered and legitimate before using them otherwise you could be liable.
“If you witness an incident of fly-tipping, please report it as soon as you can, that gives our officers the best chance of catching the perpetrators and by working together we can help tackle this blight on our countryside.”
Although the majority of trades people and companies can be trusted to dispose of waste in a responsible manner, it is crucial to be aware that some may be operating illegally. If an operator illegally dumps someone else s waste, the owner of the waste is also liable.
Kevin Lea, Enviro-Crime Programmes Officer at Cotswold District Council, explained:
“It's essential that residents err on the side of caution and think twice about too good to be true low cost quotes when seeking a waste removal service. Under the Domestic Duty of Care, any resident must ensure that the service is carried out by an authorised person or company otherwise they could face a fine of £400.
“When looking for a waste management company, residents should only hire someone who is registered and licensed by the Environment Agency. A reputable company will also be happy to share details of their licence number so their credentials can be checked. The company should be fully insured and a Duty of Care waste transfer note should be handed over once the rubbish has been removed.
“In line with our Clean and Green initiative, our collective goal is to maintain and improve the beautiful district that we're so proud of. By working together to make things better, we can protect our environment, help people do the right thing and tackle those who do not. As a Council we'd like to thank everyone who has played their part thus far.”
Household waste is generally considered to be any waste produced in a domestic property. As well as regular black bin bag waste, this also includes other material such as old mattresses, furniture and household appliances.

Report illegal fly tipping.
If you have any questions on fly tipping or responsible waste disposal, please email: ers@cotswold.gov.uk

This map, produced in May 2019 shows fly tipping incidents in the Cotswold DC area.




As councils are charging more to accept waste more is being fly tipped in the countryside.



October 2020. A new online form will help people pinpoint the fly-tip on an interactive map so they don't have to spend time trying to describe the location or looking up a postcode. That makes it is easier for the Council team to locate and with previously reported cases visible, it also means less duplication, allowing a quicker investigation and clean-up. If a resident calls for more information about their report, the customer services team can give more detailed case information on the spot. Report a fly-tip here.

10^th October 2018. A Gloucester resident was fined at Cheltenham Magistrates Court on 8^th October after pleading guilty to dumping waste in a field in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (near Kingscote) while masquerading as a registered waste contractor. Cotswold District Council officials learned that he collected the waste from a Tetbury resident who had engaged his services through Facebook. When first questioned, he lied to evade prosecution but changed his plea to guilty when confronted by the evidence. Due to his poor financial circumstances he was fined only £150 when he appeared at the Magistrates Court, but the Council was awarded a contribution of £400 towards legal costs and he was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £30, bringing the overall total to £580.
Cllr Sue Coakley, Cabinet Member for Environment at CDC, comments:
“I hope that his prosecution sends out a message to other rogue waste collectors who attempt to flout the law in this way.
“Facebook is a very useful resource but it does have its limitations, and I must stress that anyone who engages a third party to remove waste must check that they have a valid licence before they undertake the work. A lot of people do not realise that they can be prosecuted for failing to exercise this duty of care should the third party subsequently commit a fly tipping offence.
“There are good arrangements in place for everyone to dispose of their waste legally so there is absolutely no excuse for fly tipping. The magistrate noted that fly tippers are killing the countryside, and we will continue to use every means at our disposal to reduce the number of incidents in the Cotswolds. We are always grateful for tip-offs from the public who can call us directly on 01285 623123 to report any suspicious activity.”

Here are the words of a song from the Middle Ages.

Cotswold District Council in January 2023 has installed cameras around the district in potential fly-tipping hotspots to capture any illegal activity such as a vehicle dumping waste. The cameras have been placed around the district and will be moved regularly. They will be able to capture images of any illegal activity taking place. If you witness an incident of fly-tipping, please report it as soon as you can, that gives our officers the best chance of catching the perpetrators. To report illegal fly-tips, please visit: ttps://cotswold.gov.uk/environment/report-fly-tipping/

If you have any questions on fly-tipping or responsible waste disposal, please email: ers@cotswold.gov.uk

Waste not, want not,
Some maxim I would teach;
Let your watchword be never dispair
And practise what you preach.
Do not let your chances like the sunbeams pass you by,
For you'll never miss the water till the well runs dry.

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Early in 2021, officers at Cotswold District Council were asked to look into buying and using overt or covert cameras to aid their efforts in catching and fining the perpetrators. A report presented to council leaders on November 1st recommended they should not go ahead with buying any of these recording devices because of costs and potential legal issues. Using mobile CCTV surveillance has several costs including the purchase of equipment, operation and maintenance, and signage. Prices for a single camera, hardware and battery can range from £2,500 to £5,000. There would also be substantial staffing time costs needed to gather and review information as well as investigatory and legal costs.

Environment, waste and recycling cabinet member Andrew Doherty (Lib Dem, Fairford North) said the main concern they have with the camera approach was where to actually put them as flytipping occurs over a wide area. “The primary problem is that there isn t an obvious location in which we can put the cameras where they are guaranteed to be effective and actually pick up any evidence of fly tipping that is repetitive,” he said. “There's some significant legal considerations in terms of the ways the mechanics work with covert and overt camera usage. “The public, if it's not them being watched, tend to be quite keen on covert cameras but they are heavily regulated in terms of what you need to do with those.” He said there was also a complicated legal process to use covert surveillance.

“Doing the cameras properly is relatively expensive and, basically, all these things in combination mean that the use of the CCTV cameras is probably not the most cost-effective way of addressing fly tipping,” Cllr Doherty added. He said the council will instead focus on using staff to investigate flytips and prosecute on the basis of the evidence they find. The cabinet unanimously rejected the proposals.

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Recycling Tips (Clean, Dry and Loose)

Please take magazines out of their plastic wrappers. Just wash out steel and aluminium drink and food cans briefly - (No need to put them in the dishwasher!)
No aluminium foil in recycling - its not the same specification aluminium as in drinks cans.
Take the tops off plastic bottles as the bottles can explode in the sorting machinery.
No shredded paper - it clogs up the sorting equipment. Its ok in dedicated paper bins. No Polystyrene - too light to transport.
No plastic bags - they clog up the machinery.
Our oceans are awash with throwaway plastic packaging. Studies show that up to 90% of seabirds now have plastic in their stomachs. We need to act urgently to stop plastic getting into our oceans. Coca cola, the world's largest soft drinks company produces over 110 billion single-use plastic bottles a year. As one of the world's biggest brands, Coke has the power to change how it's industry operates. We need Coke to phase out single-use plastic bottles and invest in new alternatives (Glass bottles with a deposit say?) Spoof Coke advertisement.

No stones or brick rubble in your refuse bin - they do not burn. Most refuse goes for incineration.
Please put Christmas wrap with your refuse - it is usually made of plastic film, foil or heavily printed low gradepaper along with sticky tape. Ideally use alternatives such as brown paper, ribbons or decorative paper bags or cardboard boxes which can be used again and are easy to recycle.

The council provides a separate bin for waste food. It cannot can go into your garden waste bin if you have one.
Supposedly recyclable paper coffee cups are not recyclable.
To reduce junk mail, every two years you have to telephone 0845 7034599 or write to Free Post, rrbt-zbxb=ttts, Kingsmead House, Oxpen Road, Oxford OX1 1RX. This may help.
To reduce unwanted Charity hassle sign up here.
Call 0345 070 0707 to opt out of unsolicited sales calls and BT offers this service 0800 328 1572 free to its customers.

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Vagely related to recycling! You no longer need to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.
From May 20^th 2020, a change meant that you will have to opt out of donation rather than opt in.
There is almost always a greater demand than availability.
This may seem bizarre but you can register if pregnant to donate umbilical cord blood which is rich in stem cells to help say leukaemia patients.

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Buddhism teaches that as soon as we obtain any material object, it has already started to deteriorate. Don't worship them however as they have a limited life. Dependence on material ojects is unstable. Aim to own an object, not have the object own you. ( Confidence from within will always be stronger than confidence based on external objects. )

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Otto Diederich Lutken, clergyman and economist (lived 1719 1790):
“Since the circumference of the globe is given and does not expand with the increased number of its inhabitants, and as travel to other planets which some think may be inhabitable has not yet been made possible; since the Earth's fertility cannot be extended beyond a given point, and since human nature will presumably remain unchanged, so that a given number will hereafter require the same quantity of the fruits of the Earth for their support now, and as their rations cannot be arbitrarily reduced, it follows that the proposition “that the world's inhabitants will be happier, the greater the number” cannot be maintained, for as soon as the number exceeds that which our planet with all its wealth of land and water can support, they must needs starve one another out, not to mention other necessarily attendant inconveniences, to wit, a lack of the other comforts of life, wool, flax, timber, fuel, and so on. But the wise Creator who commanded men in the beginning to be fruitful and multiply, did not intend, since He set limits to their habitants and sustenance, that multiplication should continue without limit.”

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Click to view the March 2023 Peoples' Plan for Nature.

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The more humans there are, the less of the earth's resources are available per person (and the more other forms of life are squeezed out). Conflict will eventually occur and hasten the arrival of the symbolic Four Horsemen of the Apolcalypse. Lack of food will lead to famines, weakened people and poorer environments. This in turn will lead to pestilence and conflict over resources and hasten wars. Death of large numbers of people will follow. The earth will survive but humanity will suffer a painful setback. Misinformation is seen by some as a fifth horseman.

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Some aspects of Life in 2050?

Sir David Attenborough's Address to COP26

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This is the final signed agreement from Cop26 in Glasgow in November 2021.

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This is a roadmap for the UK (and other countries) to approach zero emissions.



Provided by UK fires.

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The current most likely pressing threats to a good life are climate change, over population, sudden pandemics and plastic pollution. Reducing the population, hopefully voluntarily could help solve climate change. If not, then floods, drought, massive crop failure, sea level rise, extreme heat, forest fires and strong winds will reduce the population more painfully. Bleached and dying coral reffs will reduce ocean diversity. Loss of permafrost in Siberia will release quantities of methane which is a powerful global warming gas. Other consequences will be frequent landslides particularly in areas of mining with large spoil heaps, dirty unbreathable air, undrinkable water, food shortages, pandemics and as a result more conflicts. What will the world of any grandchildren be like? What precautions could you take for your own life? What are the most effective steps you can take to reduce climate change including global warming?

Some food waste statistics at the end of 2021.



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This is the UN IPCC March 2023 report on climate change.

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The more of us there are, the harder it is to provide more food, shelter and other services. The harder it also becomes to dispose of all our used materials.