Oxfordshire County Council aims to recycle 50% of all waste delivered to the recycling centres by 2003/4 and following the research plans to improve some aspects of the sites in order to hit its target.
The results come from research which was conducted during August on the eight Oxfordshire County Council sites. Over 1,100 interviews were conducted with site users by General Question Ltd. The research showed satisfaction was exceptionally high with 89% of users satisfied overall and 50% “very satisfied”. Only 2% stated that they were “dissatisfied” with the overall service provided at the sites.
Of 1,100 people interviewed, 89% visited the sites using a car, and 74% visited the sites on a monthly or more frequent basis. 97% of users travelled no more than 10 miles to visit the sites and 86% were satisfied with the distance they had to travel. The following satisfaction scores were received for certain site aspects: Queuing – 90%; opening times – 80%; waste disposal – 90%; recycling – 85% and site cleanliness – 95%.
Of those people who were dissatisfied with the above aspects, 15% wanted longer opening hours in the evening, 6% wanted more recycling facilities such as for plastic, aluminium, paints, scrap metal and clothes.
Patrick Coulter, head of waste management, said: “This research has been very useful for us. It has helped us to identify where we can improve the service and what the users really want from these recycling centres. We will be changing the facilities and operations of these sites due to this research.
“Interestingly, nearly 60% of people were bringing in garden waste to the sites. We now have green garden waste recycling facilities at seven out of eight of the sites and urge people to use them. We aim to recycle 50% of all the waste delivered to the recycling centres by 2003/4, and we can only do this through understanding the needs of the users and gaining their co-operation in separating out materials for recycling.”
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