Perhaps it is a bit early to pass judgement, but I thought I would let you know how we're getting on with our new refuse collection procedure.

Our green box is coping well with a fortnight's worth of glass bottles and newspaper.

Mind you, we've been using this for some time and the addition of 'office paper' hasn't yet made much difference, even though we have interpreted this as just about all the junk mail we get.

Additional work is now involved in opening the stuff because the envelopes have to go in the blue box.

The blue box is not doing as well - our first fortnight's worth of tins, plastic bottles and cardboard - oh yes, and envelopes of course - were piled high in the box and we couldn't get the lid on. I didn't fancy getting up before 7am to make sure I didn't miss the collection, so it went out the night before.

Unfortunately, it was a windy night and the lightweight nature of plastic milk containers, Coke bottles - oh, and envelopes, of course - meant that I had to do my own collection round before the official one came along.

We are now giving serious thought to coughing up twenty quid for a big blue wheelie bin.

The green garden bag won't get used much because I compost almost all my garden waste, but a bagful of branches too thick for my shredder was satisfactorily collected. The main 'landfill' wheelie bin is another matter.

As I write, we are nine days into the fortnightly cycle and the bin is full. With a bit of compression, I can get the lid shut. And this has not been a particularly bad couple of weeks as rubbish goes.

I notice that a number of my neighbours are not so lucky - some bins already have things poking out of a gaping lid.

How attractive front gardens are beginning to look!

What am I to do with the next four or five kitchen bin liners full of the non-recyclable stuff?

After my previous letter, in which I wondered what to do with my old bins, I had a call from the council's bin expert who generously offered to collect them.

After a bit of thought, I decided to keep them for a while.

I think I might need them so that I can take the excess landfill stuff to the Redbridge recycling centre once a fortnight. Can I claim a rebate on my council tax to cover my time and petrol?

Oh, and one other thing - someone left a black plastic bag full of rubbish outside my front gate yesterday. I did warn that this would happen in my previous letter.

I am pleased to say the men who empty the litter bins at the nearby shops picked it up, but they did seem to pause for a while outside.

Were they taking my address? Will I get a fixed penalty in the next few days?

Tim Pocock, Green Road, Headington, Oxford