Councillors have voted to charge residents for additional recycling containers.

West Oxfordshire District Council officers reported that while many requests for additional recycling containers will be genuine, some are not and particularly recycling boxes and kitchen caddies have been used as removal boxes, garden tool boxes and outdoor toy boxes.

A substantial number of recycling boxes are used at allotments.

In addition, they said there was evidence that certain households make repeated requests periodically for the same containers at considerable cost annually to the authority and ultimately the council taxpayer.

The charges for delivery of replacement containers will be: kitchen caddy for food waste, £5; recycling box and lid, £5; blue recycling bin, £10; garden waste bin, £10; 240 litre refuse bin, £10; and 360/660/1100 litre refuse bin, £20.

Councillor Norman MacRae, Cabinet Member for Environment, told a meeting the council was spending “a small fortune” on extra recycling bins.

Cllr Andrew Prosser said: “I do support some form of charging and given that we recently removed local recycling centres and points the reassurance we were giving to people in the local community was that if they want more capacity for roadside recycling they can apply to the council for this. So I guess the question is, is this a charge for higher capacity or just replacements and can we assure that it is the lowest cost?”

Councillor MacRae responded that the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee met in September and supported charges at the lowest rate of the options.

He added that if any resident needed a bigger bin for any reason they could apply online subject to the usual criteria.

But Cllr Andrew Coles said: “The one thing that does disappoint me slightly is the report doesn’t reflect any potential loss of recycling from it. We’re all saying it’s a very good thing for environmental impact, can I ask has any consideration been given should people stop recycling or reduce their recycling because of this policy?”

Cllr MacRae responded: “Recycling rates are going up which is good and bad at the same time. What we are trying to do is reduce all waste streams but what you do throw away we want it to be recycled.”

Cllr Merilyn Davies added: “It’s worth remembering our policy is to reduce, it’s not just about recycling. The first stop is to reduce the waste that we create.”