A DISTRICT council that has been told by its residents that its glass banks need cleaning has taken it upon itself to tidy them up.

During October and November, bin delivery man Scott Carroll has been visiting ‘bring-banks’ - glass recycling bins - one by one, leaving them in a far better condition than he found them.

Earlier this year Cherwell District Council undertook its Annual Resident’s Survey and one of the things people consistently said was that more than 100 bring-banks in the district were becoming ‘grotty’ and untidy.

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Mr Carroll, whose normal job is to deliver bins to newly built homes or provide replacement bins, lives just outside the Oxfordshire border in Steeple Claydon, near Bicester.

He said he has given each bring bank a deep clean after people complained about the dirty state that they were previously in.

He said: “People have been correct to say that some of them have been in a poor condition. I’ve been scraping off algae and grime and then using a pressure washer before applying new stickers to them.

“I’ve also been making sure graffiti is removed. We do try to tidy each site up regularly but this job has been more of a deep clean. I’ve been spending about an hour at each one and giving them a very thorough clean.”

Cherwell District Council recycles around 3,000 tonnes of glass in the district each year.

Last year it recycled more than 5.5 million glass bottles and jars.

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All of the glass it collects is made back into bottles and jars which is only possible because the colours are separated at the bring banks sites.

Recycling glass in separate colours saves over £158,000 per year.

Mr Carroll said he has seen people bring the wrong rubbish to the site, making it look untidy.

He added: “One of the things we always notice is that people often use the bring-banks as a place to dump other rubbish. I’ve even seen mattresses. That tends to make the place look as untidy as the general cleanliness of the facilities.

“The job requires gloves, a brush, a broom, a pressure washer, barrels of water, cleaning equipment, graffiti wipes and a trusty van. As you’d expect in Autumn I’ve been out in all kinds of weathers – I much prefer the cold weather with clear skies than the days when it is bucketing down with rain.”

Despite spending hours cleaning and tidying up the district’s bring banks, Mr Carroll enjoys seeing the difference his cleaning efforts have made.

He said: “The satisfaction comes from comparing the condition of the sites before and after the work and then moving on to the next site to do the same job all over again.

“We know that people wanted this job doing so we’re glad to be getting on and doing it. We hope they notice the difference next time they visit one of the sites.”

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Almost 1,000 people responded to the council’s survey last Spring.

Most councils undertake such surveys and seek to act on issues raised.

Some glass items cannot be recycled as some types of glass do not melt at the same temperature as bottles and jars.

For information on what can be recycled, go to recyclenow.com.