As the first of several new initiatives to help Bristol recycle more begins to roll out, Councillor Abi Finch has explained what residents can expect over the coming months.
From this week, residents across the city who have their waste and recycling collected from the kerbside will start to receive new recycling containers as part of improvements designed to help everyone recycle a little more.
New red bags will replace the old brittle green boxes, providing 60% more space for recycling plastic and cans, and residents will also receive a new blue bag for card, cartons and paper - making sorting easier than before.
Both bags are squashable so they’re easy to store between collections, sealable to help stop recycling blowing out when it’s windy and have a QR code which links to further information about what goes in each container and why recycling is so important for our city and our planet.
We’ve listened to people’s frustrations about recycling blowing out of boxes and littering our streets and having to pay for replacement boxes when the green boxes break. These new and improved containers have been chosen, based on their cost, durability and sealability, to help resolve these issues.
Households without, or with damaged, brown food waste bins will get new ones and the more durable black recycling boxes won’t be changed – these will remain for glass bottles and jars. Batteries, vapes and small electrical items can also go in the black box as long as they’re in separate clear untied bags.
Everyone due to get new recycling containers will also receive a letter to explain the changes and what the new containers are for. We are asking residents to continue putting out all of their containers on their usual collection day ready for crews to make the swap. From 7 September into November recycling containers will be changed for around 175,000 homes across Bristol, so it’s going to take a few weeks to get to everyone.
The new set of containers increases the overall recycling capacity for a household from 213 litres to 250 litres per week – that’s an increase of 17%. All old containers will be collected and repurposed or recycled to make new items, which is why we’re asking residents to put out all of their recycling containers on their usual collection days even if they’re empty.
We want recycling in Bristol to be easier and to encourage more people to recycle more for Bristol. That’s why we’re working with Bristol Waste Company to provide recycling containers with more capacity, help residents recycle more of the food, plastics and cans that otherwise end up in black wheelie bins, and reduce the amount of litter that is blown onto our streets. We know that all of these things are important to our residents plus these changes support the ambitions of the government's Simpler Recycling legislation.
By making sure everyone has access to information about what can be recycled from the kerbside, how to separate materials into the correct containers and services and opportunities available to reduce and reuse some of the other items thrown away, residents can free up more space in black bins and help save money for our city.
Did you know that more than a quarter of what is put into the average black wheelie bin in Bristol is food waste that should be placed into brown bins and can then be recycled and turned into green gas for homes and a soil improver for local farms? And as well as recyclable food waste, just under a quarter of the average black wheelie bin is made up of other recyclable items – materials like glass, plastic, card, paper and metal that can all be easily recycled.
So that’s around half of what ends up in an average black wheelie bin in Bristol could be recycled.
It costs Bristol millions of pounds each year to dispose of everything that is put into black wheelie bins, which is incinerated to generate energy. Reducing this waste and keeping valuable recyclable materials out of black bins means we can save money and cut carbon emissions.
Refreshing our city’s kerbside recycling containers is one of several new measures to improve recycling, tackle fly-tipping and keep Bristol’s streets cleaner, which the council has committed over £1.6 million of funding for. As well as the introduction of new recycling services for non-standard collections for households where kerbside collections present challenges, we’ll be taking additional action against fly-tipping with extra collections and increased enforcement work, making it easier for people to access services online, and increasing the capacity for tackling litter on our city’s streets.
Recycling is not only better for the planet, but it also makes money for the city. We can sell correctly sorted recycling to be reprocessed and turned into new items - this makes money for Bristol which can be invested into further service improvements.
If everyone recycles just a little bit more, we can make a big difference for Bristol.
To find out more and download a recycling guide visit the Bristol Waste Company website.
