Vow to improve Bristol recycling rate
Bristol's new waste supremo has pledged to improve the city's recycling rate.
Councillor Gary Hopkins is aiming to push the rate of all recycled household waste up to 50 per cent after it dropped from 37 per cent to 35 per cent over the last two years.
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Councillor Hopkins became Bristol City Council's new cabinet member for the environment and community safety last week when the Liberal Democrats took control from Labour.
He plans to encourage more people to recycle organic waste such as food scraps and vegetable peelings by offering free corn starch bags to line brown recycling bins.
Councillor Hopkins said: "There has been a bit of a slippage in the recycling rate since we had a revolution with the system two or three years ago.
"The key to all this is the participation in the organic recycling, which has been pretty good but we need to take that on further because there was some bad publicity surrounding it in the beginning.
"We plan to supply corn starch bags to everyone who wants them because they make using the system very easy. There are about one third of the population of Bristol not using the system effectively.
"We'll knock on people's doors, give them the free bags and show them how to use the system. Experience elsewhere shows that actually works.
"We want to get 80 per cent of people using the system effectively and by doing that, we think we can get the recycling rate up to 50 per cent.
"We also want to expand the range of plastics that can be recycled and we are exploring the idea of rewarding people with a council tax rebate if they throw out less waste. This would be a voluntary scheme and would involve measuring the weight of the waste put out by those taking part."
Fortnightly bin collections and a weekly recycling system were introduced by the city council in 2006 and the recycling rate, which is the proportion of household waste recycled, rose from 12 per cent to 37 per cent.
It reached a high of 37.22 per cent in 2007 but has declined since and now stands at 34.66 per cent.
Councillor Hopkins' Liberal Democrat colleague Neil Harrison believes the city's drive to recycle more has been allowed to slip since 2007.
He said: "Bristol has the best recycling rate of any major city, nearly twice that of Manchester, but it has been allowed to drift aimlessly for the last two years.
"However, it doesn't compare as well when you look across the water and into Europe. There are rates well upwards of 50 per cent to look to in Germany and Scandinavia – this should be our aspiration, not just to be content around 35 per cent."
Under Labour, the city council claimed the recycling rate had dropped because of a change in the way it was measured.
A spokeswoman said: "There are a number of factors affecting the rate including the slight change in the way in which the council is required by the government to calculate the amount of recyclable material, which has affected the recycling rate by 1.5 per cent to two per cent.
"Further, residents appear to be more considered about what they are buying and as a result are generating less waste."
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by andrea mackay, 102 Egerton Road, Bishopston
Sunday, July 05 2009, 12:03PM
“Another way to reduce waste would be to have much better facilities for sorting and dividing waste at all refuse bins in the city and all events throughout thesummer. I was at a performance of Midsummer night's dream at Ashton Court, and there was no facility for rubbsih at all near the performance, much less recycyling. The touring theatre company was faced with a lot of rubbish after the show, and I guess it all went into black bin liners rather than being properly sorted and recycled”
by Cllr Neil Harrison, Cotham
Friday, March 13 2009, 4:49PM
“The final statement from the Council's spokesperson isn't true. The Council's own figures show waste production per household rising, not falling.”
by Iain, high littleton
Thursday, March 05 2009, 8:42AM
“Howard, Somerset & Ian Midsomer Nortton: this happened to me this week. I have a good idea why, having looked at the BANES website. The company collecting our cardboard and compost changed just before Christmas from SITA (I think) to May Gurney. They presumably won the tender for the contract on price and based on the waste volume collected, number of households etc. Now by not collecting waste from households whom they say are not following the rules they end up collecting less waste from less households yet receive the same amount of money for doing so.”
by david, bristol
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 11:14PM
“Yes you do shelly its the black bin for now”
by Howard Cain, Somerset
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 7:09PM
“Ian of Midsomer Norton: What a co-incidence! I have exactly the same story to tell. And, like you, I am refusing to separate my cardboard from the general waste from now on. There is no longer any guarantee that the card is going to be collected unless it is practically gift-wrapped and I have neither the time or the inclination to do so; nor do I have the space to store the refused collection for a month.
So they can stick their recycling targets.”
by Shelly, Bristol
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 5:38PM
“You lot in Bristol should count yourselves lucky you can dispose of food waste. We don't have that luxury in South Glos.”
by Nikita Jones, Bristol
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 4:45PM
“Councils should make more of an effort, encourage people to recycle. These starch bags sound like a good idea, but it's not hard, as you can take the food from your little brown bin, wrap it in newspaper and put it into your big brown bin can't you? The thing about cardboard is annoying, but we recently received a flyer giving tips on recycling which was good. It was about an A5 size with pictures rather than lots of text, very helpful indeed!”
by kevin, s. bristol
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 3:15PM
“dont bother to recycle at all , if the council cant be bothered then why should we . i never recycle and put everything in the wheelie bin , as for once fortnightly collections its a joke . its my HUMAN RIGHT not to recycle”
by ph, brizzle
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 3:03PM
“When i worked in a Bookies we were throwing at least 5 daily papers away 7 days a week.I phoned up the council and asked it i could have a black box as i'm throwing over 35 papers away per week.Council said that my company would have to pay.I phoned my HO and asked if they were prepared to pay,No chance.So i rang the council and said that they won't pay and the lady said just throw them in the bin as normal!”
by Chris, Bristle
Wednesday, March 04 2009, 2:25PM
“Are we flat dwellers going to be allowed to recycle?”