Recycling In Action

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Bristol

Local Authority: Bristol City Council Unitary Authority
Area: 10,954 hectares
Population: 400,000 (168,470 households)
Waste management contract: SITA Contract Services
Recycling subcontractor: Resourcesaver (not-for-profit group employing 60 staff)
Recycling Rate: (1999/2000): 13.1%

Key to success

"Combining ideas and expertise from a diversity of sectors via partnerships" - Bristol City Council spokesperson.

Collection Methods

Weekly black box multi-material kerbside collection scheme operated by Resourcesaver. This system provides all householders with an open black box in which they are asked to put their paper (including Yellow Pages), glass bottles and jars, aluminium and steel cans, aluminium foil, textiles (including shoes), and eyeglasses. The materials are sorted from the boxes, on the street into purpose built vehicles weekly on specified days. Residents can also put out their car batteries and waste engine oil for collection alongside their black boxes. All of the materials are then taken to Resourcesaver's depot before being transported to the reprocessors.
More than 90 mini-recycling centres are positioned at high rise tower blocks, nursing homes and flats that are inappropriate for the normal collection service. These centres are financed by the council and SITA, and collections are made by Resourcesaver.
There are also 50 glass bring sites around the city where people can take their glass for recycling, and there are two civic amenity sites from which materials are also collected for recycling purposes.

Participation rates

The overall participation rate amounted to 52 per cent with the variation in individual streets ranging from between 6 per cent and 89 per cent. It appears that participation is affected by the socio-economics of the area with the bulk of materials being collected in the high income areas of the city. A target rate of 70 per cent for Bristol has been. The next stage is to look at how to improve participation. One idea is to stimulate higher involvement by getting 'community leaders' on board and have them persuade their communities of the need to recycle.

Educational and promotional activities

The Rubbish Revolution promotional campaign run by The Recycling Consortium raises public awareness of the need to minimise waste and recycle, and includes work with schools in the city.

What is the potential for expansion of recycling in the area?

Weekly kerbside collections will continue bringing in increasing quantities of recyclables, and with the further development of the mini-recycling centres and CA sites, the city should experience an increase recycling rates. In some areas, low public participation rates are a problem, and this is being tackled by campaigns driven by the Recycling Consortium. The work by the Consortium to boost participation rates from 52 per cent to 70 per cent will increase the amount of materials collected.

What becomes of the materials collected?

Material	Destination	Income
Paper	Aylesford Newsprint, Kent	Fluctuates
Glass (colour separated)	British Glash, Sheffield	Depends on colour
Textiles and shoes	Merlin Community Recycling, Newport	Income offsets transport costs
Aluminium cans and foil	Swindon Metal Merchant	£750 per tonne
Steel cans	Llanelli, South Wales	Fluctuates
Waste engine oil	Evergreen, Avonmouth	Collected free of charge
Car batteries	Britannia Reclamation, Kent	Income offsets transport costs
Plastic (separated into four types)	Recoup, Peterborough	£90 per tonne
Yellow Pages	Made into animal bedding and jiffy bag filler	Fluctuates
Glasses	Local optician for charities abroad	No income
Total quantity of materials recycled in 1999/2000: 24,778 tonnes

Other initiatives

Home composting campaign

The Rubbish revolution campaign has set a target of 10,000 home compost bins sold by the end of their three-year campaign. Up to September 1999 the total number sold rose to 8,000, an increase of 1,200 bins on the figure reported for 1998/99. A oneday sale of compost bins and water butts took place through the Rubbish Revolution campaign. 1,247 compost bins and 1,046 water butts were sold at the event.

Real Nappy Campaign

The Rubbish Revolution, in conjunction with neighbouring councils, backed a national campaign highlighting the environmental effects of disposable nappies.

SOFA project furniture campaign

A furniture and re-use project based in the city. This project refurbishes discarded items of furniture and passes them on to people in need through social care agencies. Due to expansion the project has just moved into larger purpose-built premises.

The Childrens Scrapstore

This not-for-profit voluntary organisation collects reusable scrap from around 400 businesses in and around Bristol and passes them on to for creative and play purposes.

Contact:

Bristol City Council
Tel: 0117 9223020

Neighbourhood and Housing Services
Fax: 0117 9222849
PO Box 595
Email: bryn-williams@bristol-citygov.uk
Brunel House Website: www.bristol-city.gov.uk
St. Georges Road
Bristol
BS99 2AW