Warehouses in Bristol see recycling services reach a new landmark

All Bristol households should have received their new recycling boxes, as part of the multi-million-pound waste contract with May Gurney signed last summer.

The boxes, allowing residents to recycle plastic and Tetra-Pak, and smaller black wheelie bins have been delivered across the city since January.

While the council has received complaints from around the city about missing bins, and non-collection of waste, Cllr Gary Hopkins said the roll-out of the service had “gone well”.

The Cabinet member for strategic waste said: “Changing the waste and recycling services for the entire city was a mammoth undertaking and we want to firstly thank residents for their patience throughout the last nine months.

“There have been minor issues along the way, with some residents experiencing missed collections and a few delays with bin deliveries, which we would obviously like to have avoided. However, these were not unexpected considering the size of the contract and the fact it was a new contractor, and overall, the roll out has gone well.

“The new services offer a better provision for residents, with one of the most comprehensive recycling services in the country, helping to reduce the amount of waste we are throwing away and driving up our recycling rate even further. At the same time, the contract will save us £2.5 million a year compared to our previous waste contract.”

The waste contract with May Gurney was signed in July 2011 and is part of the city council’s bid to reach a target of sending no waste to landfill within three years.

Figures for December 2011 show that Bristol’s rate for recycling, composting and reuse was 53% – an increase of 17% from36% in December 2010. The amount of waste sent to landfill has dropped to 19.42%, down from 63.34% in December 2010 (and 88% before Bristol’s weekly food & organic kerbside recycling were introduced in 2006).

The council has said this has improved from April to June this year, with the city’s recycling rate at 50%, compared to 39% for April-June 2011 and 12% in 2004. The landfill rate for this period was 27%, compared to 60.5% for the same period last year and 88% in 2004.

The next stage will be to introduce the changes to people living in flats. Meanwhile, Bristol’s network of 50 recycling banks will also be looked at to see which ones should be kept and which ones are no longer needed.

Sourced from www.bristol247.com