How to boost recycling in Redland and Bristol as a whole?

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mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Bristol

City Council is considering two schemes to help it increase household recycling

by 50 per cent by the end of the year.

It

plans to pilot a ‘Recycling for All’ scheme this year whereby 20,000 households

will have to separate their waste or face penalties.

Cabinet

member for strategic waste, Councillor Gary Hopkins, says: “I want to thank

residents in Bristol for their efforts in recycling and reducing their waste

and therefore helping to keep council tax down. We are the UK’s number one

major city for recycling and we have one of the lowest amounts of residual

household waste being sent to landfill each year by any local authority.

“We

still have ambitious targets to reach however, and so we are looking at

introducing sensible and fair schemes that will ensure residents are making the

most out of our kerbside recycling facilities and doing everything they can to

minimise their waste.”

“There

is no excuse for anyone to keep dumping recyclable waste in their wheelie bin,

when we provide easy to use services like the black box and brown bin

collection services on the doorstep,” says Councillor Hopkins. “Research from

other authorities who have introduced similar schemes to this showed a big

increase in the amount of recycling produced, as well as a substantial decrease

in their domestic residual waste.”

Residents

would be sent letters and ‘handy hints’ sheets on reducing their waste and

maximising their recycling. Those needing additional help would receive

telephone advice and, if needed, home visits from the council’s team of waste

doctors. 

After

this, anyone still putting recyclable materials in their wheelie bin would risk

enforcement action from the council.

If

the pilot scheme proves successful, it would be hoped to roll it out citywide.

The

council is also considering reducing the size of wheelie bins from 240 litre

bins to 140 litre bins.

Councillor

Hopkins says, “We are looking for sensible and easy improvements to our current

services. For residents who already recycle their waste, a smaller refuse bin

won’t be a problem, and it will encourage non-recyclers to make more effort to

separate their waste.

“We

have already carried out a small piece of research on a sample of the waste

collected by our refuse crews, and this showed that 46 per cent of the waste could have

been recycled using our kerbside recycling services. So we know there are still

some people who are not recycling as much as they can.”

Under

the new scheme, households with one or two occupants would usually be issued

with a 140 litre bin; households with three to five residents would have a 180

litre bin and households with six or more occupants would have a 240 litre bin.

The bins would be introduced through a phased programme over a number of years,

only being replaced when residents request a new bin or replacement for a lost

one.

The

service would be tailored to ensure it meets individual circumstances. People

in flats or with shared bins and those with specific needs for larger bins

would not be included in it.

So

what do you think? Do we really need to be bullied into recycling? Is this all

a bit Big Brother? How do we think this will work in practice? Will bin men

have to rifle through every single bin? How will that impact on the service?

Or,

perhaps you think it’s a good idea? We’re all pretty green minded here in

Redland and surely this is just an extension of what we’re already doing? Why

have a great big bin littering (sic) your driveway when you could actually do

with more recycling space? Maybe this is the only way to get apathetic people

to recyle?