Bristol may become first English council to collect black bins every four weeks
Bristol may become first English council to collect black bins every four weeks
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Green-led authority consulting on changes it says could save £2m and encourage recycling – critics fear it will increase fly-tipping. Bristol city council could become the first local authority in England to collect black rubbish bins only once every four weeks.
The Green-led council says that switching from a two- to four-weekly collection would save it more than £2m a year and help reverse a dip in recycling rates. The council believes it would be the first in England to move to collections every four weeks.
Some residents and political opponents have expressed concern that it could lead to more non-recyclable rubbish being fly-tipped and almost 2,000 people have so far signed a Labour petition against the idea. The council argues that it has not seen evidence of fly-tipping increasing in areas that have moved to three-weekly collections and says it has powers to clamp down on offenders.
The authority launched a six-week consultation on Monday and hopes to make a decision by the spring. Residents are being asked if collections should stay the same or move to a three-week or four-week pattern. Bristol is home to about 483,000 people living in more than 191,000 households, and growing. The council says that on average, each person creates up to 400kg of household waste a year.
For the past two years, Bristol has recycled about 45% of its household waste – among the best records in the UK – but the council says the recycling rate is dropping, making change vital. Councillor Martin Fodor, the chair of the environment and sustainability committee, said: “Anything that ends up in the black bin waste is taken away for incineration or sent to landfill – both of which come with serious environmental and cost issues.
