Bristol city council yesterday (March 4) announced plans to become the first English local authority to apply to run a pilot incentive scheme which will reward residents for cutting the amount of residual waste they leave at the kerbside.

The city council said it had met with Defra and the Waste & Resources Action Programme to discuss the practicalities of a six-month trial of the scheme and it now intends to submit a formal application to the government for financial support on Monday (March 8).

The scheme will encourage residents to think about what they are throwing away and act as a thank you to those who help us by reducing their waste

 
Cllr Gary Hopkins, Bristol city council

Residents involved in the scheme could earn between £30 and £40 each year, which equates to £15 to £20 under the trial, with the system operating by having wheeled bins weighed by collection crews using a microchip in the bin itself and special software on the back of the collection vehicle.

Last year it emerged that no expressed councils had expressed an initial interest in applying to run one of five pilot financial incentive schemes which the government aimed to run using powers gained in the Climate Change Act 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Councillor Gary Hopkins, cabinet member for environment at Bristol city council, said: "Bristol already has a first-class reputation for waste reduction and recycling and we have set ourselves an ambitious target to recycle 50% of all our waste by the end of this year.

"This year we are predicting our waste to be nearly 23,000 tonnes less than in 2004/05, saving £4 million of public money. We've saved even more thanks to residents who now recycle nearly 40% of their waste, compared to just 12% five years ago. This year, people in Bristol recycled nearly 4,000 tonnes more than last year."

To date incentive schemes in the UK, such as the American rewards scheme RecycleBank currently being trialled by two UK local authorities, have only been used to reward uptakes in recycling and not reductions in waste.

Bristol

If the bid for financial support is successful, Bristol intends to run a six-month trial of the scheme for 2,362 properties across three suburban areas in the city - Bishopston, Cotham and Redland. The areas were selected by the council as they are not currently part of any other recycling pilots in the city and offer a mix of residents and property types.

Furthermore, Bristol said that the system would work on an ‘opt-in' basis, take into account the number of residents in each household and not impose a punitive tax on those that fail to reduce their waste.

Cllr Hopkins said: "The scheme will encourage residents to think about what they are throwing away and act as a thank you to those who help us by reducing their waste."

"It will be completely voluntary, so people only sign up to it if they want to take part. There will be no penalty for participants who don't manage to reduce their waste, and our officers will obviously be able to give them advice on how to reduce and recycle further."

In addition, the councillor said that the city council wanted to introduce a pilot scheme "quickly" in order to allow it be taken into consideration when its waste contract with SITA UK expires in 2011.

Incentives

Non-government funded incentive trials have already been undertaken in the UK, with American recycling rewards firm RecycleBank undertaking trials with both the Royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council and Halton borough council to date.

And, in praising the impact of the RecycleBank trial, Terry Gould, head of public protection at Windsor and Maidenhead, did suggest that the equipment could easily be used to reward reduction and not just recycling (see letsrecycle.com story).