The council launched an expanded collection scheme to allow 150,000 households to recycle their kitchen scraps. Cardboard will also be collected with the food waste.
” Even with just one-fifth of the city covered by the new collections we have seen levels of recycling rocket in the city.“
– Cllr Gary Hopkins, Bristol CC
The scheme comes after 30,000 homes began food waste collections at the beginning of July, which the council said saw city recycling rates rising from 18.5% to 25% in just a few months.
Bristol city council is working towards a target of recycling 27% of household waste in 2007/08. The target was missed during 2005/06, but privately council officers are hoping that they might even hit a 37% recycling rate this year.
Under the new scheme, food waste will be sent to the New Earth Solutions plant in Wimbourne, Dorset for composting. However, Bristol city council said it is hoping to develop a plant in or near Bristol to process material in future.
“Landmark”
Launching the expanded scheme today, Councillor Gary Hopkins, executive member for sustainable environment and neighbourhoods, said: “The city-wide launch of the new waste collection services is a landmark event in the way Bristol deals with waste.
“Even with just one-fifth of the city covered by the new collections we have seen levels of recycling rocket in the city while the amount of waste going to landfill has significantly reduced. This is thanks to the co-operation of those residents already receiving the new service,” Cllr Hopkins added.
The new food waste recycling scheme will be run weekly, as is the case for the city's green waste collections and black box recycling service for paper, glass, cans, foil, textiles, batteries and aerosols.
Fortnightly residual
The introduction of kitchen waste collections means the council can switch the weekly collection of non-recyclable waste to a fortnightly cycle.
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Bristol council said that the food waste scheme was proven to be a success when it was introduced to around 30,000 households. Recycling rates in the trial area have risen from 17% to 40% after the start of the food waste collection service.
To meet its targets set by Defra, Bristol must reduce the 114,500 tonnes of biodegradable waste it sent to landfill in 2004/05 to just 76,564 tonnes by 2010 and then just 35,684 by 2020.
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