Bristol targets mixed plastics with dual roll-out

The trial is being carried out by the city council along with its current recycling collection contractor SITA UK and sees residents handed a waterproof plastic sack to place plastic material in. The sack will then be collected alongside the council's black box for dry recyclables.

The 18-month kerbside collection trial is intended to help inform the council of the possibility of rolling out a citywide service under its next kerbside recycling collection contract – which is set to be awarded in November 2011.

Tracey Morgan, service director for environment at Bristol city council, said, “A considerable amount of our household rubbish is made up of mixed plastics, so we are hoping residents taking part in this trial will see a major reduction in their wheelie bin waste.

“We'll use the results of the trial scheme to inform our new waste contract, which begins next November 2011, and hopefully we will then be able to roll out a cost effective kerbside collection for mixed plastics to all residents in the city.”

Trial

The collected mixed plastic, which is being baled and perforated at SITA's Victoria Road site, is then being sent to a number of reprocessors but the council was unable to divulge which were being used for the trial.

Residents will be able to recycle: all plastic bottles and their lids (such as shampoo bottles, cleaning product bottles and drinks containers); food containers; butter and margarine tubs; fruit punnets; and, yoghurt tubs.

Those involved in the trial have been issued with leaflets explaining the scheme and outlining what material is and is not acceptable for collection. Furthermore, the council has worked with local media outlets to help promote the change in service.

A spokeswoman told letsrecycle.com: “Reports from the crews out today, on the first day of collection, are showing a very low rate of contamination. However, residents who do include the wrong materials in their sacks will have a specially designed sticker placed on the sack by the SITA crew. This will give a reason as to why the material has been refused for collection.”

Adoption of the mixed plastic trial is the latest measure by Bristol to attempt to improve its kerbside recycling. The council also met with Defra last month to discuss the development of a waste reduction incentive scheme for residents (see letsrecycle.com story).

Bring banks

Residents not involved in the kerbside collection trial are able to take a range of mixed plastics to the council's 50 plastic recycling banks.

The banks, which had previously been used to collect plastic bottles only, are now also able to be used for: Ice cream tubs; biscuit trays; fruit and vegetable trays; margarine and butter tubs; yoghurt pots; ready meal trays; and, take-away containers.

Ms Morgan said: “We are hoping to see a big increase in the volume of plastics we collect from our recycling sites, with the introduction of mixed plastics. For people who already use the banks regularly, this is a great extension to the service and will help save a lot more plastic from going to landfill.”