News / Politics
10,000 signatures for petition opposing monthly bin collection
A petition against possible four-weekly black bin collections in Bristol has now received more than 10,000 signatures.
The petition started by Bristol’s Labour leader Tom Renhard claims that the Green-led council “is currently planning to scrap your bi-weekly bin collection, and instead only collect your black bins once a month”.
But this is not strictly true, with a consultation currently underway asking residents if they want to keep the fortnightly collections or switch to three- or four-weekly in a bid to increase recycling levels.
is needed now More than ever
Renhard said: “Bristolians have made it clear: they don’t want black bins collected every four weeks.
“With 10,000 signatures, it’s clear how strongly people feel. We hope the Greens will listen and drop their plans.
“This collection schedule is unworkable, especially for large families and those with newborns.
“We’ve proposed buying more children’s homes to save £1m a year, which could be reinvested in waste services, reducing the need for less frequent bin collections, supporting carers and reopening public toilets.
“Additionally, we suggest more fly-tipping cameras and higher littering fines to clean up our streets.”
Bristol Waste staff are a familiar sight across the city – photo: Bristol Waste
The Green Party continue to stress that they will listen to the results of the consultation to improve recycling and waste collection across the city in order to improve recycling rates, meet government targets and to save taxpayer money.
Potential improvements include larger recycling containers, better information on recycling, more consistent facilities and services in blocks and shared dwellings, and collection of soft plastic recycling.
Once the consultation finishes on March 10, cross-party members of the environment & sustainability committee will consider the responses and put forward recommendations.
Green councillor Martin Fodor, chair of the environment & sustainability committee, said that the current consultation on waste and recycling has already received a record number of responses.
Fodor said: “As an administration, we are committed to putting a range of options on the table for the people of Bristol to have their say in all our consultations and to be transparent about this.
“One potential move forward is to decrease the frequency of waste collections.
“This has shown to have worked for more and more local authorities including our neighbours in South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, and the move to fortnightly collections has been one of the only things in Bristol to boost recycling rates in the last 20 years.”
Main photo: Milan Perera
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