News / recycling

Bristol’s recycling rates highest in the country

By Karen Johnson  Wednesday Jun 25, 2025

Bristol, according to new research, is one of the country’s greenest cities, with its recycling rates highest in the country.

When analysed across various parameters, the research by Co-operative Bank has named Bristol as the third most green city in the country, with an overall score of 6.25 out of 10.

Leading the charts are Reading and Sunderland with scores of 6.67 and 6.27, respectively.

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The research that compares each city through parameters like the air quality index, percentage of green spaces, green jobs, recycling rates and more, shows that Bristol’s recycling rate of 47.25 per cent is the highest, with Birmingham having the lowest recycling rates.

Bristol was named England’s greenest city in June 2024 survey by Millets – photo: Martin Booth

Bristol’s 2,611 cycling routes also mean that it has more cycling routes per square kilometre than most other cities in the UK.

However, Bristol’s air quality index is just above 50 per cent, which is significantly lower than Reading, which has the best air quality index of 72.22 per cent.

The same research also looked at the country’s least green cities, and London’s degrading air quality, low recycling rates and reduced percentage of green spaces have pulled the city to the bottom of the list.

Main photo: Karen Johnson

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