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Plans for a ‘zero waste’ Bristol are unveiled

By Jess Winteringham  Tuesday Mar 1, 2016

Bristol is preparing a move towards becoming a zero waste city, under proposals set to be decided on by the mayor.

Following the city’s year as Green Capital, the new strategy sets out targets to make Bristol produce the lowest amount of residual household waste per person per year of any core city in the UK.

Mayor George Ferguson is set to take a decision on changes to Bristol’s waste management strategy at Tuesday’s cabinet Meeting.

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The aim is to cut the current amount of residual waste going to landfill by a third with a target of below 150kg per person per year by 2025. The council wants the reduction to contribute to a longer-term target of stopping landfill waste completely.

The Waste and Resource Management Strategy report shows that although rates for re-use, recycling and composting have declined since a highpoint in 2012, Bristol has still performed better than many other core cities between 2009 and early 2014.

However, the Bristol Post reported in December last year that analysis of figures by Suez had revealed that when it comes to recycling, householders in Bristol have one of the worst records in the South West.

Some of the council’s waste is currently shipped to Europe to be incinerated for district heating systems in France and Scandinavia.

The council chose to end its £96 million waste contract with Kier last year, amid concerns that waste going to landfill had risen by 18 per cent.

A new municipal energy company, Bristol Waste, was formed to take over the day-to-day running of refuse collection.

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