Bristol residents will be offered financial incentives to reduce household waste, under ambitious plans to increase the city’s recycling rate to 50% by the end of next year.
The Liberal Democrat-controlled city council has announced a raft of measures to boost recycling from its current level of 36%, as part of a bid to become the cleanest major UK city. It aims to reduce the annual average household waste by more than 100kgs in five years, and make progress on its ‘zero untreated landfill’ policy.
In order to achieve the targets, the council has applied to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to introduce a voluntary rebate scheme using chip technology. Residents would be rewarded for limiting the amount of non-recyclable waste they threw away.
Cllr Gary Hopkins, Bristol City Council’s cabinet member for environment, said he hoped the voluntary element of the proposal would avert negative media reaction.
Since DEFRA invited councils to submit proposals for financial incentive schemes, Bristol is the first to put forward such plans. A DEFRA spokesman said it would now await a formal proposal.
Cllr Hopkins said organics collections would be extended to flats, and free compostable bin liners would be handed out. The council will also double the number of plastic recycling banks.
A mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant will open in 2011 to treat the four West of England council’s waste. ‘Even if we just fall short of our 50% target, the MBT plant will increase rates by a few per cent after 2010 anyway,’ Cllr Hopkins told Surveyor. Bristol previously cancelled an energy-for-waste private-finance initiative for ‘financial and environmental reasons’.
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