'Nightmare!' Clifton residents who have THIRTEEN bins each in recycling hell speak out

'Nightmare!' Clifton residents who have THIRTEEN bins each in recycling hell speak out
GB News
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 07/12/2023

- 10:14

Updated: 21/12/2023

- 13:22

Bristol City Council recycles 46% of its waste, the highest amount in the country

Residents of Clifton, Bristol, have been left frustrated after their current waste removal system requires them to display thirteen different bins for their rubbish.

Streets are full each week of separate bins used to collect locals' general refuse, as well as plastic and metal, cardboard, paper and glass, food and garden waste.


In September this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated to Brits that the "proposal that we should force you to have seven different bins in your home" was to be scrapped.

But Bristolians are still having to separate their waste more than any other council in the UK.

Bristol resident speaks to GB News

Bristol resident says their bin system is 'arbitrary'

GB News

Bristol City Council recycles 46 per cent of its waste, which is the highest amount in the country.

However residents have expressed their concern and revealed it takes "a lot of time" out of their day to sort the waste into the correct bins.

Speaking to GB News, homeowners told reporter Jeff Moody of the inconvenience.

One woman said: "Takes a lot of time. A lot of time, a lot of my weeks sorting it out, and I'd say it's a good like 10, 15 minutes on bin day in the pouring rain, most of the time taking it out. It's a bit tedious."

Another resident fumed at the Council over the decision, saying: "My issue is really is how arbitrary it seems in the way that we do the sorting, and that there's very little guidance.

"So I don't understand why it's okay to put glass and papers together and plastic and tins together. And then I get concerned that we're not doing it correctly.

"So all the different types of plastics, am I sorting those correctly? Am I supposed to wash them, not wash them? Do they need to be clean? And then if I'm doing it wrong, how does that then get sorted?

"And if I do it wrong, does that then mean that that whole batch can't be recycled and ends up in a landfill somewhere?"

Bristol street

Residents of Clifton, Bristol have 13 different bins to sort their rubbish into

GB News

A third Clifton local complained of the "mess" on the streets on bin day, as the thirteen wheelie bins pile up outside each home.

He said: "It does get messy on the streets. So when you're walking up and down the pavements outside the houses, you do have to navigate the wheelie bins. And when they don't get taken in for a while, it can be a bit frustrating.

"And the pavements are quite narrow, so you do have to dodge them a little bit."

In a statement, Bristol City Council said: "For a decade or more we've been doing the curb side collection where all the recycling is separated by households.

"It engages the residents in the recycling process because you've got to do a little bit more to present your waste."

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