Bristol’s Green council ditches ‘totally unworkable’ monthly bin collection plans after fierce backlash from residents
Bristol City Council’s Green Party administration has abandoned controversial plans to collect black waste bins every four weeks following significant public backlash.
The proposal, which would have made Bristol the first major English city with monthly bin collections, faced overwhelming opposition from residents.
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More than 12,000 people signed a petition calling for the plans to be shelved.
The four-weekly collection scheme would have saved the council £2.3m annually but proved deeply unpopular across political lines.
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Both Labour and Conservative councillors had formally opposed the measure, which was part of a consultation launched in January to improve the city’s recycling rates.
Bristol currently collects black bins every two weeks, but the council had proposed reducing this to either three times per month or four.
The consultation was launched in January to tackle falling recycling rates and address the issue of food waste being incorrectly disposed of.
According to the council, around a quarter of most black bin rubbish is food which could be recycled.
Many English local authorities already operate three-week collection schedules.
The council had calculated that switching to three-weekly collections would save £1.3m annually, while the four-weekly option would deliver savings of £2.3m.
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The six-week consultation period ended on Monday.
Councillor Martin Fodor, chair of the environment committee, explained the decision to drop the proposal.
“The four-weekly option was put in the consultation as an outlier for modelling purposes and I made clear it was always unlikely to go ahead,” he said.
“Based on what we’ve heard and the strength of feeling that this has generated across the city, the Greens will not be supporting any proposals put forward to move to four-weekly collections at this time.”
He thanked residents for participating in the consultation.
“The Greens aim to be as collaborative and transparent in our decision making as possible,” Fodor added.
“The views of Bristol will always be taken into account under this administration.”
Labour leader on the council, Councillor Tom Renhard, welcomed the decision to abandon the four-weekly collection plan.
“It has been clear from the start that this policy is totally unworkable,” he said.
“The Greens dropping it will be a relief to all, particularly those with larger families or newborns, who need fortnightly black bin collections.”
He emphasised the importance of waste collection services to residents.
“Waste and recycling collection is the one service that every council tax payer uses and relies upon; it needs to be protected from their cuts,” Renhard added.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance also criticised the original proposal, saying: “Bristolians are sick to the back teeth of their council’s hare-brained schemes.”
The results of the public consultation will now be presented to a cross-party group of councillors who will decide on any changes to the city’s waste and recycling services.
Bristol’s current recycling rate stands at around 45 percent, with the Green Party previously pledging to increase this figure.
In 2024, recycling collected earned the council £4.5m in revenue, while disposing of it would have cost £8.3m to process.
Councillor James Crawford, who sits on the environment committee, said: “There are many changes that we need to make as a city to improve our recycling rate.”
“I look forward to working cross-party on what measures we can take to improve recycling for Bristol.”
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