Recycling gets that little bit harder

A couple of years ago, there was a welcome, if under-publicised, step forward in Bristol's provision for recycling. Selected 'bring sites', including the big one at Tesco Brislington, were extended to take more than just plastic bottles - a whole new range of non-film food wrappings could now be recycled.

Then last spring it got better; the system was extended so that every recycling point could take the larger range of 'soft' plastics - even Stockwood's sole recycling bank (which had survived the attempt by our councillors to have it removed altogether).

So what's happening now?

Down at Tescos, the big Recresco plastics containers have disappeared. Instead we have half a dozen dual use 'trolley' bins. One aperture for plastic bottles, one for cans.

They're arranged so that it's difficult for two people, near impossible for three, to use them simultaneously (the third person in the picture, waiting his turn, eventually decided to go to Asda instead!).


The 'dual use' doesn't work either, because people are so close to the bins that they don't read the distinguishing signs, and the carefully segregated recycling streams get cross-contaminated at the first hurdle.

I'm waiting for a council response to these concerns - let's hope it was a cock-up, not a cutback.

[Added 13/5:]
It turns out that Tesco have taken the recycling banks 'in house', employing their own contractor. More on that later....