I am Lydia Francisty, the Community Engagement Officer at Bristol Waste Company covering Avonmouth, Lawrence Weston, Henbury, Brentry, Southmead, Henleaze, Westbury-on-Trym, and Stoke Bishop. We are the company that takes your household waste and recycling, cleans the streets and removes fly tipping among other things.
My job is to work with the people of Bristol to show that, if we all recycle more, throw away less and don’t drop litter, it’s better for our wellbeing, our pockets, the environment and our city as a whole. I work with local groups and individuals to help solve their waste issues. If you have any ongoing problems you can contact me on hello@bristolwastecompany.co.uk or on 0117 304 9022.
Whilst I am ready to listen and help wherever possible, the following issues need to be reported either online, or by ringing 0117 922 2100:
Missed bin or recycling box collections
Order a new bin, recycling boxes, food caddy’s or nets
Report a street that needs cleaning
Report a fly tipping incident
Bulky household item collection
You can order new recycling boxes for free; however, Bristol City Council has changed the rules for the collection of bulky items. It now costs £25 for up to three items and £50 for up to six items. If you have any questions about this change, please call the number above. The good news is that there are several charity organisations that are happy to collect for free any usable items for upcycling and resale. Some of them are:
SOFA Project – 0117 954 7800
Emmaus Bristol – 0117 954 0886
Happytat – 0117 329 1747
Sue Ryder – 03330 031 883
British Heart Foundation – 0808 250 0030
If you or your relatives/friends are online, there is a multitude of websites you can sell or give your items for free to people who need them but can’t buy new ones. That way you can upcycle, help someone in need and even earn some ££. The most popular ones are:
Gumtree Bristol
Freecycle Bristol
local pages on Facebook (e.g. Stuff for sale or free in Bristol; For Sale in Bristol)
Fly tipping, and this includes leaving waste on the pavement in front of your house, is illegal, bad for the environment and often poses a health hazard. Leaving things you don’t want on the pavement can also be problematic for people with mobility issues, or wheelchairs users and parents with buggies. If you want to dispose of your waste, you can do so at your nearest tip or recycling centre:
St Philips Household Waste Recycling Centre Folly Lane, off Days Road, St Philips, Bristol, BS2 0QS
Avonmouth Household Waste Recycling Centre Kings Weston Lane, Avonmouth, Bristol, BS11 0YS
Remember, you will need a proof that you live in Bristol and the tips/recycling centres do not accept commercial waste.
If you like crafts or have children who do, there are a lot of things you can do with your rubbish to waste less. Fancy making a plastic milk bottle bird house or a cardboard robot? Head to your library or look online for inspiration. If you are not online, libraries have computers you can use and local community centres and organisations, such as Ambition Lawrence Weston, often offer help.
We collect around 3700 tonnes of litter from Bristol streets in a year – that’s about 10 tonnes a day. Aside from it being unsightly it’s also expensive to clear up. Imagine that money being used for other, better things in your community. The Mayor of Bristol has recently launched Bristol Clean Streets campaign to make Bristol measurably cleaner by 2020. That means less litter, fly tipping, fly posting, graffiti, dog fouling, gum and weeds in the city; as well as much more reuse, repairing and recycling so that less waste is produced in the city. We now work with the communities to support initiatives to clean up streets and green spaces and make our neighbourhoods cleaner, greener and more welcoming.
If you want to get involved, we have litter picking equipment we can loan out and we can also give you advice and help with your clean-up event. We have recently promoted the Big Spring Clean-up weekend and had a great response with over 40 events going on around the city. We now need to keep the momentum going, so do get in touch and let’s clean our streets!