Bristol City Council has made the landmark decision to ban black bins from 2026. The news follows headlines in January which indicated that the council was considering a four-weekly black bin collection, in a bid to increase the amount that residents recycle. The decision comes after council reports revealed only 45% of Bristol’s waste is collected as recycling – well below the national target of 65% by 2035.
The drastic measure aims to shake up how households manage their waste, encouraging residents to recycle correctly, instead of relying on their black bin for all waste. The council revealed that items such as food waste, paper and card, glass, plastic, cans, textiles and small electricals are still being discarded via the black bin – when each of those items can be effectively recycled (and from home, too!).
Bristol will become the first UK city to push ahead with such a measure, and while drastic, could help to “stop between 7,000 and 10,000 tonnes of waste going to landfill or the incinerator”, while also reducing carbon emissions, lowering costs and, of course, increasing recycling.
To help accommodate the new scheme, households will receive recycling sacks and new bins, which will continue to be collected on their regular scheduled days. No additional collection days will be introduced.
Naturally, locals are already concerned with how they’ll discard of their regular waste, but…
If you’ve made it this far into this article, I’ve got bad news for you. This is just an April Fool’s joke!