A “damning report” has shown how Bristol Waste repeatedly failed to collect rubbish and recycling after route changes. Three parts of the city in particular have been hit the most with missed collections, leaving residents “angry, upset and annoyed”.
In summer last year, Bristol City Council told its waste company to cut costs, which in November led to the first major changes to the routes bin men take in over a decade. This led to them consistently dropping certain roads and missing more collections.
The report was published ahead of a meeting of the environment policy committee on Thursday, September 26. Councillors told waste bosses about a range of issues faced by residents, such as struggling to order replacement bins.
Labour Councillor Kirsty Tait said: “The report is quite damning. The failings we’ve experienced with Bristol Waste falls back on the council and has a reputational risk.
“People might not be able to get online to order the correct bins. I have a lot of residents who might be using a plastic tub or a bag for life, instead of the correct bin, because they’ve been damaged or blown away, or they don’t have the money to buy a new one. They’re not being collected, even though they’re being put out.”
Another major issue is the difficulty many face when reporting that their bins haven’t been collected. Conservative Cllr Henry Michallat said: “They call Bristol Waste and try to get in touch with somebody, and they don’t get an answer. They get angry, upset and annoyed about it.”
This summer, Bristol Waste rolled out an extra four recycling rounds, to cover the consistently dropped roads. While this “greatly improved” the service, the report warned that the cost of these extra rounds would affect whether Bristol Waste could be able to cut costs as instructed.
One problem facing the company, especially since the pandemic, is the growing amount of cardboard people throw away, given the rise in online shopping. This means crews have to offload lorries more often.
Another issue is converted housing leading to more cars on the roads, with some parked cars obstructing access. A rising number of battery fires is also an ongoing challenge.
Bristol Waste and the council are now exploring ways to increase processing capacity at recycling depots. Online reporting could be made easier for missed collections, and additional vehicles might be hired from neighbouring councils.
In the second phase of the re-routing, the wards most affected by missed collections were: Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston, Redland, and Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze. Since late May there have been around 200 missed collections reported in each ward.
Green Cllr Martin Fodor, chair of the environment policy committee, said: “I asked for this report because we hadn’t had anything in public from the council about the way the services had been disrupted. The point of the report is not to point blame, it’s to look at what’s being done to address it, to learn lessons, and to make sure actions are being taken.
“We know there’s been a lot of effort to try and improve the reliability of the service, understand what went wrong and what we can learn from that.”
Liberal Democrat Cllr Tim Kent added: “People can see that we’re reflecting that yes, something has gone wrong. I’m hoping that over the next few months many of our residents will see the continued improvement that the report shows is the direction we’re going in.”