Petition against Bristol Council proposed Bin collection reaches 12,000 signatures
The proposal from Bristol's Green Party Lead would see bins collected monthly
Last updated 11th Mar 2025
A petition launched by Bristol's Labour MP's calling on Green-led Bristol City Council to drop plans to reduce black bin collections to three- or four-weekly has reached over 12,000 signatures.
Labour has tabled a golden motion to a meeting of full council, which means it is guaranteed to be heard, will come to a head today (Tuesday 11th March), while its petition demanding the proposed changes are shelved.
The Conservatives have also submitted a motion, although it is very unlikely to be discussed because of time constraints, meaning that this is a cross-party campaign effort to force change.
It said that despite additional funding for waste services for 2025/26, the authority agreed at its annual budget meeting last month to cut £500,000 a year from April and a further £500,000 recurring savings in 2026/27 by making changes to “non-recyclable waste collection”.
The motion said: “Improving recycling rates needs to happen without ‘putting the cart before the horse’.
We spoke with Opposition Labour Leader Cllr Tom Renhard, who painted a picture of the current situation.
"We're really concerned about the current service. People have not been getting their recycling collected for a number of weeks now. It's the one service that tax payers expect to happen- having their bins collected."
Cllr Renhard opened up about how the situation has been affecting him personally, after recently becoming a father of two.
"I've got a ten day old, and another that is 3. So nappies are always at the forefront of my mind. We have a nappy recycling trail; we don't recycle soft plastics either. So there are a lot of things that could be looked at, instead of reducing the black bin collections."
In an address to the council, Cllr Tom Renhard, asks the council to “Rule out the move to four-weekly black bin collections and explore other measures to improve recycling rates across the city”.
Labour’s petition, called ‘Say no to monthly bin collections in Bristol’, which was also launched by Cllr Renhard, soared past the 3,500-signature threshold for a petition debate at full council several weeks ago and has continued to grow.
It said missed collections were already a problem across the city and needed to be fixed before the fortnightly black bin collections were reduced.
The petition said:“Monthly bin collection will have a disproportionate impact on larger families and households.
“As well as this, parents know how quickly newborns’ nappies fill up their black bins – this especially isn’t workable for them.
“Let the Green Party know – no to monthly black bin collections.”