News / Environment
‘Repair & reuse’ could replace Hartcliffe tip
A “repair and reuse” centre could be the answer to providing a long-overdue waste tip for South Bristol, in the city’s bid to produce zero landfill waste.
The promised Hartcliffe Way Recycling Centre was put on hold for two years due to budget cuts.
City mayor George Ferguson said he wanted existing social enterprises in Bristol to “scale up” and work with the newly-formed Bristol Waste Company to convert waste back into usable goods instead.
The Social Enterprise Resource Centre would see items such as sofas, kitchen appliances and clothes repaired and sold on at the Hartcliffe Way site previously earmarked for the city’s third recycling centre.
“I am investigating the idea of creating a Social Enterprise Resource Centre at Hartcliffe Way, offering opportunities to some of the excellent waste re-use projects operating in the city to scale up their work in partnership with Bristol Waste Company,” Ferguson said.
“This is at concept stage, but is thoroughly in tune with this constructive proposal from the Green Party.
“In this year’s budget meeting the Council agreed to allocate capital for the Hartcliffe Way site, though I was clear that any spending must be subject to a full consideration of all issues and the avoidance of a continuing revenue burden to the city.”
The mayor announced his intentions to move away from the traditional recycling centre model in response to a Green Party call for a “repair and reuse” facility on Monday.
The Green Party claimed a new facility would help divert some of the 53,000 tonnes of waste from landfill, while creating up to 700 jobs.
Carla Denyer, councillor for Clifton East, said she believed the council could achieve zero per cent landfill by 2020.
“The tide of waste that we see go to landfill in our city increasingly includes repairable high value items, like laptops or washing machines.
“With sufficient partnership working with skilled repair and recycling professionals, we could stop this trend, repair much of our waste, and see jobs and goods created from our efforts. It’s a no-brainer.”
The Hartcliffe Way recycling centre was given the go-ahead in 2012, under the Lib Dems. But the project was put on hold in mayor George Ferguson’s first budget.
Gary Hopkins, Lib Dem leader, urged the mayor to push through with the original plans on Tuesday. He told the BBC that Ferguson was an “environmental vandal” for allowing the scheme to grind to a halt and subsequently causing an increase in fly-tipping in South Bristol.
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