Bristol Green Capital

Imagine a city that is renowned for its careful use of materials and resources, where each community has a repair café, libraries for tools, equipment and toys as well as books, and regular events for swapping clothes and household goods. A city whose businesses and organisations commit to changing their processes to minimise waste, and work with others to find new uses for unwanted materials. A city where everyone avoids over-packaged goods, where all retailers offer free water and discounted teas and coffees if you bring a refillable container.

We believe that Bristol can be such a city. Bristol was the first city in the UK to set up a kerbside collection system for a wide range of recyclable materials and has led the way in developing innovative reuse and repair schemes.

How can your organisation help?

• Consider how you could improve the resource efficiency of your products and processes;
• Make sure you separate recyclables and food waste from your general waste and use a specialist recycling collection service;
• Could you have a home composter for uncooked waste food, coffee granules and tea bags and use the compost to grow flowers or salads for your staff?
• Encourage all your staff to use the council’s recycling services, support the Clean Streets campaign and give reusable items to charities and reuse organisations;
• Consider reusing office furniture and equipment. If you do have things to dispose of see if you can find a home for them through the Sofa Project or CollectEco. Use the Reuse Network to find out what opportunities there are.
• Support the sharing economy via Share Bristol, a library of things;
• Get involved in Bristol’s Sustainable Fashion Week. Maybe you could run a repair session or clothes swapping event at your place of work?
• Incorporate actions to make Bristol a zero waste city in your own organisation;
• If you are a retailer or food outlet, register as a refill point with Refill Bristol and consider offering discounts for people with a refillable container.

Join the Partnership

There will be many more opportunities for your organisation to contribute, and to stay up-to-date about these and other ways to be involved related to Bristol Green Capital Partnership’s four other themes (Energy, Food, Nature, Transport), sign up as a member here.