South Gloucestershire: More households to recycle soft plastics

Residents will be given a pack of bags to collect their plastic bags and wrapping

Thousands more households will be able to recycle their plastic bags and wrapping in South Gloucestershire following a pilot project.

The council is expanding its participation in a national scheme trialling kerbside collection of plastic bags and wrapping.

About 20,000 more homes will be able to take part, starting in May.

It comes as the council told the government it needs to reduce black bin collections to once every three weeks.

But it has said this would only happen after measures were put in place to recycle more household materials, like soft plastics.

The nationally funded project first started in October 2022 with collections from almost 2,000 homes in Chipping Sodbury, Bradley Stoke, Olveston and Alveston.

The trial was first launched in South Gloucestershire in October 2022

The council said residents on the new trial routes will receive information about the collections in advance.

Packaging that can be recycled for the trial includes all plastic bags and wrappers and also includes microwavable food packets, plastic film lids, bubble wrap, cling film and the net bags that fruit and vegetable are sold in.

Since the trial began in 2022, more than 19 tonnes of plastic bags, wrappers and various packets have been collected in South Gloucestershire, the council said.

The trial will help councils, government and the waste industry understand how plastic bags and wrapping recycling works when collected from households on a large scale.

The council plans to roll out the service to all households in South Gloucestershire by 2026.