Bristol Waste Company
Together, we make tomorrow safer, cleaner and more sustainable.
About us
At Bristol Waste we not only take care of the city, keeping it clean and safe for our residents and customers, we are now working across the region.
We visit every home in Bristol, clean every street, look after schools, civic buildings and commercial buildings.
You will see us collecting the waste and recycling, cleaning the streets, running the recycling centres, removing graffiti, cleaning buildings, providing security services and much more. We even grit the roads in the winter and clear fly-tips.
Serving the needs of the residents and businesses of Bristol, on behalf of Bristol City Council, is at the heart of what we do.
We’re growing our commercial work serving businesses in Bristol and across the region – our services cover waste and recycling, cleaning, facilities management, security and IT Reuse.
Some only see us as a waste and facilities management business, but we see things differently. Our role is to improve the lives of those who live, work, or visit Bristol – and beyond – and to protect the environment.
Together, we make tomorrow safer, cleaner and more sustainable.
Bristol Waste's Business Plan
As a company owned by Bristol City Council, our work is critical to keeping Bristol clean, safe, and sustainable. Our two-year business plan (2025/26–2026/27) outlines our strategic direction, financial objectives, and priorities and commercial ambition.
Bristol Waste's 10 Year Vision
Our ambition to retain and enhance Bristol’s position as the leading English core city for sustainability drives our action.
This document reflects the hard work and dedication of our team and stakeholders, who have collaborated to create a roadmap for inclusive, sustainable and commercial growth, operational excellence and community impact
Bristol Waste's 2024 Impact Report
Download our 2024 impact report explaining the £20.5 million worth of positive social impact we have had on the city. The report, released in 2025, showcases our key achievements and shines a light on the future focus for the company.
Delivering the One City Plan
What Bristol Waste Company does is important – we’re here to keep Bristol and beyond, clean, and safe. We’re playing our part as a major city partner, helping Bristol to prosper and to deliver the One City Plan.
Bristol Waste helps to deliver the city’s sustainability targets in partnership with Bristol City Council and the One City Plan.
Serving residents
We do this for our city’s residents, workers, visitors, and businesses.
Our work helps deliver Bristol’s sustainability targets in partnership with the council and includes:
- Waste and recycling household collections
- Household Reuse and Recycling Centres
- Reuse Shops
- Digital Inclusion Scheme and IT Reuse
- Street cleansing, graffiti removal and gritting roads in the winter
We work with Bristol City Council to deliver the Big Tidy, organising litter picks with communities and volunteer corporates.
Serving businesses
Bristol Waste’s commercial operation, where we serve businesses and organisations across the region, is growing.
Our services include:
- Commercial waste
- Commercial recycling
- Cleaning and facilities management
- Security and cash in transit
As a Teckal company our expanding commercial business adds to the benefits we bring to the city and helps invest in our wider local services.
Social value impact
Our ambition is to provide good quality, value for money services, and we continue to deliver a social value impact worth more than £30 million every year. Wholly-owned by Bristol City Council, our profits go into local services.
“We make the lives of people living and working in our city, better. And we are good at it too.” – Bristol Waste Impact Report
Sustainability
As a company we support Bristol’s One City Plan and One City Climate Strategy, and as a leading partner we’re contributing to the city becoming carbon neutral by 2030. We’re also committed to our company being carbon neutral by 2030.
Our work includes measuring our impact, developing environmental and carbon reduction plans, buying eco-friendly products, and investing in our local places and people. Our achievements include award-winning waste reduction and recycling campaigns, and the Big Tidy project.
Award-winning ambition
Nationally we have gained recognition as leaders in our field and have won numerous awards for our business and our sustainability work and campaigns.
We are investing in the future, with our multi-million-pound sorting and processing facility at Avonmouth.
We take this ethos into our commercial work, serving businesses in Bristol and beyond, and our ambition is to be an employer of choice.
Our people, careers and jobs
Employing more than 800 people, these range from drivers and loaders to mechanics and street cleansers, office cleaners and security officers. They include data, IT, HR and finance specialists, project managers, public engagement and sustainability experts, marketers, communicators, business developers, Reuse Shop staff, apprentices, as well as volunteers.
The partnerships we forge are also important to us, providing pathways into work and supporting careers for marginalised groups.
We’re proud of what we do and the careers we support. Click here for more on developing a rewarding career with Bristol Waste, job vacancies and volunteer opportunities.
Our values
Our values shape and inform everything we do.
We work together
- We are all important
- We encourage and trust each other
- We feel engaged and motivated
We do what's right
- We take personal responsibility for health and safety
- We treat everyone with dignity and respect, and value diversity
- We admit our mistakes and learn from them
- We care about our colleagues and their wellbeing
- We get thanked for what we do
We communicate
- We are highly visible and accessible
- We communicate openly and transparently
- We listen
- We demonstrate honesty and integrity
We perform
- We take responsibility for our actions and performance
- We follow policies and procedures
- We know how the business is performing and what it is trying to achieve
- We celebrate success
- We recognise and reward great work
Top facts about Bristol Waste
Bristol Waste has retained the status of the number 1 English core city for recycling for 8 years running. Every year, we:
- Improve the environment by making over 21.9 million refuse and recycling collections every year.
- Recycle over 71,000 tonnes of waste and divert over 50,000 items through our reuse schemes.
- Clean more than 41,000 miles of streets.
- Grit 25,000 miles of roads.
- Clear 9,000 fly-tips.
- Serve over 500 businesses.
- Give back over £30 million in social value.
We provide the best value-for-money waste recycling service amongst English cities and local authorities.
Source: Bristol Waste Impact Report 2023