Pack your new, blue bag for cardboard!

From 21 October 2019 Bristol residents will receive a new bag for cardboard recycling. The blue bags are 100% recycled and recyclable, a world first for this type of bag.

 

Following a successful trial in Stockwood, each household will be provided with a new blue reusable bag for their cardboard, instead of placing it in the green box.

The new bag is being introduced to help Bristol increase its recycling rates and enable crews to sort the recycling more quickly, as well as giving residents more space for the growing amount of card used.

The new bag for cardboard will be rolled out across the city from Monday 21 October 2019 and the rollout will be completed by the end of February 2020.

With the introduction of the new blue bag for cardboard, we aim to improve roadside collection efficiency and reduce the time spent sorting materials, congestion on the roads and their carbon footprint.

 

Cardboard is all around us

In the UK we use approximately 5 billion cardboard boxes every year, that’s around 83 boxes per person and means a lot of cardboard going into recycling boxes. For every tonne of cardboard recycled, it saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water and 4,000kw of electricity. Nearly 3,000 extra tonnes of Bristol’s cardboard could have been recycled last year.

 

Pack your bag!

Remove any tape, fold or cut your cardboard down and put it in your new blue bag. Don’t forget cardboard from other rooms like the bathroom (hello, loo rolls!) and please don’t put any cardboard that is heavily contaminated with food into this bag.
Put this bag out for collection with your other recycling on your collection day. Do not use this bag for any other materials or you risk it not being collected.

 

What happens to the cardboard that is recycled?

Cardboard can be recycled and transformed into new boxes in as little as 14 days! After we collect the card, it is sorted, baled and sent to the paper mill where it gets pulped, cleaned, sieved, dried and rolled. Finally, it is turned back into cardboard products and the cycle begins again.