SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
What does the data show?
The data generally suggests improvements in Bristol’s material footprint over the past three years. While the recycling rate only increased modestly between since the previous VLR, this was accompanied by a 9% reduction in the proportion of Bristol’s municipal waste sent to landfill over the same period, from 19.9% in 2018 to 10.9% in 2021.
While residual household waste per household has decreased by 12.7kg since 2018, Bristol city’s total collected waste has been rising since 2018, from 181,878 tonnes per annum to 197,801, a 10% increase to 2021.
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
Although these has been a general improvement in the city’s material footprint over the past three years, Bristol’s total collected waste increased by 10% between 2018 and 2021.
What Bristol is doing
Sustainable Food Places award
Partnerships in Bristol are working to reform practices associated with consumption. In recognition of Bristol’s efforts in this area, Sustainable Food Places awarded the city with Gold Sustainable Food Places status in 2021. Bristol is one of only two places in the UK to receive this accolade.
Reduction of carbon emissions
The Bristol Green Capital Partnership, which consists of over 1,000 partners, aims to reduce carbon emissions with the objective of reforming consumption.
Growing, recycling and composting
The Bristol Food Network has played a part in addressing consumptive practices through numerous community-centred projects which promote consumption of organically grown food, recycling, composting and the sustainable redistribution of food waste. A recent citywide partnership project with Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University has also been working to tackle food waste with collaboration as a key focus of its work.
Bristol City Council also recently opened its third recycling centre. The centre also hosts the third of Bristol’s reuse shops. These shops divert good-condition, fit-for-purpose items from the waste stream to be sold as second-hand buying options, reducing the quantity of waste the city produces, helping to shrink the material footprint of the city and encouraging a more circular approach to the city’s economy.