Drinks Cartons Can Now be Recycled in Bristol

Bristol residents keen to recycle have historically been frustrated by the problem of waxed drinks cartons, which have been rejected from black box collections as unsuitable for recycling.

Bristol City Council's announcement that 5 collection points for drinks cartons have been installed is therefore welcome news.

The new sites are at:

• Asda Bedminster (East Street)
• Asda Whitchurch (Oatlands Avenue)
• Tesco Eastville (Eastgate Centre)
• Tesco Brislington (Callington Road)
• Tesco Golden Hill (Kellaway Avenue)

Drinks cartons are typically made of 74% paper, 22% polythene and 4% aluminium and have traditionally been regarded as difficult to recycle.

The new sites are the result of a partnership between the Council and Tatra Pak, one of the largest suppliers of waxed drinks cartons. All bands of cartons are accepted at the new facilities.

The announcement comes at the start of National Recycling Week when WRAP (the Waste and Recycling Action Programme) are urging households and businesses to think about "one more thing" that they could add to their recycling box on a regular basis. While kitchen recycling is high in most households, items from bedrooms and bathrooms are routinely overlooked.

WRAP's research has revealed the top five items that could but are generally not recycled:

1. aerosol containers for deodorant, air freshener or polish
2. biscuit and sweet tins
3. plastic shampoo and toiletry bottles
4. plastic bottles of cleaning products, eg bleach, cleaner or disinfectants
5. glass jars, such as those for cooking sauces

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Bedminster Murder Enquiry

Driving across the city this evening, I turned a corner and found myself facing about a dozen police officers, the first three of whom were standing in the road and stopping the traffic.

My immediate thoughts, fearful person that I am, were "Is the insurance up to date and are the tires bald?"

The police, of course, had bigger fish to fry and were stopping motorists on St John's Lane in Bedminster to ask whether they had been in the area at the same time last Saturday when Alan Riddock was brutally attacked outside the Park House pub around 8 pm. Father of two Mr Riddock died of his injuries later that night at Frenchay Hospital. His companion who was also attacked is recovering from his injuries.

Police have charged Luke Churchley, aged 19, with murder, and released on bail pending further enquiries a 30-year-old man and 27-year-old man. On Friday, three more men were arrested in connection with the murder.

Despite the arrests, the police this evening were still keen to speak to witnesses who may have been in the area last Saturday night and have not yet spoken with police.

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The Southville Problem

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have noticed a growing tendency for Ashton to find itself called Southville, especially by newcomers to the area.

At one level, this is an understandable mistake. The three neighbourhoods of Southville, Bedminster and Ashton do have convoluting boundaries - similar to those dividing Bishopston, St Andrews and Horfield in the Gloucester Road area of North Bristol.

Confusion cannot be enough, however, to explain this phenomenon. There is a more sinister cause of this geographical confusion.

It started about three or four years ago when property prices were racing ahead and when estate agents in Clifton started to take on properties outside their normal areas to respond to the demand from buyers for city centre homes at affordable prices. One day someone in an estate agent's office somewhere on Whiteladies Road thought aloud and suggested referring to this neighbourhood as "Lower Clifton."

Apart from being an outrageous piece of marketing, this action also set in motion a trend that resulted in Southville being pushed south and west into Ashton (in the minds of first time buyers considering relocating there. )

The rest, as they say is history and now we have North Street Ashton regularly described as being in Southville, when for at least a century it has been in Ashton.

Shopping for Greener Food in Bristol - part 2

First stop, North Street Ashton. I know people want to call it Southville or Bedminster but it’s not. It’s Ashton. That’s the same place as the Bristol City Football Ground, Greville Smyth Park and Winterstoke Road. It’s Ashton. I have a theory about why there is a groundswell of opinion wanting to describe North Street as Southville, but that’s for another post. Suffice to say here that such people are misguided.

North Street (Ashton) is home to the rather fine but puzzlingly-named Southville Deli, a clean, friendly food store with aluminium tables and chairs on the pavement outside. I was pleasantly surprised at the prices of the pulses and stocked up on my soup ingredients and Herbert’s bread before heading up the road to the Ashton Fruit Shop, a fine example of a retail establishment that knows exactly what it sells and, important in this instance, where it is.

Neither lemons, satsumas or English apples were on my shopping list, but all made their way into my basket, along with a lettuce for 35 pence, the largest cucumber I have ever purchased and some nicely priced root vegetables. For £5 I reckon I bought enough veg for winter hot pot for 6. That's right, count them: 6 people live in my home – no we’re not a commune, we’re a biological family plus a Taiwanese lodger.

Next stop, and a long walk to the other end of North Street, was Masalas. Call me old fashioned, but for some reason with a name like that I was expecting a shop with at least a hint of Asian influence. What I found was a western hippy food store and cafe – complete with a pungent aroma of joss sticks, a white-haired man sitting in the window and assorted individuals lounging on sofas and chairs at the back of the shop. It wasn’t clear to me whether they were customers or staff.

The environment took me back to a restaurant my father used to take me to in Exeter when I was a lad. The Iron Bridge, between St David’s Station and the main shopping centre was a haven for Exeter’s long hair community in the 1970s and was, incidentally, the first place I ever tried nut roast.

The woman behind the counter at Masalas was a little unsure of the price or contents of the various home-made food stuffs on display. Despite or because of that, I came away with 6 pitta bread for 99 pence and a carton of vegetable curry for £2.95. Both were delicious and, when I added rice and salad at home, fed four adults.