Recycling and black plastic

The new recycling system is pretty much all rolled out across Cotham now.  We got our green box a couple of weeks ago and we had our wheelie bins swapped for smaller ones this week... after a bit of a false start where they took the old ones and forgot to give us new ones!

It's fantastic that people can now recycling plastic and Tetrapaks from the houses without having to travel to one of the recycling points around the city.  This has boosted Bristol's recycling rate over 50% for the first time - a far cry from when the Lib Dems first came to power in the city, when it was languishing around 10%.

There are still a few teething problems locally, so do let me or Anthony know if something's not working properly for you and we'll pass it on to the powers that be.  If you want more info about what can be recycled and how, see the Council's webpages on the topic.

One particular oddity that has come up is that one type of rigid plastic that can't be recycled (thin films can't) is black plastic.  There is a sciency reason for this, which is that the light-based technology that sorts plastics into different colours when it gets to the recycling plant can't spot black!  Weird, isn't it?  This is a known scientific challenge and it's likely to be solved at some point.  In the meantime, please put it in your wheelie bins - it will be composted instead of recycled.

Yellow lines and 20mph

Regular readers will know that Anthony and I have been working for the last couple of years on a project to improve road safety in Cotham - the Cotham Parking Review.

After a series of delays, I'm delighted to report that the yellow lines on junctions and corners are now going in.  The pic to the left shows my own road getting done earlier this week.  It's so much better now - no cars parked across the pavement, sticking out into the road or blocking sight lines for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike.  It's important to remember that this project has not been about removing legitimate parking space, but those areas that fall foul of the Highway Code and shouldn't be being used anyway.

The contractors that are painting the lines are doing it piecemeal as opportunities arise.  They are struggling a little as people keep moving the cones that they've put down.  This means that there are some 'hanging' lines out and about at the moment, but rest assured that they will all be linked up eventually.  And if you're parking in Cotham, please don't move or ignore the cones!

In related news, I'm also happy to report that Cotham is slated to be in the first wave of 20mph areas.  This is something that we've been pushing for over the last few years.  The pilots in Bedminster and Ashley have been successful and so are now being rolled out across the city.  This will be another positive step towards making our residential streets a more human, safe and pleasant place to be.

I don't have an exact timetable for the implementation of the 20mph zone yet, but I think we are looking at the period around the end of 2012 - more information when I have it.