South Gloucestershire Council has announced that it is to build a new £6.5 million Sort It centre and waste management complex at a site off North Way in Filton.
The new facility, which should be operational from 2023, will improve recycling services for residents and increase capacity to manage household waste from the growing communities in the Cribbs Patchway New Neighbourhood, which includes Charlton Hayes and planned new developments on the former Filton Airfield.
Back in 2016, the council disclosed that it was in talks to acquire land on the former Rolls-Royce East Works site (now known as Horizon 38) to use as the site of a new waste facility for the North Fringe. However, a recent report to Cabinet revealed that this plan had now been dropped and permission was sought, and duly granted, to instead purchase the Viridor waste processing plant on the nearby North Bristol Park industrial estate, which is also home to the NHS Blood and Transplant facility and a Safestore self-storage warehouse.
Initially, Viridor will continue to operate from the site, but after they vacate in 2021, the council will demolish the existing facilities and deliver:
- A new transfer station – where collection vehicles can drop off waste collected from households
- A new Sort It centre – to serve residents who currently use the Little Stoke site; providing an improved facility as well as meeting the needs of expanding local communities
- A depot for waste vehicles – allowing collection trucks to be based closer to the areas they serve, reducing traffic movements and their impact on local roads and the environment
The council says it will also explore the option of a ‘reuse shop’, whereby certain unwanted but serviceable items can be safety tested by its staff and made available for sale second-hand.
Once the new facility is complete, to modern standards similar to the recently redeveloped and improved Sort It centres at Mangotsfield and Yate, the existing Little Stoke Sort It centre will be closed.
Cabinet member for tourism and communities, Cllr Paul Hughes, said:
“We are a growing community and we are committed to growing sustainably and it is important that we invest now for the future infrastructure to support new communities as well as existing residents.”
“By redeveloping this site, we will be able to manage waste and recycling services closer to the growth areas around Filton. It will help us further improve residents’ experience of the recycling service because the new Sort It centre will be larger than at Little Stoke. We are already recycling more than 51 percent of our household waste and we’re well on the way to reaching our 60 percent target.”
“The new facility will have the capacity to manage the extra waste that comes from new homes and its location will reduce the number and length of journeys taken by the trucks across the district to collect waste and recyclable materials.”
Since the implementation of the council’s Waste Strategy 2015-2019, which saw the change to weekly recycling and smaller black bins, South Gloucestershire now recycles 51.6 percent of all household waste, with an extra 4,495 tonnes of recycling being collected since January 2018.
Location map: Viridor, Filton (Google Maps)
Photo: The Viridor waste processing plant in Filton.
This article originally appeared in the April 2019 issue of the Stoke Gifford Journal magazine (on page 9). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to over 5,000 homes in Stoke Gifford, Little Stoke and Harry Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
