Tuesday 9th April sees the new Stokes Croft food waste and recycling scheme launch.

A special deal for local traders in the area* has been negotiated for the Stokes Croft Traders and Business Group (SCT&BG) to secure an enhanced recycling scheme for all local businesses, in particular helping cafes and restaurants keep unavoidable food waste out of landfill and manage it responsibly.

The service was designed by local sustainability expert Martin Fodor.

The scheme will be launched for businesses to sign up at the SCT&BG meeting on Tuesday, 9th April, 6pm at the Full Moon in Stokes Croft, where businesses can sign up to join.

Participants will then secure a visit from the partners CollectEco, who will discuss arrangements and offer a welcome bonus service to each member joining.

The new service has been trialled by local trader Café Kino. Roxy Brennan from the café says “We are a workers co-operative, vegan cafe, committed to being part of the community and improving the world around us by using ethical businesses and products and recycling as much as possible. Working with CollectEco has been great – they’ve been very helpful, Steve is always available to contact and since piloting their food waste scheme we’ve managed to vastly reduce our general waste. We’d love other businesses in the area to use the scheme too and help to make Stokes Croft a greener and cleaner area.”

The first new business to join the sign up to the scheme will be award-winning sustainable restaurant Poco. Jennifer Best says “ Poco is looking forward to joining the new service. We’re running for the Observer Food Monthly Award for Best Ethical Restaurant – managing our waste and our sustainable behaviour is part of our bid.” Voting starts this month http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/foodmonthly

The service is being provided by CollectEco – Director Steve Sliney says: “We’re delighted to be working with the traders’ group to offer an enhanced service that allows such a high level of recycling including food waste for cafes and restaurants and other materials.”

The company ensures at least 90% of waste is reused or recycled, with compostable waste being treated in a system that creates methane for energy and a soil product through anaerobic digestion. Any non-recycled waste is converted to energy.

The scheme was created for the traders group by Martin Fodor, who saw the need after inquiries by a local café wishing to manage their wastes responsibly.

Martin says “It was clear that there’s plenty of scope to reduce waste and recycle almost everything produced by traders, but no one was working with them to solve this together. I visited businesses to assess their needs, devised the practical solution that addressed their issues, and have been delighted to work with the traders’ group to provide a viable service that’s good for the businesses, cuts waste, and helps improve the local environment.”

Martin has been supported by Business West’s Go Green project; a service funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Bristol City Council, which aims to help Bristol based businesses improve resource efficiency and save energy and money.

The Bristol Green Capital Partnership has also backed his work to extend the project across the city as part of its drive to make Bristol the European Green Capital.

The new service is being promoted to members of the Stokes Croft Traders and Business Group now and will be extended to a wider area of the city once it is running regularly.

END

Notes for the editor

*The area of the service currently covers Stokes Croft, Cheltenham Road, Picton Street and other areas nearby.

The scheme is for cafes, restaurants and others with compostable waste, plus a comprehensive recycling scheme that’s open to all other traders in the area. Almost all materials can be collected by arrangement. Advice on waste reduction and reports of what traders achieve together is also part of the scheme, enabling this area to reduce waste costs and landfill tax, make environmental improvements to streets, and publicise what the scheme achieves. It also cuts unnecessary vehicle movements in the area and reduces bins cluttering pavements, so improving the amenity for the community.

Café Kino contact: Roxy Brennan, eat@cafe-kino.com, 0117 9249200.

Poco contact: Jennifer Best, jenbest@eatpoco.com, 0117 923 2233
Poco won the Sustainable Restaurant Association Environmental award this year.

CollectEco contact: Steve Sliney, 07748 585 861 or 0117 941 5887.

Stokes Croft Traders’ and Business Group is coordinated by Destination Bristol

Contact Eva Stuetzenberger: eva.stuetzenberger@destinationbristol.co.uk, 0117 929 0484

Business West’s Go Green scheme contact Nina Skubala, nina.skubala@businesswest.co.uk, 07500 668659
The Go Green Improving your resource efficiency service is funded by Bristol City Council and the European Regional Development Fund.

Bristol Green Capital Partnership contact Darren Hall, darren.hall@bristolgreencapital.org, 0117 9222170 or 07585307354

Martin Fodor: 07905 340972