Mingling with Bristol’s green minds

On Thursday 7th August we headed down to Bordeaux Quay to the Green Mingle to meet some of the people who are making Bristol European Green Capital happen. The event is on the first Thursday of every month and gives like minded eco-concerned individuals the chance to mingle and find out what is going on in our green city. The atmosphere was great and after grabbing a beer at the bar we delved into the crowd to try and do our best mingling. We were fortunate enough to meet some lovely people, including Demian, a surveyor from Gleeds, who is trying to encourage more sustainable practices in his firm. We also met the lovely Anna from Pukka Herbs who spoke to us about the possibilities of reducing waste from drinks companies by returning glass containers to be refilled and the potential issues with chemicals and bacteria that make this very difficult. Anna also discussed some of the important changes bigger supermarkets are making to the way they treat waste and plastics and why it is important to recognise this as well as promoting local businesses. This is something we will be looking into further very shortly.

We were then introduced to the couple in the photo below. Edward works at Nextek- sustainable solutions for polymers and recycling, and his wife is part of the Earth Champions Foundation. Edward talked to us about a new type of plastic that is currently being trialled in Kent. Apparently the reason that black plastics can’t be recycled is because the infra-red systems used in mechanical recycling can’t respond to black plastic effectively to sort it. This new type of black plastic which is actually a dark shade of red, will provide a solution to this conundrum. He also told us about the possibilities of certain types of plastics being glow in the dark to make sorting plastics even simpler.

Overall the evening was good fun and we met some very interesting and approachable people. We will definitely be making an effort to attend as many of the mingles as possible and would recommend that anyone who has an interest in European Green Capital and wants to find out more should attend one of these evenings too!