Campaigns

Bringing back the sparkle

We are working together with Bristol City Council, residents and businesses to bring the sparkle back to Bristol!

flare-blue
Big Tidy street cleansing crew

Bristol cleans up lovely

The Big Tidy crew is made up of street cleansers, graffiti removal experts, enforcement officers and community engagement officers. Since its launch in October 2019, the crew have deep cleaned over 1,823 streets across the city, removed over 11,000 graffiti tags and cleared a staggering 815 fly-tips. They continue to bring back the sparkle daily to areas of Bristol.

Report a street issue

Big Tidy Businesses

Businesses play an important part in the Big Tidy! By organising team litter picks, working with customers to clean up local streets, or chatting with other shops to make sure they bring their bins in, there’s lots for our brilliant Bristol businesses to do to bring the sparkle back to the city. Contact the Big Tidy team to get involved.

Contact us

Little Big Tidiers

Children can also join in with our Little Big Tidiers scheme! Litter picking is a great way to get outside with the family, and as a Little Big Tidier your child completes 6 litter picks (with a special prize at the end!) Register your child here and our team will send you a loyalty card to record your picks.

Register here!

Big Tidy Hartcliffe!

In Spring 2021, our team of street cleansers, graffiti removal experts, and officers from Bristol City Council and Bristol Waste partnered with Housing Officers, bringing the sparkle back to 18 locations in Hartcliffe. The crew cut back overgrown bushes, cleared fly-tips, litter picked, jet-washed walls and replaced broken bins. A real deep clean of the area!

Artist Jenny Simmons painting the walls of Easton Leisure Centre

Bringing the sparkle back

Our team of community engagement officers have spoken to more than 5,800 residents and businesses across the city. They have held community events, such as the Easton Leisure Centre paint-out, and supported a whopping 90 litter picks. Want to get involved? Litter picking is a great way to start!

Start litter picking
A group of Bristol Waste and Bristol City Council members, including Mayor Marvin Rees, pose in front of a Big Tidy street cleaning vehicle.

Join in with a Big Tidy pledge!

We can all do our bit to help keep Bristol clean and green, and keep our neighbourhoods safe and welcoming for everyone. Make your Big Tidy pledge today and do at least one thing to help keep your neighbourhood clean and tidy; it could be reporting fly-tips to the council, helping a neighbour bring their bins in, or organising a community event.

Make a Big Tidy pledge

Bristol's Big Tidy

The Big Tidy is part of the Bristol City Council and Bristol Waste Company Bristol Clean Streets campaign to make our streets cleaner and greener. The project was launched by Mayor Marvin Rees in 2019 and has already made big improvements to more than 1,800 streets across Bristol.

Locations are selected for the Big Tidy based on data including the local environmental quality survey, quality of life survey, fly-tips removed, litter tonnages and reporting.

Bristol's got its sparkle back!

From massive litter picks to serious clean-up jobs, we’re celebrating everything the Big Tidy project has achieved in the past three years! Watch the video to find out what bringing the sparkle back to Bristol looks like.

A message from the Mayor

“I launched the Big Tidy to address the continuing problems of littering, graffiti and fly-tipping across the city. The Big Tidy teams help tackle these issues in areas where we know there is a significant problem.

Bringing the sparkle back to an area isn’t as simple as cleaning up a street and thinking that the problem is solved. Residents have to feel ownership of their streets and take pride in them. This is why we have engagement officers on the Big Tidy team encouraging positive behaviour changes and enforcement offers to discourage illegal activities such as fly-tipping and tagging. Thanks to this community approach and the support of Bristol residents, businesses and volunteer groups, the Big Tidy has already made a visible difference to our streets.

These are issues that people care deeply about. We remain determined to clean up the city and challenge the behaviour of people who think it is acceptable to disrespect the city and its residents.”

– Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees

Where has the Big Tidy visited so far?

Ashley

Southville

Bedminster

Easton

Eastville

Filwood

Hartcliffe and Withywood

Hengrove and Whitchurch Park

Avonmouth

Lawrence Weston

Central

Bishopston

Cotham

Southmead

St Pauls

Redland

Southmead

Bishopsworth

Hotwells and Harbourside

Stoke Bishop

Horfield

Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze

Lawrence Hill

Henbury and Brentry

Knowle

St George Central

St George Troopers Hill

Brislington West

Brislington East

Stockwood

Frome Vale

Hillfields

Windmill Hill

Big Tidy FAQ

All your questions about the Big Tidy, a joint project from Bristol City Council and Bristol Waste.

  • 1,800+ streets, footpaths and bridges sparkling again
  • Over 11,000 tags cleared walls, bridges, benches and bollards
  • More than 750 tonnes of litter, fly-tip and detritus collected
  • 800+ fly-tips cleared and investigated
  • 7,000+ residents and businesses engaged by our community engagement team
  • 1,196 volunteers completed 90 community litter picks
  • 41 Big Tidy community events

Data collected from September 2019 – March 2023

The Big Tidy teams will be visiting priority streets in wards across Bristol. Specific locations within each ward are chosen for based on data including the local environmental quality survey, quality of life survey, fly-tips removed, litter tonnages, and reporting.

As of March 2023, the Big Tidy street cleansing, graffiti removal and community engagement teams have carried out work in 34 wards.

Keep an eye on our social media channels to find out where the Big Tidy crew are currently working. If the Big Tidy is coming to your street, you may receive a letter from one of our friendly community engagement officers telling you the location-specific work we’ll be carrying out in your area.

We’re inviting everyone to join in with the Big Tidy by making a Big Tidy pledge to help bring the sparkle back to their street. Pledges can be as simple as picking up the next piece of litter you see and putting it in the bin (or even better, take it home with you to be recycled).

Children can also get involved with our Little Big Tidiers scheme! Litter picking is a great way to get outside with the family, and as a Little Big Tidier your child completes 6 litter picks (with a special prize at the end!) Register your child here and our team will send you a loyalty card to record your picks.

There are loads of ways for you community group to join in the Big Tidy: invite our community engagement officers to speak at your next meeting, organise a Big Tidy litter pick, tell us about the issues in your area, teach your community how to report issues such as flytipping and flyposting, tagging, litter, and streets that need cleaning; tell your network about the campaign on social media, and finally – make a Big Tidy pledge! Don’t forget to use the Big Tidy hashtags on social media: #BristolCleanStreets and #BigTidy

We’d love for your school to join in the Big Tidy! Here are just some ideas for taking part: Invite our community engagement officers to speak at a school assembly, organise a litter pick in the area around your school, let us know what the issues are in your area, tell your network about the campaign on social media, and finally – make a Big Tidy pledge! Don’t forget to use the Big Tidy hashtags on social media: #BristolCleanStreets and #BigTidy

Start by making a Big Tidy pledge! Tell us about the issues in your area, speak to our community engagement officers about your legal obligations for managing commercial waste, and report litter, tagging, fly-tipping and fly-posting to Bristol City Council. Contact the Big Tidy team at bigtidy@bristolwastecompany.co.uk and we’ll chat with you about pledge ideas.