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Sorted!
Waste news
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Schools Against Waste lesson
Our Schools Against Waste programme recently celebrated reaching 60,000 pupils with its popular waste-reduction lessons. Delivered on behalf of the Council by Carymoor Environmental Trust, the Schools Against Waste (SAW) team help to raise awareness amongst children and staff, encouraging everyone to practise the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
The programme began in 2018, and last year the team reached the milestone of 60,000 schoolchildren in Somerset having learnt about recycling, waste reduction and how to properly sort materials.
As well as reaching the milestone, in 2024 the team:
- visited 38 schools
- reached 4,600 children in assemblies workshops and learning days
- delivered 90 workshops engaging 2,325 children
We know many children are advocates for recycling at home. It’s great to see the next generation enjoy learning about where their recycling goes.
Teachers in Somerset have praised the SAW team and the most frequent feedback received is that the sessions are “informative, engaging, and fun”, with staff praised as: “enthusiastic, engaging, and knowledgeable”.
The team have begun developing an electricals reuse, repair and recycling workshop.
Schools that would like to sign up for a free assembly and lesson can find out more via the Carymoor website.
Do your waste collections follow the new Simpler Recycling rules?
A change in law means that from this April, all businesses with more than 10 full-time equivalent employees across all sites need to have a recycling collection that includes certain materials.
The Simpler Recycling regulations aim to boost recycling rates and reduce confusion about what’s accepted for recycling – whether at home or at work.
If you run a business with more than 10 full-time equivalent employees across all sites, you need to be ready for the change by 1 April 2025.
Materials need to be separated as:
- General rubbish, (non-recyclable waste)
- Food waste
- Paper and card
- All other recyclables: cartons, glass bottles and jars, food tins and drinks cans, foil and aerosols, plastic bottles and pots tubs and trays
Speak to your waste collector to make sure your collections are compliant.
The Simpler Recycling regulations are designed to create a consistent recycling system across England. This means that businesses, schools, hospitals, places of worship and other organisations and all households across England will need to collect the same materials (listed above) as a minimum.
Smaller businesses (with fewer than ten full-time employees have until the end of March 2027 to comply with the new regulations.
Find more information online via our website or through the Business of Recycling website.
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The popular reuse shop based at Taunton’s Priorswood Recycling Site recently reopened. The shop promotes reuse by stopping items that still have life from being recycled or thrown out, helping them find a new home, reducing demand for new items and saving precious materials.
The Reuse Shop can take and offer good quality items, from books, bikes, toys, games, furniture, CDs, DVDs and sports equipment to crockery and cutlery. Electrical or gas appliances, or safety related items such as those needed for working at height or head protection cannot be taken.
For those who are not local to Taunton, there are many other ways to reuse and we still encourage people to donate to charity shops and furniture reuse groups or to give items away on Freecycle or Freegle.
In case you missed the buzz last month, we can now accept empty toothpaste tubes for recycling via the bright blue bag!
As part of this announcement we were pleased to be asked to join BBC Somerset’s breakfast show alongside WRAP, the leading independent body advocating improved recycling. We are one of the first councils to collect toothpaste tubes for recycling and delighted that our efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.
To help with the recycling process, please make sure to squeeze as much out of them as possible, that way we’re just left with the plastic.
Check that your toothpaste tubes are made from recyclable materials. Most toothpaste tubes are, but it’s always good to double-check – look for the 'Recycle' symbol.
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Fixy will be continuing its tour of Somerset, promoting all things repair and reuse. The team will also be collecting your pre-loved smart tech. The team can accept anything from smart watches and tablets to games consoles. For a full list visit the Fixy webpage.
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Date and time
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Event
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Location
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Saturday 8 February 2025, 11am to 1pm
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Tech Amnesty with Shepton Mallet Repair Café
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The Art Bank, High Street, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5AA
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Saturday 15 February 2025, 10am to midday
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Tech Amnesty with Glastonbury Repair Café
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St Benedict’s Church, Benedict St, Glastonbury, BA6 9NB
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Saturday 22 February 2025, 10am to midday
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Tech Amnesty with Street Repair Café
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Street Quaker Meeting House, 36 High Street, Street, BA16 0EB
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Saturday 8 March 2025, 10am to 12.30pm
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Tech Amnesty at Victoria Park Community Centre
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Victoria Park Community Centre, Victoria Park Drive, Bridgwater, TA6 7AS
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Please make sure your device is unlocked (not password protected), and any Apple devices are removed from the owner’s iCloud account. This helps donations be reused.
Computer monitors, TVs, display screens and printers are not accepted. You can offer these for reuse at online sites like Freegle (see our website for some local groups) or take to your local recycling site.
With spring just around the corner, now is the perfect time to sign up for a Garden Waste collection.
Signing up provides a convenient way to get your garden waste recycled. You can include grass cuttings, flowers and plants, hedge trimmings, leaves, small branches and sawdust.
If you subscribe before 1 April 2025, its just £68 per year for a fortnightly wheeled bin collection. Or for a pay-as-you-go service, you can buy packs of 10 compositable sacks for £36.50 and request collections when needed.
Garden waste is turned into soil improver right here in Somerset and is available to buy at all of Somerset’s 16 Recycling Sites.
 We ask you to put clean recycling out for collection – but just a small rinse is all it needs before it goes in the box or bag!
It's nicer for the crews and means...
- Less mess in your recycling containers
- Will not attract pets, wildlife, vermin, wasps or flies
- Easier and cleaner for you to squash plastic items, scrunch foil, and - if safe - crush cans
- Less unpleasant for your hard-working collections crew
- Firms recycling the waste want high-quality and low-contamination materials
Rinsing takes almost no time, and costs nothing if you rinse the items in the last of your washing up water.
Once rinsed, scrunch foil, put tops back on glass bottles and jars, squash and put tops back on cartons/Tetra Paks and plastic bottles, stack-nest-squash plastic pots, tubs and trays, and - if safe - crush cans and tins.
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Please be careful when disposing of any sharps, hypodermic needles or syringes in your waste. We have recently found these materials with recycling collections, and at recycling sites – this is not a safe way to get rid of these materials and is dangerous for our teams.
Sharps and other clinical waste should be disposed of via a clinical waste collection. You can request a free clinical waste collection online.
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If you get an assisted collection you will soon receive an email or letter asking you to re-confirm that you need assistance. We know that things change, so we regularly review this service.
We are happy to continue to provide this service if you still need it, however we need you to let us know - you can do this online.
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