April 2025

Latest news

Once you pop, you can't stop... recycling! Recycle your Pringles tubes from home

Pringles has changed the packing for its iconic tube, and we can now collect them for recycling rather than condemning them to the rubbish bin. The old metal bases have been replaced with paper, making it easier for re-processors to recycle.

The tube should be placed in the black box with cardboard, while the plastic lid can go in the reusable bright blue bag with other plastics. The seal remains unrecyclable and should be put in the general rubbish bin. The change only applies to Pringles branded packaging, and residents can check it is the newer packaging by making sure it does not have a metal base. At this time, other similar style tubes and tubs (like those used for hot chocolate or cocoa) can’t be collected for recycling from home due to the mixed materials they are made with.

Easter collections

The long Easter weekend on 18 to 21 April means your recycling and rubbish collections will be a day later. There won’t be collections on Friday 18 April or Monday 21 April.

If you usually have a Friday collection, it will move to Saturday, 19 April.

Collections resume on Tuesday 22 April, and will be a day later all week.

To help crews speed up collections, please put your boxes, bags and bins out by 7am on the day of collection, or the night before.

With waste collections a day later a higher volume of waste is likely. Squashing, crushing and flattening waste can help to reduce the number of trips that teams need to make to empty their trucks, as well as creating more space in your containers.

51 tonnes of plastic bags and wrapping out of the bin thanks to Somerset residents

We’ve been part of the national Government funded trial to collect plastic bags and wrapping since May 2023. Around 26,000 residents in the east of the county have taken part and together have helped to save 51 tonnes of plastic from the bin.

Households have been filling 15-litre bags with wrappers - like those used for crisp packets, vegetables or cereal. Around 217,000 bags of plastic have been collected.

As part of the Government’s new Simpler Recycling law, collection of plastic bags and wrapping will be expanded across the county and all households in the UK will need to be offered the service by April 2027.

Recycled plastic bags and wrapping can be used to make a range of new plastic products such as, plastic packaging, ‘bags for life’, boxes, bins, and agricultural and construction materials.

Residents who are not part of the trial can take their plastic bags and wrapping to local recycling points, often found in supermarkets. Use Recycle Now’s search function to find locations.

Reuse

A new reuse shop for Glastonbury

Volunteers from Glastonbury Re-use Shop, SCF, CAG Somerset and SUEZ

Funding from Somerset Council and SUEZ recycling and recovery UK’s ‘Waste Not Somerset fund’ has helped a new reuse shop to open. The shop opened in early March and is run by a small group of local volunteers.

The Re-use Shop accepts donations of items from the local community and, where possible, fixes them to make them usable again.

Household items are also available to buy at a reduced cost, with new stock added depending on donations received. The public are also welcome to donate their pre-loved items for resale.

Funds from the sold items will be used to benefit other local groups and organisations invested in reducing waste and CO₂.

The shop will initially be open weekly at the Red Brick Building in Glastonbury on Fridays and Sundays, from 10am to midday (subject to volunteer availability).

For updates follow the Re-use Shop on social media.

Fixy on the road

Fixy is on a mission to make repair and reuse the norm, not the exception. Our van visits events to engage with locals and promote volunteer-run repair groups. At these events, you can:

• Donate unwanted smart tech: Bring your old laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and other smart devices to a Fixy event. All donations are securely wiped and refurbished by Donate IT, a local charity, and distributed to those in need, helping to reduce digital poverty.
• Get involved with repair groups: Learn about local repair groups and how you can volunteer or just find your local one to bring an item along to be fixed.

The team will be collecting your pre-loved smart tech at their upcoming events. The team can accept anything from smart watches and tablets to games consoles. For a full list visit the Fixy webpage.

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 to be reused.

Computer monitors, TVs, display screens and printers are not accepted. You can offer these for reuse at online sites like Freegle (visit our Pass it on webpage) or take to your local recycling site.

Get it sorted!

Please help to keep our crews safe

In just the last few weeks, 15 knives have been found by the team on their picking line. The knives are a serious risk for the crews collecting recycling from the kerb and sorting materials on picking lines.

Knives cannot be recycled from home and should be handled carefully when being disposed of. Residents wishing to get rid of old kitchen knives should wrap them up, or place in a cardboard box, then bag up with their general waste and add to the bin.

Kitchen knives can also be disposed of at a recycling centre by placing in the recycling skip for metals.

Garden waste

Our Garden Waste subscription service is now back online. We're sorry for the delay and inconvenience caused during the outage. A technical issue meant the service has been unavailable. If you'd like to start or renew a garden waste subscription, you can do this online via our Garden waste collections page.

Recycling sites now open 'till 6pm midweek

All sites are open from 9am to 4pm on weekends. Midweek, sites are now open from 9am to 6pm. Opening days vary from site to site, check online before you visit. Want to avoid the queues? Recycling sites can get busy, if you are planning to visit your local site might have a queue cam. There are Q-cams at Bridgwater (Saltlands), Chard, Highbridge, Minehead, Street, Taunton (Priorswood),Wellington (Poole), Wells (Dulcote), and Yeovil (opening days for these sites vary). Visit our Recycling site queue cameras page to view all 9 cameras.