Somerset Council and SUEZ Recycling News

Please use the links below to access the latest news from South West Partnership

Press release
For immediate release

Look out for your letter – changes to waste collection days are on the way

‘Look out for your letter’ is the message from Somerset Council as recycling and rubbish collection days change for 92,000 households in eastern parts of the county in June.
New collection routes are being introduced for many homes in the former South Somerset and Mendip districts.
Many households in these areas will have a change in collection days from the week beginning Monday 17 June 2024, following changes made to the rest of the county earlier this year.
Being brought in by the council’s contractor, SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, the new routes will make rounds more efficient, more manageable for crews while reducing mileage and carbon emissions. The changes come at no additional cost to the council.
Residents may have:

· a change to collection day

· a change in the week that their rubbish is collected (although will still be collected once every three weeks)

· a one-off additional collection of rubbish, to avoid residents going too long between collections.

If a household’s collection days are changing they will receive a letter in early May making this clear. This will be followed by a service guide – including a collection day calendar – ahead of the changes beginning in June. Look out for this and save it for future reference as this will show your new collection day.
If a household does not get a letter in May, there will be no changes to their collection days, but all households will still receive a service guide and 12-month collections calendar near the end of the month.
Residents who subscribe to the garden waste collection service are reminded that they will continue to get collections as per their original schedule. If households are due to renew their service, they should go ahead with this as planned.
There are also no changes to, clinical waste collections, or communal property collections with shared collections such as blocks of flats. Crews will still provide assisted collections.
Some households may have an additional one-off Saturday collection of their rubbish on either 15 or 22 June. This will be made clear in the letter they receive at the start of May and is to make sure no-one goes too long between rubbish collections as crews move to the new routes.
If there is no mention of an additional one-off collection of rubbish in the letter, then the household will not need one.

Councillor Dixie Darch, Executive Lead Member for Climate and Environment said: “Changes to recycling and rubbish collections have been designed to make the routes more manageable for crews, as well as being more environmentally friendly and cost effective.
“Look out for your letter and service guide and take note of your collection day. If you don’t receive a letter this means that your day is staying the same.
“The changes come at no additional cost to the council and will help towards making the county greener and more sustainable.
“Please make a note of your new collection day and possible interim rubbish collection. Crews can’t return for missed collections where bins are not out on the right day.”

Residents with questions about the changes can head to Somerset Council’s website for further information.

If residents have downloaded their collection calendar to a smartphone they will need to do this again after 17 June.

May bank holidays bring changes to waste collections

Somerset Council are reminding residents that waste collections will change during May as bank holidays start and end the month.

During the weeks beginning Monday 6 May, and Monday 27 May, collections of recycling, refuse and garden waste will be one day later than usual.

If your recycling and/or refuse is usually collected on a Monday, then it will be collected on a Tuesday, if your usual day is a Tuesday it will be collected on a Wednesday and so on.

This includes collections that would usually take place on Friday 10 May and Friday 31 May taking place on Saturday 11 May and Saturday 1 June respectively.

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 resident’s containers.

All 16 recycling sites will be open as usual at weekends, 9am to 4pm. And, if opening on a Monday is part of their normal opening pattern, they will be open on both Bank Holiday Mondays (6 May and 27 May), from 9am to 6pm. For opening times and to find a full list of what can be recycled please visit: www.somerset.gov.uk/recycling-collections

Press release
For immediate release‘Feed your family, not the bin’ say Somerset Council and SUEZ

This Food Waste Action Week, Somerset Council and SUEZ are helping the county’s Local Pantry members go the extra mile to reduce food waste.

Fridges set to the correct temperature can help food stay fresh for up to three days longer. Somerset Council and SUEZ recycling and recovery – the Council’s collections contractor – are providing a fridge thermometer to every food pantry member, helping families to keep their food at a cool 0°c to 5°c.

It’s not just keeping your fridge cool that can help prevent food waste, the nationwide ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign shares simple tips that can help everyone make the most of their food:

Create a weekly meal plan
Check your portions to avoid uneaten leftovers
Don’t put hot food straight in the fridge, let it cool first so it doesn’t increase the temperature
Keep fruit and vegetables in the fridge – it makes them last longer
Create an ‘eat me first’ space in the fridge – so you can keep tabs on food that needs using up

Cllr Dixie Darch, Executive Lead Member for Climate and Environment at Somerset Council said:

“Simple steps can help to prevent food waste, and importantly save money. We want to help families avoid unnecessary food waste, a simple way to start is by checking your fridge is at the correct temperature.

“When stored correctly, fresh food could last up to three days longer, providing opportunity to feed the family – and not the bin!”

Some food waste is unavoidable, it’s always best to use up what you can, but if it must go then recycling food waste is the next best thing.

Households in Somerset can recycle their food at the kerbside, with their weekly recycling collection. Last year 23,000 tonnes of food waste was recycled – but the waste in the general rubbish bins were filled with 21% food waste.

Food waste in Somerset is recycled in the county, via anaerobic digestion – it’s turned into fertiliser for farms and electricity that goes into the national grid.

According to ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’, a staggering 60% of the UK’s food waste come from our homes – that’s eight meals a week!

Food pantries in Somerset are thriving, with nine up and running across the county. The nine Local Pantries do a brilliant job of diverting surplus food from shops and local allotments, saving food which would have otherwise been thrown out.

Lily Morton, SUEZ recycling and recovery said:

“We are really pleased to be able to partner with the Somerset Local Pantry network. We hope that we can encourage their members to think about reducing food waste at home. This not only helps the environment but will also help people save money by stopping still good food going in the bin!

“Producing food and food products requires a huge amount of resources. This is why it’s particularly important to reduce food waste and where you can’t reduce, make use of the kerbside food waste recycling.”

The Local Pantry Network in Somerset

SLPN is a partnership between Somerset Council, local community groups, and food charity, FareShare South West.

Somerset Council provided initial grant money and support to help the launch of Local Pantries, but each pantry is independently run by voluntary sector groups, supporting each other as needed.

Food charity, Action Against Hunger, made a film about the Somerset pantries, highlighting the positive impact they make in communities. Watch it here: The Somerset Local Pantries Network (youtube.com).

Full details of SLPN can be found on The Local Pantry Network in Somerset page.

The Love Food, Hate Waste campaign is organised by WRAP, an international climate action Non-Governmental Organisation.

Somerset Council and SUEZ Partnership

This project is funded via Somerset Council and SUEZ’s Somerset Waste: Enhanced Environmental Performance (SW:EEP) fund.

The SW:EEP fund uses ring-fenced income from the sale of recyclable materials. The money is designated for the benefit of the community.

The partnership backs projects with aims that take action on climate change, behaviour change and positive community support (for example, groups who work to reduce food waste in their local communities).

CAG Somerset

Managed by Resource Futures, the CAG Somerset network is backed by Somerset Council and their waste contractor SUEZ recycling and recovery UK and provides free support to the network of Community Action Groups in Somerset. CAG Somerset can help groups looking to set up projects including pantries.

For more information, please contact the Press Office on 01823 355020 or email pressoffice@somerset.gov.uk.

To view all our news releases, please visit www.somerset.gov.uk/newsroom

The Somerset Council Communications Team are also on social media:

www.twitter.com/SomersetCouncil

www.facebook.com/SomersetCouncilUK

www.instagram.com/somersetcouncil

www.linkedin.com/company/somersetcouncil

https://nextdoor.co.uk/agency-detail/england/somerset/somerset-council/

www.tiktok.com/@somersetcouncil

www.youtube.com/@SomersetCouncilUK

To find out who the elected Somerset Councillor is for a particular area, simply visit www.writetothem.com

Somerset Council County Hall, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 4DY

Industrial action suspended

We can confirm that strike action by Somerset waste collection crews has been suspended for two weeks pending a union ballot.
Talks today between the Unite union and SUEZ recycling and recovery UK – the Council’s collections contractor – made progress and the union has agreed to ballot its membership on an improved pay offer.
The strike action that was planned to start on Wednesday (12 July) has been suspended pending the outcome of the ballot and all collections services should be running as normal.
Residents are asked to present their refuse, recycling and garden waste as usual.
There is a chance that tomorrow’s services may be compromised to some extent given the late notice of suspension of industrial action.
There is some way to go and a risk of industrial action remains, but the immediate widespread disruption to collections has been avoided.
The online garden waste form has been reinstated to take new subscriptions, renewals and requests for replacement garden waste bins. We are also taking requests for container deliveries.
In the coming days we will be working through reinstating bulk waste collections.
Please continue to use the www.somerset.gov.uk/strike website for the latest updates and advice.

SWP May 2023

SWP April 2023