Recycling changes

Recycling Centre opening hours changes reminder

On 1 April, all recycling centres will start their new opening schedule, with later hours – to 6pm on open summer weekdays, 5pm in winter – and full weekend opening to 4pm on both Saturday and Sundays.

To check when your local recycling site is open, please click here.

In brief:
• All 16 sites will open every Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 4pm all year.
• Later weekday closing in summer (6pm Apr-Sep) and winter (5pm Oct-Mar) 
• All sites will start work at 9am reflecting low user numbers early in the day, 
• An end to underused 7pm Monday evenings
• Same or extra days open at 10 sites, including an extra day at both Chard and Wells (Dulcote)

Site by site new opening timetables:
• Bridgwater (Saltlands): Open daily except Wed
• Castle Cary (Dimmer): Open daily except Wed-Thu-Fri
• Chard: Open daily except Wed
• Cheddar: Open daily except Thu-Fri
• Crewkerne: Open Sat-Sun-Mon
• Dulverton: Open Sat-Sun
• Frome: Open seven days a week
• Highbridge: Open daily except Mon-Tue
• Minehead: Open daily except Tue
• Somerton: Open daily except Mon-Tue
• Street: Open daily except Thu-Fri
• Taunton (Priorswood): Open seven days a week
• Wellington (Poole): Open daily except Mon-Tue
• Wells (Dulcote): Open daily except Tue
• Williton: Open daily except Wed-Thu-Fri
• Yeovil: Open seven days a week

Recycling centre sign
 

How to keep your garden waste collections

Garden waste subscribers are reminded that they need to re-subscribe to ensure continued collection from April.  You should have received a letter from your local council with details of the prices and how to subscribe.  If not received, contact your local council customer services.

Fortnightly kerbside pick-ups in wheeled bins or compostable paper sacks are good value when compared to the cost and time of taking garden waste to a recycling site.  After being shredded and composted in massive windrows, garden waste from Somerset is sold as Revive soil improver and is available to purchase in 40L sacks from all recycling sites.

Garden waste bin
 

Our Business Plan

SWP publishes a rolling five-year Business Plan, explaining our “vision” for the next five years, with a focus on the current year.

Key focus areas of the plan are delivering excellent services, changing behaviour and building our capacity. To view the latest version covering our projects, campaigns, timetable, and how we plan to deliver these,click here.

Plastic bottle tops

While plastic bottles are recycled through kerbside collections and recycling sites in Somerset (over 3338 tonnes in 2017-18 or around 73 million bottles), concerns about contamination and problems with baling machinery means that residents are asked to rinse and squash plastic bottles, and to discard bottle tops for both kerbside collected bottles and those recycled at sites.

Outlets for plastic bottle tops are hard to find, especially now that LUSH have withdrawn their freepost collection service.  If you have been saving them, please note that LUSH will no longer accept them by post, but you can still hand deliver small quantities of small bottle tops to their high street stores, such as the LUSH outlet in Taunton.  For all queries, do check withLUSH customer services

For more on kerbside collections, recycling sites, and much more, from cutting food waste to using cloth nappies, and from taking action on plastics to defending yourself against fly-tippers, see the SWP website here.

Plastic bottle tops

More on Somerset Waste Partnership, our services and preventing waste

See our website for lots more information on waste and recycling services and what more you can to do to reduce, reuse and recycle. Contact your local council customer services helpline if you need assistance with our services.

You have been sent this newsletter because you asked Somerset Waste Partnership to keep you updated on recycling.  If you no longer wish to receive these bulletins click on the Unsubscribe link below.

Somerset Waste Partnership, Broughton House, Blackbrook Park Avenue, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 2PR

Website: www.somersetwaste.gov.uk
Email: enquiries@somersetwaste.gov.uk

Tel: 01823 625700

Facebook: www.facebook.com/somersetwaste

Twitter: twitter.com/SomersetWaste