Somerset's award-winning SORT IT collection was also introduced to the trial areas in Sedgemoor. With the addition of plastic bottles and cardboard, the new collections are called SORT IT PLUS.

We tested new approaches to collecting a wide range of materials for recycling and composting, which involved comparing different service options and testing innovative new collection vehicles.

The final report has been produced and decisions will be taken about continuing the new arrangements and, if affordable, extending the best collection options to other areas.

Collections will continue until further notice. A newsletter with further information will be sent to participating households in March.

Trial Rounds

The SORT IT PLUS trial rounds were introduced in the areas listed below. Please note the trial rounds are largely self-contained but will not necessarily cover all households in these areas. Customer Services Centres have been provided with a full list of roads and properties covered in their Districts.

All households covered by the trials received leaflets and an extra green box for the separate storage and collection of cardboard and plastic bottles.  The additional box stacks neatly with most recycling boxes previously provided in Somerset.

Chilcompton
Kilmersdon & Mells
Street (Oakfield Road area)
Wells (Welsford Avenue area)

Axbridge
Burnham on Sea (Priory Gardens, Steart Avenue, Lundy Drive areas)
Catcott
Cossington
East Brent
Eastertown
Edington
Lympsham

Comeytrowe (Queensway area), Taunton
Langford Budville
Nynehead
Priorswood (Obridge Road area and Nerrols Farm), Taunton
Staplegrove Road area, Taunton
West Monkton

Trial rounds were selected to cover both urban and rural areas and to be comparable by containing similar proportions of the main socio-economic groups found in Somerset. This will establish the conditions for producing valid results from the trials.

What was supplied as part of the trials:

• an additional recycling box for plastic bottles and cardboard only.

• an additional recycling box for plastic bottles and cardboard only;
• a kitchen caddy and small bin for food waste;
• and, if your property is suitable, a wheeled bin for your refuse.

Plastic bottles and cardboard need to be kept separate from other materials for recycling, as shown below. Cardboard should be flattened and it helps to squash plastic bottles.

Please try to keep different materials separate in your box, rather than mixed together, as this makes it much easier to sort for recycling.

Carrier bags can also be used to put out extra recyclables alongside boxes. Cardboard can also be put out bundled or flattened in a cardboard box.

Box 1 - YES please:

Paper: including newspapers, magazines, leaflets, printed paper, white envelopes and telephone directories

Glass bottles and jars

Food and drinks cans

Aluminium foil - clean (not paper or plastic backed)

Clothes - bagged to keep dry

shoes - tied in pairs and bagged

Car batteries

Please rinse jars and cans.

Please do not put clothes and shoes out on a wet day.

Box 2 - YES please:

Plastic bottles only no tops

Cardboard (flattened) including corrugated, cereal packets and cards

Brown envelopes

NO thanks:

Drinks cartons or Tetra Pak

Broken glass, Pyrex, window glass, tableware, light bulbs

Plastic pots, tubs or film

Plastic bottles used for engine oil and garden or DIY chemicals

Household batteries

Weekly food waste

Small food waste caddy

Keep the caddy in your kitchen. Newspaper can be used to wrap food waste or to line kitchen caddies. Special starch-based compostable liners can also be purchased from retailers throughout Somerset.

Fortnightly refuse

Grey wheeled bin

Household waste that cannot be collected for recycling or composting should go in this bin.

No garden waste or bulky, heavy or hazardous items.

Two new vehicle designs were used for the collections vehicles, referred to as a 3-way split and stillage for all.

This vehicle is used Sedgemoor and Taunton Deane.

A stillage collection vehicle is used to collect the paper, glass, cans, foil, clothes, shoes and car batteries on trial rounds in Sedgemoor and Taunton Deane.

These vehicles have long been used for recycling collections in Somerset and are able to collect a wide range of recyclables, which are sorted into separate removable cages, known as stillages.

The stillage for all collection vehicle is used on trial rounds in Mendip.

This is a new version of the stillage vehicle that maximises the volume of material that can be collected by storing the light weight but bulky cardboard and plastic bottles on a second level.

Can I recycle something plastic if it has a recycling symbol on it?

Recycling symbols vary and show what broad type of material that has been used to make the packaging.

Within each material type there are many different grades of that material that may or may not be suitable to make into different products. This is why SWP asks for plastic bottles only, and not other items made of PET(E) or HDPE.

These symbols do not tell you how easy it is for these to be recycled or if you are likely to be able to do this locally.

Please only put plastic bottles (without lids) in your recycling box. We do not accept other types of plastic.

We will accept all types of plastic bottle (without the lid as it is a different grade of plastic) except those used for engine oil or for garden or DIY chemicals.  Examples of plastic bottles you can put in your plastic bottle and cardboard recycling box include: washing up liquid bottles, shampoo bottles, squash bottles, sun cream bottles, milk bottles, ketchup bottles etc.

There are currently no reprocessors who will accept mixed plastic packaging for recycling in the UK, which is why we cannot currently accept other plastics such as margarine tubs, food packaging and yoghurt pots.  Although some food trays may be made of the same type of plastic as some bottles, they are made of a different grade of material, which means they cannot be recycled with bottles.

Plastic bottles are easily identifiable to householders, collectors and reprocessors, and are also less likely to be contaminated with food residues which reduce the quality of the recycled plastic.  It is important not to place anything other than plastic bottles into your recycling box or at the recycling banks as high levels of contamination could result in the whole load being rejected by the reprocessors.

Enquiries

For general enquiries about the SORT IT PLUS trial collections in your area, please email:

enquiries@somersetwaste.gov.uk

For enquiries about the SORT IT PLUS trial collections in your area, please contact:

Mendip District Council: 01749 648999

Email: customerservices@mendip.gov.uk

Sedgemoor District Council: 0845 408 2543

Email: customer.services@sedgemoor.gov.uk

Taunton Deane Borough Council: 01823 356346

Email: waste.services@tauntondeane.gov.uk