Working with community groups…

SWAP can visit your adult community group to deliver an interesting and interactive presentation about waste minimisation, recycling and composting in your local area.

The SWAP team cover the whole of Somerset so if your community group lies within the districts of Mendip, South Somerset, Sedgemoor or West Somerset or within the Borough of Taunton Deane, SWAP can visit your group. All our visits are free of charge!

The SWAP team can visit your community group during the day or in the early evening. Our visits can easily fit into your agenda and we can provide talks of varying length from 15 minutes to an hour.

SWAP can offer your community group the following...

VISITS

• Wake Up to Waste - click here for more information
• Love Food Hate Waste! - click here for more information
• Compost your kitchen and garden waste - click here for more information
• Cloth Nappies - click here for more information
• Using resources wisely - click here for more information
• Virtual tour of Dimmer Landfill Site - click here for more information

ACTIVITIES

These activities can be incorporated into any of the above visits if required.

• Paper making - click here for more information
• Waste timeline activity - click here for more information

ROADSHOWS AND EVENTS

The SWAP team can hold a series of roadshows or events - click here for more information.

Wake Up to Waste
Find out why reducing your waste and recycling makes such a difference! This visit gives an insight into how a landfill site operates and looks at the positives and negatives of using landfill sites to dispose of waste.

The talk covers in detail, more sustainable ways to dispose of household waste such as waste minimisation, recycling and composting. Local services provided by both Somerset County Council and the relevant district/borough council for recycling and composting are covered as well as what happens to recyclables and what they are made into.

Aim of visit: To encourage householders to separate their waste and to recycle and compost as much as possible.

Length of visit: From 15min to 1 hour.

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Love Food Hate Waste
A third of the food we buy in the UK ends up being thrown away! Most of the 6.7 million tonnes of food waste produced in the UK every year ends up in landfill sites, where it will rot to produce methane, a damaging greenhouse gas. Wasted food is a waste of money and a major contributor to climate change. When food is thrown away we also waste all the energy, water, packaging and transportation used to produce and deliver the food item to the consumer. 

The talk gives an overview of the issue of wasting food and gives useful ideas on how we can all reduce the amount of food we throw away. The talk covers how some kitchen waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings can be composted at home to produce rich compost for the garden. Details of the weekly collection of food waste provided by the Somerset Waste Partnership to households within Mendip, South Somerset and Taunton Deane is also given.

Aim of visit: To encourage households to reduce the amount of wasted food.

Length of visit: From 15min to 1 hour.

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Compost your kitchen and garden waste
Discover the joys of composting! This visit encourages householders to separate their refuse and to compost biodegradable waste. The talk covers the various services provided by the relevant district or borough council and by Somerset County Council for composting garden and kitchen waste. Practical information on how to compost organic matter at home, to produce rich compost for the garden is covered in detail.

The talk promotes a compost bin offer, where householders can receive a compost bin delivered to their house for as little as £17. For more information on the compost bin offer click on the following link.

Aim of visit: To encourage householders to compost kitchen and garden waste.

Length of visit: From 15min to 1 hour.

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Cloth Nappies
93 disposable nappies are thrown into landfill sites every second in the UK! This visit encourages parents to reduce the amount of disposable nappies used by encouraging parents to use real cloth nappies on their children.

Cloth nappies are washable and can be reused over and over again. Cloth nappies help to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill sites and can be cheaper than disposable nappies. Why use up to 5,500 disposable nappies on your child when just 24 real nappies will suffice?

The talk looks at the positives and negatives of using both disposable nappies and washable cloth nappies. Parents will receive detailed information on the types of cloth nappies available and practical tips on how to use them, with examples of cloth nappies for parents to look at.

Aim of visit: To encourage parents to use washable cloth nappies on their children.

Length of visit: From 15min to 45min

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Using resources wisely – a visit covering the following topics: recycling, composting, energy use at home, renewable energy and water conservation. This presentation will give the listener many tips to make their homes more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

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Virtual tour of Dimmer Landfill Site – This presentation gives the viewers a virtual tour of Dimmer Landfill site, located near Castle Cary, Somerset. The presentation gives an insight into the activities occurring on site, from the disposal of household waste from Somerset homes in landfill sites, to kitchen and garden waste composting.

The presentation also looks at the positives and negatives of using landfill sites as a waste management option and looks at more sustainable ways to manage waste, such as waste reduction, recycling and composting. The virtual tour looks at how the Carymoor Environmental Centre (Somerset’s first Eco-centre) is managing a former landfill site to encourage a wide variety of flora and fauna to the site.

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Paper Making
Learn how to recycle paper at home! This practical workshop goes through each of the steps involved to make old and unwanted paper into handmade recycled paper suitable for reuse. Learn how to make different coloured and textured paper for all those crafty occasions.

Aim of activity: To demonstrate simple ways householders can reuse and recycle everyday waste items into useful products.

Length of visit: 1 hour.

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Waste timeline activity
Ever wondered how long a plastic bottle will take to disintegrate in a landfill site? This informative and interactive activity gets the whole group involved in deciding how long everyday waste items take to break down in a landfill site.

The group is then invited to discuss more sustainable ways to dispose of everyday waste items – such as reducing overall waste quantities, reusing waste items, recycling and composting.

Aim of activity: To encourage householders to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill sites. To encourage householders to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost household waste.

Length of visit: 30min to 1 hour.

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Roadshows and Events
SWAP can support your community event by providing an informative display about waste minimisation, recycling and/or composting. SWAP can attend local events across Somerset all year round, for example: Annual Parish Meetings, fairs, fetes and other community events. SWAP can attend your event to answer questions and provide helpful and friendly advice on waste disposal, recycling and composting issues.

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More information about SWAP...

The Somerset Waste Action Programme (SWAP) is a partnership between Somerset County Council and the five District and Borough Councils in Somerset. The team is comprised of six outreach education officers who visit schools, youth groups and community groups in Somerset to promote waste minimisation, recycling and composting.

The SWAP team first began making visits in September 2002 and has visited over 700 community groups in Somerset. SWAP has recently visited the following types of adult community groups: Women’s Institute, International Moose Lodge, Good Companions Club, Parish Councils, Day Care Centres and Rotary groups.

To book a free visit for your community group, contact SWAP on Tel: 01963 351350, email them - click here, or to request a visit online click here.

We suggest your community group should consist of 10 or more people before SWAP can make a viable visit.