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3-14 November 2023

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Happy Halloween and bonfire night

All Hallows’ Eve and bonfire night are great opportunities for every family in Somerset to waste less and save money, cut plastic and recycle more, stay safe and eat better, and to even reduce their all-important carbon footprint.

Dodge the horror of bills, full rubbish bins and supermarket plastic tat for recyclable outfits from cardboard, old sheets, charity shop bargain clothes and plenty of childish creativity, and take the smart step to reject shop-bought sweets for cheaper and healthier (but always allergy-aware) home-made treats.

Check recipes – savoury pies to sweet cakes – from lovefoodhatewaste.com and hubbub.org.uk/how-to-eat- pumpkin to use all that pumpkin flesh and seeds for tasty snacks (and keep a few seeds to grow free future ghoulish

gourds). Add all waste food – every last scrap – and the sagging pumpkin itself, to your food waste bin to go off to make electricity and farm compost at Somerset’s anaerobic digestion plant. Or add your pumpkin to your compost bin.

Caution is vital for November’s bonfires and fireworks to help noise-nervy pets and shelter-seeking wildlife, and to protect your home and family from a highly dangerous bin blaze. Drench or allow embers and ash to completely cool. Soak spent fireworks then add them to your rubbish bin. Soak misfired fireworks overnight and seek disposal guidance from maker or supplier.

Winter hours for recycle sites

Recycle site winter hours mean they are all now operating 9am-4pm weekends and, when open, 9am-5pm weekdays. More: somersetwaste.gov.uk/allatall.

Never not busy Fixy

The Fixy reuse van is criss-crossing the county to visit towns and villages, businesses, festivals and schools to promote fixing, support repair cafes and collect smart tech for reuse. Find Fixy at:

• Sat29Oct 11-2 – Bridgwater Repair Café, Engine Room, 50-52 High Street
• Sat5Nov 10-12.30 – Repair Café Wells, St Thomas’ Church Hall BA5 2UZ

Upcoming repair cafés include:

• Mon+Thu 10-12, Sat 10-1 – Ilminster Share and Repair, 18 Silver Street
• Tue 10-11.30 – Sewing Repair Hub, 9 Fore Street, Chard TA20 1PP
• Sat29Oct 9-12 – General Repair Hub, 9 Fore Street, Chard TA20 1PP
• Sat29Oct 10-12 – Porlock Vale Repair Café, Wootton Courtenay Village Hall
• Sat5Nov 10-1 – High Littleton Repair Café, Holy Trinity Church Hall BS39 6HG
• Sat5Nov 10-12 – Wellington Repair Café, Baptist Church Hall, South Street More: somersetwastgov.uk/fixy.

Tick, tock … clocks back 30 October

On Sunday 30 October clocks go back one hour, a good excuse to check smoke detectors, batteries, bulbs, plugs and Christmas lights. All electrical items, low-energy bulbs with unbroken glass and batteries can go to recycle sites.

With kerbside recycling, put out small electrical items in carrier-size bags, and household batteries in small clear bags.

Order your bargain compost bin now

Great deals mean a 220-litre bin for just

£16.00, and you can buy-one-get-one- half-price, plus £6.99 delivery per order. Order at: getcomposting.com.

Clearing your garden for winter?

Start or restart a garden waste collection on any date for a full 25-collection 12- month service. For orders until 31 March 2023, a 180-litre bin service is £57.20, and a 10-pack of 90-litre garden waste sacks is £28.30, both via “Garden waste” on the My Waste Services menu at somersetwaste.gov.uk.

Waste less time, do more online With My Waste Services 24/7 at somersetwaste.gov.uk, you can:

• Log missed collections after 7pm
• Order any recycle container free
• Order paid bulky waste pick-up
• Sort clinical/assisted collections
• Pay for asbestos/plasterboard
• Get recycle site van/trailer permit
• Send comments about services

Question: how do you reduce? Somerset’s first Reduce Week is coming up fast; it takes place from Monday 21 November to Sunday 27 November (yes, around Black Friday’s overspendfest and Buy Nothing Day). We want to hear your ideas on how to reduce waste, from tips on using up food to hints about buying better for Christmas and ways to cut out unnecessary packaging. Share them on facebook.com/somersetwaste or NextDoor when you see “how do you reduce?” posts or email them to [email protected] by 27 November. Your best ideas will be featured on our website, social media and beyond, and go into a free prize draw for a refurbished tablet or laptop.

Next time: Reduce Week, Christmas trees, festive dates and waste priorities.

Keep your birds housed. If it is impossible to house them keep them in a fully netted area with feed and water undercover. Do not allow birds in netted enclosures to mix with fully housed birds.

Remember, anything you bring into your birds’ housing could introduce disease!

• Change into clean footwear before tending to your birds.
• Store feed and bedding undercover.
• Control rodents and clean up spilled feed.
• Regularly clean and disinfect hard surfaces with a government approved disinfectant.
• Maintain your birds’ housing to keep water and wild birds out.
• Discourage wild birds from the area you keep your birds.

If your birds look unwell or you are worried about their welfare call your vet immediately.

If bird flu is suspected report it to the Defra Rural Services Helpline on 03000 200 301.

Find out what actions you need to take at GOV.UK/Bird-Flu

Recycle Week celebrates success

The first Somerset Recycling Week starts today Monday September 26 to promote recycling across the county.

At more than 56%, Somerset’s recycling rate is higher than it has ever been, with improvements across the board in both the growing amounts residents recycle and the reduction in rubbish tonnages.

Of course, there is always more to do. So, until Sunday 2 October, Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) will be sharing information, highlighting progress and promoting top tips to help make great recycling part of Somerset’s vital DNA.

And today sees publication of the latest Somerset Recycling Tracker, showing how much families recycled, where it went, what it became and the carbon saved. Image above; details overleaf.

 Find more Recycle Week advice and news at SWP’s dedicated web page somersetwaste.gov.uk/22recycle–week and at Facebook.com/somersetwaste.

Look out for new guidance on what and how to recycle, plus an online Talking Café Q&A on Wednesday 28 September, hosted by the Community Council for Somerset, all about your recycling: facebook.com/talkingcafesomerset.

Most Somerset people recycle. Do you?

SWP’s new Recycling Tracker report shows residents’ remarkable support for the expanded Recycle More collections.

The Recycling Tracker – full report:

somersetwaste.gov.uk/recycling–tracker

– monitors every tonne of your waste to identify location, firms and likely use. It shows that all recycling is recycled; none is burned, dumped or ends in the sea.

Somerset recycled and reused 149,980 tonnes with a recycling rate of 56.2% – a jump from 52.4% – and so saved 133,663 tonnes of carbon, and sent 108,428 tonnes of refuse to generate power and just 12,567 tonnes to landfill.

SWP and its contractors share a commitment that, if there is reprocessing capacity and demand here, all recycle materials will stay in the UK.

So 97.2% of your recycling stays here, including 99.4% of plastics, and 51.4% stays in Somerset. Most of the 2.8% exported is card and paper going to make cardboard boxes for our imports.

With a slight dip for glass bottles and jars, the figures show a rise in recycling for green waste, plastics, batteries, cans, food, card, electricals, paper and more.

Somerset’s impressive recycling rate puts it among the best for recycling, and among the very best for carbon saving. All due to the simple kerbside systems – no costly, messy single-bin recycling – that ensure low-contamination, high- quality materials that the market wants.

Where’s Fixy reuse van? Everywhere!

The Fixy reuse van is busy touring Somerset to promote reuse, support repair cafes, encourage volunteers, and collect smart tech to pass on. It will be at the Eat Burnham-on-Sea festival 10am- 4pm Saturday 22 October, while future repair cafes include those in Porlock, Chard, Glastonbury, Wootton Courtenay, Taunton and Ilminster. For more details of Fixy and Somerset repair cafes, go to: somersetwaste.gov.uk/fixy.

Recycle sites go to winter hours … All recycle sites switch to the winter timetable Saturday 1 October to Friday 31 March. Weekends stay 9am-4pm; weekdays when open are 9am-5pm.

More: somersetwaste.gov.uk/allatall.

… while Yeovil goes into reverse Yeovil Recycling Centre will reverse its traffic flow from Tuesday 27 September. Signage and staff will assist customers.

As the leaves begin to fall

You can start or restart a garden waste collection at any time for a full 25- collection 12-month service. Until 31 March 2023, a 180-litre bin service is

£57.20, and a 10-pack of 90-litre garden waste sacks is £28.30 via the “Garden waste” tab on the My Waste Services menu at somersetwaste.gov.uk.

Dear all,

A public consultation on the development of Local Community Networks (LCNs) was launched on 5 September.

Despite going live just before the tragic news of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll’s death, I can report we received well over 100 responses from a range of groups in those first few days alone, which is so encouraging.

Many have stepped forward from the NHS, the Police and voluntary sector wanting to engage. It’s been a pretty intense time for the Project Team, but we are delighted! It’s proof that we were right to launch the consultation at this time.

May I take this opportunity to thank all our stakeholders for their contributions so far, and thanks to those of you who have attended our in-person sessions and the member and parish (virtual) drop-ins to date.

For many, the focus will be elsewhere as we head into a weekend of commemorations, and the public holiday for the Queen’s state funeral on Monday. But we know the LCN conversations will continue and we expect a rush of responses, once due respects have been paid.

I’m re-issuing the briefing pack in the hope you’ll continue to share the links and spread the word about this important piece of work. The consultation runs for six weeks until Monday 17th October 2022.

We look forward to your constructive and insightful feedback. Please remember, we’ve a dedicated email for any LCN enquiries [email protected]. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Cllr Val Keitch

Please click here to download the Briefing Pack Re-issue