SEDGEMOOR and West Somerset residents will be able to find out more about the soon-to-launch Recycle More scheme through three online Q&As days. 

Recycle More, a Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) scheme, will bring an expanded recycling service to 70,000 households in Sedgemoor and West Somerset at the end of February.

Under Recycle More, the following items will be added to residents' weekly recycling collections: Plastic pots, tubs and trays; food and drink cartons, small batteries, and small electrical items. 

SWP says the extra weekly recycling means households will have less rubbish, meaning rubbish bins or black sacks will be collected every three weeks instead of fortnightly. 

Collection days will change for more than half of households in Sedgemoor and West Somerset. 

Garden and clinic waste collections will not be affected.  

Homes will receive a new recycling container - a 'Bright Blue Bag' - a week or two before the service starts. 

SWP is set to run three Q&A days on Facebook to help people understand what is changing and when. 

The Q&A sessions will be held on Wednesday, January 26; Friday, February 18, and Wednesday, March 16. 

The Facebook Q&A sessions will start at 7am and end at 7pm. 

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News: RECYCLE MORE: More items will be added to weekly recycling collections in Sedgemoor and West SomersetRECYCLE MORE: More items will be added to weekly recycling collections in Sedgemoor and West Somerset

A spokesperson for SWP said: "The 12-hour sessions are an opportunity to get speedy responses to queries about the new service.

"Visit the @somersetwaste page and post questions as comments once the session has started."

The spokesperson continued: "Adding more to weekly kerbside collections, Recycle More makes it easier for everyone to recycle more and protect the environment.

"Where it can, it will also improve recycling for homes with shared or communal collections, for example, blocks of flats and homes of multiple occupancy.

"These improvements will be brought in later in the year at a date to be confirmed and what is possible will depend on space and access."

Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News: RECYCLING: Homes will receive a 'Bright Blue Bag' container before the scheme launchesRECYCLING: Homes will receive a 'Bright Blue Bag' container before the scheme launches

Residents will also be sent information about Recycle More twice before any changes are made - once around six weeks before it launches, and once around three weeks before. 

This will include a collection day calendar and guide to what recycling goes into which container.

The Sedgemoor and West Somerset area is the final stage of the Recycle More roll-out, with the scheme already running in Mendip, South Somerset, and Taunton Deane.

An SWP customer survey in Mendip found that 84 per cent of respondents said they preferred the new service over the previous one after six months.

For more information, visit www.somersetwaste.gov.uk/recycle-more

For information about how to reduce and reuse waste, visit www.somersetwaste.gov.uk and follow @somersetwaste on Twitter and Facebook.


Read more: More recycling and three-weekly rubbish pick-ups in West Somerset and Sedgemoor