Update Wednesday: no return collections if recycling missed

Recycling collections continue as usual but if your recycling is missed, we cannot make a catch-up pick-up. Please take the boxes and food waste bin back in and put them out next week, when we will do our best to prioritise your collection.

With dozens of staff self-isolating because of Covid-19 symptoms or risks, waste services have had to be curtailed so crews can concentrate on core tasks. Those crews are doing a great job; apologies for any inconvenience.

Please help them finish their rounds each day: rinse containers, squash all but aerosols and glass if safe to do so, flatten all cardboard boxes and tear up cardboard, sort-segregate materials without using carrier bags, and put it all – including all food waste, in the food waste bin – out by 7am.

If you have no space to store recycling, as a last resort, put the minimum possible into your rubbish.

Poor parking can prevent kerbside collections. Please use designated spaces, and leave plenty of room. Remember: if your recycling lorry cannot get through, fire trucks and ambulances may well be blocked.

Rubbish collections and clinical waste continue as usual. If either of these is missed, report it with the pull-down My Waste Services menu at www.somersetwaste.gov.uk or via district council customer services: https://www.somersetwaste.gov.uk/contact-us/

Garden waste collections are suspended (existing 2020-21 subscriptions will be extended for 12 months from the restart of collections); bulky waste collections are suspended; no new container orders are being accepted, though existing orders will be fulfilled.

Recycling sites remain closed. Please store materials and items you would otherwise drop off at recycling sites and do not add them to your rubbish. In particular, do not take risks with electrical items, batteries and gas canisters as these can cause a fire risk in your bin or the rubbish trucks.

If you have coronavirus symptoms or are in a household with someone showing symptoms, government guidance says:

“Personal waste (such as used tissues) and disposable cleaning cloths can be stored securely within disposable rubbish bags. These bags should be placed into another bag, tied securely and kept separate from other waste. This should be put aside for at least 72 hours before being put in your usual external household waste bin. Other household waste can be disposed of as normal.”

Symptoms or no symptoms, but no tissues, wipes or cleaning cloths in your recycling. And do observe all usual hygiene precautions when handling waste and waste containers, including washing your hands before and after putting out your recycling and rubbish for collection.

To shop less, save £££s and cut waste in your kitchen, visit: https://www.facebook.com/SomersetWaste/posts/2931256510243742

Your garden waste options: https://www.facebook.com/SomersetWaste/posts/2929057093797017

BTW, have you seen our new efficient, reliable, higher-capacity trucks: https://www.facebook.com/SomersetWaste/posts/2927892010580192

IMPORTANT: For now, recycling items taken are not changing. More here:
https://www.facebook.com/SomersetWaste/posts/2927892010580192

If you would like a job – driving, loading, or training as a driver – contact smilsom@smartsolutions.co.uk or call 07866 797200.

Please share this information online and off, and urge others to follow @Somersetwaste on Facebook and Twitter for all the latest news, or visit: https://www.somersetwaste.gov.uk/coronavirus/ See less

following links from above got to Sedgemoore DC and this is one of their points: