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Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) manages recycling and waste services for Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset and West Somerset District Councils, Taunton Deane Borough Council and Somerset County Council.

May Gurney has been responsible for the countywide refuse and dry recyclables collection contract for 239,000 properties since 2007, and our current contract runs until 2014 with possible extensions of up to 14 years.

What can you recycle?
Food waste, paper, cardboard, food and drink cans, glass bottles and jars, household plastic bottles, aluminium foil, clothes, shoes and car batteries.

Our service
This partnership approach has enabled cross-border working and subsequently enhanced the operational efficiencies of the service. This fundamental reassessment of scale and resources has enabled us to deliver significant cost savings.

A key vehicle for change in SWP is the development of the Sort It Plus collection methodology which, comprises:

• Weekly food waste collection
• Weekly dry recyclables collection
• Fortnightly refuse collection (capacity usually limited to standard wheeled bins of 180 litres)
• Chargeable fortnightly garden waste collection

We have simultaneously increased operational efficiency on our recycling collections, reducing crew sizes from driver plus two loaders to driver plus one loader while increasing pass rates by 75 households per vehicle per day. This has been achieved through improved vehicle design, extensive route optimisation and the abolition of job and finish.

May Gurney helped to develop the strategy of the Somerset Waste Partnership that now forms the core of our recommended approach to recycling and waste management. Our transformational service design targets 70% of the domestic waste stream for weekly collection. Our specially designed Resource Recovery Vehicles are able to collect the full range of kerbside sort dry recyclables as well segregated food waste on a single pass. By making it easier to recycle rather than throw away, the kerbside sort approach system also encourages participation.

The result is an approach that has turned waste management on its head, delivering more for less and reducing the residual waste tonnage to less than 50%. Not only is the cost of disposal significantly reduced, but the cost of collection is significantly offset through maximising the value of recycled materials. We calculate that the overall system cost saving of our approach compared to a conventional alternate weekly twin bin system is around 20%.

In addition the approach developed by SWP and May Gurney protects the councils against future increases in landfill tax, LATS obligations, future changes in legislation and the need for long term treatment and disposal solutions with minimum tonnage requirements.

SWP is widely regarded as one of the best examples of a kerbside sort collection scheme in the UK and has attracted large amounts of media attention. The scheme won the 2005 LARAC National Recycling Award for Best Local Authority Initiative, the 2005 Composting Association Award and most recently the 2009 Edie Award for Environmental Excellence.

For further details of SWP services, see www.somersetwaste.gov.uk