The Resource Revolution “closed loop exemplar” award recognised how Somerset’s councils worked with retailer Marks & Spencer to add household plastic bottles and cardboard to the Sort It Plus kerbside collections and extend the enhanced service through the county.

This is not the first national honour given to Somerset for its pioneering work on recycling. Marks & Spencer and SWP previously won the Best Partnership for Recycling prize at the National Recycling Awards for Sort It Plus.

Funding support from Marks & Spencer has enabled the expansion of Sort It Plus, with thousands of tonnes of card and plastic bottles now being recycled every year instead of ending up in polluting, waste landfill at an annual cost of millions of pounds to council taxpayers.

Sort It Plus kerbside collections have helped boost recycling rates to more than 50%, and M&S packaging suppliers have “closed the loop” by making use of the increased quality and quantity of materials collected in manufacturing their products.

As part of its “Plan A” initiative in environment, ethical trading and health, Marks & Spencer has committed to meet its packaging recovery obligations as the first UK retailer to directly support new kerbside recycling services, with up to £250,000 annually for five years in Somerset.

Sponsored by the Carbon Trust, the Resource Revolution award recognised “a game-changing closed loop initiative … reducing demand for virgin materials”.

And the judges said: “This innovative partnership not only directly promoted the circular economy, but took producer responsibility to a new level. A great new model for co-working.”

SWP managing direct Steve Read said: “As waste materials become resources, smarter ways of working mean that resource management is shifting from a linear to circular economy, with closed loop models powering innovation and radical new business models.

“It is great to have this partnership with Marks & Spence recognised; we look forward to working closely with M&S in future to reduce waste, increase recycling and close the loop so resources are no longer discarded but valued as the starting point for new products and packaging.”

Andrew Speck, Marks & Spencer Commercial and Environmental Packaging Manager, said: “We are pleased to be recognised for the work we have done with Somerset Waste Partnership and our partners in expanding the Sort It Plusrecycling service.

“To deliver such an expansion of services in a cost effective way and then using these materials to make new packaging benefits our UK supply chain and the environment. This trully innovative Plan A partnership shows what positive impact closing the loop can have.”

And Somerset’s Green Routine waste prevention campaign is advising those with possessions – from a power drill to a cake stand – how to generate income by loaning their stuff to others.

That avoids clutter in homes, sheds and garages, and items getting rusty or dirty until the only solution is to chuck them away, when many end up in refuse bins and head for costly landfill.

Recent research by RentMyItems.com has shown that UK consumers spend an estimated £2.9 billion a year on items never or rarely used.

These range from £650 million spent by women on clothes to £617 million on camping and other outdoor equipment, £470 million on entertainment items, £426 million on sports gear, £380 million on DIY or garden tools, and £360 million on kitchen appliances.

And insurer Legal & General found that 45 per cent of people own tools they never or rarely use.

Green Routine, backed by local community groups and Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP), offers tips to cut clutter, avoid waste and realise the value of items that rarely get used.

From DIY to dresses, there are many hire and lease options, while Green Routine has collated a  set of links to websites on borrowing and sharing, and how to rent out possessions to others.

And it has a guide to low-waste entertainment, such as loan services for books, films, CD, computer games, toys and more, from the local library to the net.

For more simple ideas and advice, check out the Green Routine pages at Somerset Waste Partnership and sign up for once-a-month mailings with top tips.

The cost of subscribing to the garden waste service is £45 for a wheeled bin and £25 for sacks (10 sacks). Or, the first time, a trial two-year subscription is available to South Somerset residents, who can pay £85 for two years.

Use your garden waste bin or sack to recycle flowers, plants and weeds. Grass cuttings, leaves and hedge trimmings can be added and small branches up to 10 cm width.

At less than £1 a week, the kerbside collection service is good value for money.

Advice on the safe disposal of Japanese Knotweed or Common Ragwort can be found on our website, along with information on Chalara dieback of ash trees.

Gardeners not wishing to subscribe to the garden waste collection service can take their garden waste to a recycling site for recycling or compost at home. For more information on purchasing composting equipment visit our offer page.

The garden waste service also accepts straw or sawdust if used as bedding from vegetarian pets such as rabbits but we cannot accept waste bedding used for pets such as micro-pigs or from racing pigeons or aviaries.

Somerset Waste Partnership can help with special offers on compost bins and accessories and with hits and tips for better home composting.

The new schools food waste collection service comes as the final stages of construction are underway on Somerset’s own anaerobic digestion (AD) plant.

Using wheeled bins provided by Viridor with Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP), the new service is intended for larger schools and those with canteens that produce more food waste.

Other school recycling and waste collection services, using boxes or wheeled bins, are already provided by May Gurney working with SWP.

This has long included food waste collections using the same-sized bins as those used for domestic collections.

The AD plant will transform all of the county’s domestic and school food waste into clean, green energy.

Schools wishing to arrange collections, whether large or small, should contact Somerset County Council on 0845 345 9122.

Greener Gardening is the theme for April in Somerset’s Green Routine waste prevention campaign, which across the year is finding new ways for people to make more of what they have.

Whether for flowers, grow-your-own veg or a smooth lawn, gardening offers many simple and quick ways to save cash while cutting waste.

And Green Routine is suggesting three easy steps to getting greener:

Step 1: start or improve your composting – at least 77,000 of us in Somerset have a compost bin – to reuse far more of your waste to enhance your gardening, including fruit and veg peelings.

Step 2: adopt practical reuse ideas to turn old drink cartons into bird feeders, grow seedlings in yoghurt pots and margarine tubs, or transform old CDs into crop-protecting bird scarers.

Step 3: inspire a new green generation by involving children and grandchildren in family gardening fun, such as making use of vegetarian pets’ bedding and manure for composting.

The Green Routine waste prevention campaign says there is plenty of support for gardeners wanting to go greener, such as dozens of Compost Champions across the county happy to help anyone get the mix – carbon and nitrogen, brown and green – just right.

And with improving weather and everything starting to grow, now is the time to try growing some veg in your garden or allotment. Just a yard? Try pots. Only a window box? Herbs are the answer to spice up your cooking.

And for those keen on grow-your-own, Somerset Community Food has partnered with Garden Organic to support volunteers to become Master Gardeners and spread the word.

For plenty more information, ideas and simple advice, check out the Green Routine pages at Somerset Waste Partnership, where you can also sign up for the once-a-month mailings with tips and tools.

Collections due on Easter Monday, 1 April, and subsequent collections that week will be one day later, including Friday pick-ups on Saturday 6 April.

The Easter weekend is traditionally a busy one at recycling sites as the long weekend’s variable weather prompts many into the garden or to tackle indoor DIY jobs.

All 18 sites are open as normal over Easter: Friday and Saturday 8am-4pm, Sunday 8am-1pm and Monday 8am-7pm.

Best times to avoid queues are before 10am and 4-7pm on Monday.

Charges apply to construction and demolition materials, such as tiles, ceramic toilets or hardcore, taken to sites.

View full details of bank holiday collection day changes, recycling site opening hours, and site charges.

Like other public services, Somerset Waste Partnership have made significant savings in recent years, but the only way to avoid the annual increase of £8 per tonne in landfill tax is through more waste prevention and recycling. Every extra tonne avoided or recycled through kerbside collections saves over £90 per tonne and every extra tonne of food waste recycled saves £25 per tonne.

Increasing Somerset’s recycling rate by just 1% would save over £140,000 per year.

Over 50% of our household waste is recycled, so most of us are doing are doing well. But a recent study found that half of the rubbish put out in Somerset’s refuse were materials accepted on our kerbside recycling collections, with the main one being food waste.

To find out what more you may be able to do to reduce and reuse your waste sign up to our Green Routine 2013.

Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) managing director Steve Read is being temporarily seconded for two days a week to help Gloucestershire set up its own inter-authority body to manage recycling and refuse.

The move – which will generate revenue for SWP – has been approved by SWP’s governing Somerset Waste Board (SWB) in what is believed is the first arrangement of its kind in the UK.

The secondment reflects Read’s national reputation in waste management and the pioneering approach of Somerset’s six councils that has saved taxpayers more than £1.5 million a year since SWP began, while also raising recycling rates and improving services.

This is the third secondment by SWP; again generating income for the partnership, the previous two staffers were loaned to kerbside collections company May Gurney to help improve waste service quality. Read has also assisted the development of Dorset’s waste partnership.

Gloucestershire’s new Joint Waste Partnership (GJWP) unites the waste services of Cheltenham Borough Council, Cotswold District Council, Forest of Dean District Council and Gloucestershire County Council, with the opportunity for other districts within the county to join later.

The shared management arrangement will be for a year initially, with Read remaining employed by SWP while working the equivalent of two days a week as Head of Service for GJWP, which will come into being on 1 April 2013.

SWB Chairman Cllr Derek Yeomans said: “We are always looking to be innovative and, with settled contracts and a well-established client team in place, the SWB felt that there could be further benefits from contracting Steve to Gloucestershire.

“We share many of the same strategic, operational and financial challenges, and this arrangement means we can also share future opportunities, solutions and best practice.”

GJWP Chairman Cllr Martin Quaile said: “We are delighted that, following our approach, SWB has agreed to contract Steve to work with us in this way.

“Steve brings a wealth of experience of joined-up working across boundaries and between tiers that will be invaluable as we move to this way of working.”