Use this page for information about national and local waste and recycling campaigns.
We work with residents, community groups, schools, universities, and other organisations to deliver a wide range of campaigns and waste education initiatives.
Our mission is to prevent and reduce waste across Bath and North East Somerset. Our Waste Strategy explains this in more detail.
Learn below about our Reduce, Reuse and Recycle campaigns and how you can get involved.
Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has calculated that 36 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions could be prevented by saving food from our bins in UK homes. As well as environmental benefits, reducing food waste can also save you money and time.
We can all help prevent waste by avoiding over consumption, making the items we already have last longer and considering more sustainable options when buying.
Love food hate waste
For food waste reduction tips WRAP's Love Food Hate Waste campaign offers valuable information such as:
- Plan your meals and portions for the week make sure you leave flexibility to incorporate 'use up' days to use up any leftovers and to make sure food doesn't go to waste.
- Make a shopping list before grocery shopping, so you only buy what you need.
- Store food correctly and keep an eye on fresh food to make sure you don't miss any use by dates.
- Make use of your freezer for example putting bread in the freezer so you can defrost it when you need it.
- Eat every edible part of your food for example, keeping skin on potatoes and carrots.
Love your clothes
The volume of raw materials used to produce garments has a negative impact on the environment. There are lots of ways you can make the most of your clothes and help ‘slow down’ fashion:
- Repair garments when possible. There are regular repair cafes around Bath and North East Somerset which can help to sew rips and fix zips for free.
- Buy and donate second-hand clothes at charity shops.
- Buy and sell second-hand clothes at online second-hand shops or car boot sales.
- Organise a clothes swap. You can swap clothes with friends and family as a fun and free way to freshen up your wardrobe.
Refill
Refill is a campaign which promotes reducing reliance on single use plastic and encourages people to use less packaging, by promoting places people can refill their containers, reusable coffee mug or reusable water bottle.
We have worked with Refill to provide awareness of the locations anyone can refill their water bottle in Bath and North East Somerset. We also installed some refill stations with Wessex Water, which have saved the equivalent of 33,956 500ml single use plastic bottles.
Visit the Refill website and download the app to learn more.
Student Community Partnership
The Student Community shares key student move in and move out advice. We work closely with the two universities in Bath through this partnership.
The partnership's Moving In Checklist offers student move in advice. During student move in we do door knocking and attend ‘Freshers Fairs’ to share tips about reducing waste, promote sharing household items and buying second hand to save money, and provide recycling information to ensure students can recycle as much as possible.
The partnership's Moving Out Checklist offers student move out advice. During student move out the Student Community Partnership work in partnership with British Heart Foundation, to offer bring bank sites for students so they can easily donate household items to charity.
You can make small changes to your daily habits to benefit the environment by reusing. For example reusing the same carrier bag or refilling a reusable water bottle. Think whether an item can be donated, loaned or repaired and fixed rather than thrown away.
Share and repair
Bath Share and Repair is a local charity which helps residents save money, and helps the environment through reduce, repair and reuse.
In Bath, you can attend one-to-one repair sessions with talented and skilled volunteers who can help fix broken items at the 'Share and Repair' 'library of things'. The shop also includes a wide range of equipment that members can borrow including irons, steam cleaners, garden equipment, and more.
You will find the 'Share and Repair' repair centre at:
3 York Buildings, George Street, Bath BA1 2EB.
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Wednesday | 10am to 1pm |
| Thursday | 1pm to 4pm |
| Friday | 10am to 1pm |
| Saturday | 10am to 1pm |
Bath Share and Repair accepts donations and have a Wish List of items they would like like.
If you would like to donate, get in touch at hello@shareandrepair.org.uk or call on 07486518197
Repair Café
Share and Repair operate regular drop-in repair cafes on Saturdays 10am-1pm across Bath and North East Somerset.
Regular café's are hosted at:
- Southdown Methodist Church
- Weston Hub
- Larkhall New Oriel Hall
- High Littleton (Holy Trinity Church Hall)
- Farmborough (Memorial Hall)
- Peasedown St. John Methodist Church (fourth Saturdays)
For details of the dates and times of the Repair Café's, please visit their website.
There is also a Reuse and Recycling Centre in Keynsham as well as the Keynsham Repair Café which takes place on the second Saturday of every month at Keynsham Baptist Church from 10am - 12pm.
Reusable Nappies
Our Reusable Nappies page provides information on the environmental and financial benefits of this campaign. Bath and North East Somerset residents can buy discounted 'Bambino Mio' reusable cloth nappy packs from one of our Information and Advice Services. Residents can also borrow nappy kits from the Bath Cloth Nappy Library.
For more information visit our Reusable Nappies page.
Libraries
There is a library in Bath, Midsomer Norton and Keynsham, as well as multiple local community libraries across Bath and North East Somerset.
Find out what you can get for free from libraries
Libraries give you free access to:
- Books
- DVDs
- Spoken word resources
- Music
- CDs
- Printed music
- Maps
- Foreign language materials
- Variety of e-resources
You must recycle in order to tackle the Climate and Ecological emergency. Visit our Recycling page for information about which materials we collect for recycling, how to help sort your recycling for collection, and what happens to all the materials collected in Bath and North East Somerset.
Follow our How to video demonstrations on how to best sort your recycling. If your recycling is not sorted correctly, it can lead to contamination.
Recycle Now is a national campaign which provides further information and tips to reduce recycling contamination.
You should recycle everything you can. Studies of the contents of the Recycling Centre bins show that on average nearly two thirds of a bag of rubbish contains items we can already recycle (one third of this if food waste).
Find out about bag splitting at recycling centres
Recycle your electricals
Anything with a plug, battery or a cable can be recycled.
When recycling electricals follow the ABC rule
Find out about the ABC rule
Ask yourself whether your old electrical item contains batteries or bulbs. They need to be removed before recycling and recycled separately. With computers or smart devices remember to remove any memory and SIM cards.
Bag – get a bag ready to place your items in. You can then place the untied bag out with our green recycling box on your next collection date. Or you can take items to our recycling centres. Some electrical stores take back old electricals too.
Check which electrical items can be recycled using our recycling guidance
We work with residents, community groups, schools, universities, and other organisations to deliver a wide range of campaigns and waste education initiatives.