Hundreds of tonnes of additional waste has been recycled in the first few weeks of Mendip's new recycling system being in place.

The Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) began its roll-out of Recycle More in late-October, with more materials being recycled at the kerbside and refuse collections moving from fortnightly to once every three weeks.

Mendip residents have been the first to benefit from the scheme, with the first phase covering more than 53,000 households in and around Frome, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Street and Wells.

The SWP has now confirmed a sharp rise in the amount of materials being recycled through its upgraded Evercreech depot – with a corresponding fall in refuse being collected.

An update on Recycle More was published ahead of a virtual meeting of the Somerset Waste Board on Friday (December 4).

In the first five weeks of Recycle More, an additional 302 tonnes of material has been collected at the kerbside for recycling – a rise of 11 per cent compared to the preceding five weeks.

During the same period, an additional 41 extra tonnes of plastics (more than 900 cubic metres) has been recycled – an increase of 23 per cent.

Of this plastic, only one per cent has to be exported to be recycled, with the remainder being processed entirely in the UK.

The scheme has also allow the recycling of 105 extra tonnes of cardboard (19 per cent up) and 141 extra tonnes of food waste (15 per cent up).

Additionally, the scheme has seen 6.4 tonnes of small electrical items and 1.7 tonnes of batteries recycled – neither of which were collected at the kerbside before this point.

Over the same five-week period, the amount of refuse (black bin waste) collected in Mendip has fallen by around 20 per cent.

SWP managing director Mickey Green said: "It's still early days, but clearly Recycle More has had a big, big impact and will mean thousands of tonnes of extra recycling from Mendip alone over the course of a year.

"This is all down to the way Mendip has embraced the new service and it's really satisfying to be able to let people know what a difference they are making.

"It's about taking things out of the bin and getting them recycled, and by doing that playing our part in protecting the environment and tackling climate change."

South Somerset will be the next area of Somerset to receive Recycle More, with the roll-out expected to begin in late-June 2021, with the remainder of the county receiving the new system by the end of 2022.