Summer spending prompts card call

Frome householders are being asked not to put out too much cardboard at once with their kerbside recycling.

New summer bargains – from garden furniture to barbecue sets, new TVs for the Olympics and more – are increasing the amount of cardboard put out for kerbside collections.

Residents with lots of cardboard have several choices: large amounts (more than the equivalent of two recycling boxes when flattened) should be taken to a recycling site; card can be put out at the kerbside over several weeks; or some card can assist the mix in home composting.

Companies delivering new items will often take away all packaging and whatever is being replaced if asked. Card should be flattened and left in or beside kerbside recycling boxes.

Somerset Waste Partnership managing director Steve Read said: "If a recycling truck's storage space for card is filled, it must go back to the depot to unload and then return to its rounds, which wastes time, raises costs and risks missed collections.

"If too much card is put out, crews may need to leave it behind; if that happens, a sticker will usually be left to explain why."

Somerset's latest End Use Register shows that the county recycled more than 11,100 tonnes of cardboard in 2011-12 into new card.