Rufus Ford gave an excellent, illustrated talk, to Rockwell Green WI on the work of the Somerset Waste Action Programme (SWAP) which draws public attention to the work undertaken not only to deal with our ever growing amount of waste products, but to encourage people to recycle as much as possible.

Rufus is part of the SWAP team which is employed by the Carymoor Environmental Trust, based at Carymoor, near Castle Cary. SWAP is funded by the Somerset County Council and the 5 District Councils in Somerset. Carymoor is a closed Landfill Site, located next to the Dimmer Landfill Site.

Visits to Carymoor are welcomed. Workshops are held for children and adults alike with open evenings every 1st Monday of the month. The Annual Open Day will be held on 8th July next. Over 3000 school children alone visit the site each year.

The renewable energy building, pictured here, is fascinating. It even has its own small wind turbine, which is shortly to be replaced to a bigger one. This is certainly "the good life" for real! There is also a butterfly conservation area and tanks for Great Crested Newts. Trees to attract wild life have been planted and parts of the land are used by some university departments to experiment with different types of grass seed. And all this is on a closed (capped) landfill site. Nearby methane generators are at work, feeding the national grid.

The only recycling that takes place on site is composting. And there's nothing new about that - the Chinese were composting centuries and centuries ago! All other recyclable materials are taken to different specialist centres around the country. Somerset is doing very well in the recycling league table with an anticipated 40% of waste being recycled this year. However, as a nation, we have a way to go before our recycling meets the high percentage achieved in a number of other European countries. Rufus impressed on us the need to recycle waste as much as possible.

Even green glass, which was not so suitable for recycling, is now being crushed to sand for use by builders of in golf bunkers. And if you see a delicate shade of green in the roads, this is suitably treated green glass. As for that new fleece you bought last winter, that was probably made from plastic - recycled in China. So there is less and less that needs to go into landfill sites.

A talk from Rufus and a visit to the Carymoor site is time very well, and interestingly, spent.

Contact Rufus Ford on Email rford.swap@carymoor.org.uk for more information.

Rockwell Green WI's next meeting will be held on Tuesday 11th July 2006 at All Saints Church Hall, Rockwell Green at 7.30 pm to hear about the wonderful work undertaken by The Samaritans.

To find out more about our happy and go-ahead WI, just ring Eileen White on 01823 666734.