Community Action Groups (CAG) Somerset are celebrating a successful year, notching up significant recycling and reuse achievements.
CAG is a not-for-profit organisation supported by Somerset Council and its collections contractor SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK and managed by Resource Futures. They provide free support to a thriving network of local community action groups involved in reducing waste or increasing recycling.
In 2024-25 volunteers within the groups (which are part of the CAG network) have:
- Put in 14,500 hours of time – valued at £234,000
- Saved 51,000kg of food from going to waste
- Swapped 65,200kg of items
Repair cafes involved in the network have seen 1,700 items brought in – and 200 tools sharpened.
The groups’ activities have resulted in £9,500 of cost savings to Somerset Council and have also:
- Diverted 49 tonnes of waste from landfill or incineration
- Avoided 194 tonnes of carbon emissions
The impact of the groups work is not just environmental, many of the volunteers feel more connected to their communities and feel good for being part of the network. A volunteer survey showed us that 73% of volunteers felt better connected to their community and 57% made new friends.
In the coming year, CAG Somerset is looking to, grow and diversify its membership, inspire new ideas between groups and support this, as well as secure future funding.
Councillor Richard Wilkins, Somerset Council’s Lead Member for Transport and Waste, said:
What a fantastic year CAG has achieved. It’s great to see real results from grassroots actions – and I hope even more people will join and reuse and recycle more to help our environment.
Jinny Uppington, CAG Somerset Lead at Resource Futures, added:
We’re incredibly proud of what our members have achieved this year. The support we have provided them through networking to share best practice to offering small grants has helped groups thrive.
These numbers represent thousands of meaningful conversations, repaired and reused items, food items distributed that would have otherwise have gone to waste, shared resources, and considerable emissions avoided – all driven by volunteers committed to making a difference.
With continued support and collaboration, we’re excited to grow the network further, expand the support we offer community groups and build an even stronger movement across Somerset.
Mathew Canning, Contract Director- Somerset at SUEZ said:
We are proud to support the CAG project as it provides some great support for the brilliant people running these local community groups.
Somerset have a great network of groups helping to reduce waste and the results gathered on their impact is really impressive. We look forward to seeing the network grow and the impact of what the future of CAG brings to the local community!
