Residents in Midsomer Norton can pick up reward vouchers to spend in high street stores as part of a new scheme to encourage recycling of small electrical items.

Bath and North East Somerset Council is working in partnership with BetterPoints to reward residents for clearing out their homes of small electronic and electrical items and recycling them.

For the next four months, people will be rewarded for recycling their broken or unwanted small electrical appliances at Midsomer Norton's recycling centre.

People can take their unwanted or broken small electricals to the recycling centre and download the free BetterPoints app on their smart phones and then scan the QR code located next to the electrical recycling container.

The council currently has a kerbside collection system for small electrical appliances and plans to extend the reward scheme to these collections later this autumn.

Residents will get rewards by recycling any small electrical item that has a plug or uses batteries. Such items include:

Kettles, blenders, calculators, cameras, chargers, digi-boxes, electronic toothbrushes, electronic toys and games, hair straighteners, hi-fi equipment, irons, power tools, shavers, telephones, torches and so on.

Residents will be able to earn points for each scanned item and redeem BetterPoints for vouchers from £2 to £20 for national high street and local independent shops including Argos, Sainsburys, Costa Coffee, Evans Cycles, Morrisons, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins and many more.

Alternatively people can donate points to a community group or a charity of their choice, whether it's national or local, it's all done in the app.

If a charity is not listed it can be added easily. Recyclers can also earn BetterTickets for regular prize draws - the more you collect, the more chance you have of winning.

Councillor Dave Wood, cabinet member for Climate Emergency and Neighbourhood Services, said: "Last year our residents recycled more than 612 tonnes of small electrical items by taking them to our recycling centres and we want to increase that number.

"All small electrical appliances brought to the recycling centre can be recycled and made into new things using their valuable metals and plastics.

"One clothes iron can provide enough steel to make 13 new steel cans. All the items will be crushed, separated into their different materials and recycled to make new products."