A new show on Somer Valley FM seeks to show how even small differences can make a big impact on the environment.

And the first feature will be about the local Zero Waste group which supports recycling and zero carbon initiatives including a special collection in Westfield.

Nick Labrom will be hosting the The One Small Step Show which will be broadcast at 11am on Saturday morning on Somer Valley 97.5 FM.

The first show will be about the pioneers and some of their ideas on the Midsomer Norton Radstock Area Zero Waste Group.

Nick said: " I had a really insightful and enjoyable conversation with them, they are both very knowledgeable."

Here Lucy Tudor from the group explained to Nub News how she became passionate about green issues.

She writes:

I grew up being made aware of and appreciating nature and the natural world by my parents who were always showing me plants, birds and bugs and telling me about them and watching David Attenborough programmes.

My mum particularly taught me about plants and how to grow vegetables. It was the 1970s the time of Dutch Elm disease- beautiful trees all around me were dying and being cut down- it was heartbreaking- I knew that the environment was precious and needed looking after. Although Dutch Elm disease was a natural disaster, I was becoming more aware of how us humans were damaging the air we breath, the animals and their habitats all around us and at the time the famous hole in the ozone layer was growing larger.

My grandad and dad were always fixing things or reclaiming items which many people viewed as junk or were throwing out. My first bike came from a jumble sale,; my dad took it apart, cleaned it all up, repainted it and repaired the brakes and seat, put new tyres on it. I have never forgotten this bike restored with time and love for me by my dad who worked full time and incredibly long hours and spent late evenings and weekends doing this for me. It seemed the most sensible normal thing to me to repair and reuse things not just throw them away.

Like Living In the Repair Shop

In the 1970s many original features were being ripped out of old houses such as Victorian or Georgian panelled doors which at that time had gone out of fashion. My dad would reclaim them, restore them and install them in our lovely old house all done up from scratch with many other reclaimed and restored items of furniture and other

lovely items. I lived in a repair shop. Today the TV show Repair Shop is a hit programme- but that was and still is my dad.

Once an adult I found my way into the early days of the local recycling venture set up by Avon Friends of the Earth - a campaign group focussing on waste issues which turned from campaigning to action and began by collecting newspapers and aluminium cans around the Bristol area with a horse and cart (for those old enough to remember, Steptoe and Son style) These items were the only ones which had any commercial value in recycling and could pay the collectors a small living wage.

Gradually people began waking up to the idea of recycling and resources being reused and at that time, the local Wansdyke Council became interested in recycling and I found myself as a student working one summer dropping leaflets to every household in what is now NE Somerset. The leaflets (made from recycled paper, told residents

about their monthly recycling collection which we carried out in two old transit vans from a derelict shed on Radstock Road! Gradually that summer job led to a full time job for me as a recycling collector, health and safety officer and, with a small education budget, the person who went off to give talks to community and business groups and assemblies in local schools to explain about the whys and wherefores of recycling.

The following years saw the introduction of the landfill tax which was an incentive for local authorities to recycle more and dump less and for industry to adapt and take items and recycle them. So the small scale monthly recycling collections became the weekly green box collections we have today with more and more items now added to the

newspapers and aluminium cans for recycling as the market for glass bottles, aluminium foil, steel cans and clothing were now commercially viable. The list grew as we added engine oil, car batteries, spectacles, mobile phones and chargers, shoes tied in pairs for reuse, domestic batteries, small electrical items, cardboard and food waste. We also delivered compost bins outside of our normal working hours made from recycled plastic in a huge effort to reduce garden waste and non cooked or meat food waste. Then along came the green waste collections too.

Spreading The Word Using My Own Bags

I had a fire in my belly to spread the word which I did mostly in my own time.I was learning more and more all the time about resources and waste, for example in those days we were all taking free plastic carrier bags everywhere we shopped especially at the supermarkets. When it seemed no-one else cared or knew the issues this was causing for the environment, I was taking my own bags to the supermarket while the checkout person looked at me as if I were mad!

Then there was the fact that every baby uses generally 5000 disposable nappies from birth to potty training. In my talks and presentations on how to reduce waste, reuse items and finally after those options were exhausted, to recycle items, I took props to show my audiences, one of which was a modern reusable cotton nappy. I suggested that parents should try using them instead of exclusively disposable nappies but without having my own family I felt it was a bit unfair saying to people "Do as I tell you" rather than "Do as I do." BUT, I then started my own family and of course had to practice what I preached and so bought a set of 24 modern, shaped, washable nappies and six waterproof Velcro fastening covers. They were amazing in every way and saved me so much money even including the washing expenses, water, electric and detergent. I only very occasionally used a "disposable" nappy, I saved around £800 with my first baby and then used the same

nappies on the second with a greater saving as no purchases were needed.

Which Gave Me My Next Idea

So my next project was the Real Nappy Project which I ran, in the now B&NES area, for the next four or so years. With help from the Recycling Consortium in Bristol I secured landfill tax monies for the project in B&NES, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. We had tremendous support from the maternity hospitals, midwives and

health visitors and were included in ante and postnatal classes helping many parents make the swap to washables.

Last July, my friend Laura Jardine a gymnastics and sports instructor at Writhlington, contacted me to say Lucy we have got to do something! Everyone has been inspired to take action from watching Blue Planet and they want to know what to do about reducing plastic waste… can you help? So she and I gathered up some old campaigning work mates and friends including Emma How, who I worked with for around nine years on the recycling scheme, to start the Midsomer Norton Radstock Area Zero Waste Group.

What We Do And The Initiatives We Support

We met up and decided to set up a FB page intending it to be a hub for local people to share ideas about reducing waste, saving bees, planting trees and promoting local sustainable initiatives and businesses all trying to do their bit to be a little greener. These initiatives include Rachel Steeper's Baby Bank sharing baby clothes, toys and equipment in the community reducing waste and saving families money.

We also support Westfield Terracycle run by Catherine Cooper who saves all kinds of items not currently taken in the green recycling boxes

for a charity which supports her daughter's heath condition. Another initiative we support are the local repair cafes in Peasedown and Highlittleton, Chew Valley community farm and "buy, swap and sell" FB pages -a great way to reuse and save money. We also have many litter picking enthusiasts who take a bag out on a walk and fill it with rubbish for the bin or recycling.

The group also want to inform and educate about the wider world environment and climate change and so share global issues and campaigns from Green Peace and Friends of the Earth , as

well as initiatives for renewable energy.

I am FAR from perfect - there are many others who do much better than I do, but if everyone just does a little bit, it adds up to quite a big bit of a difference and gradually we will make those bigger changes- think carrier bags, and now plastic bottles and coffee cups- those changes are happening because so many of us are encouraging those changes to happen, we are demonstrating that we do have the power to change things for the better.