Win on Waste Sessions in September 2025

All of our sessions are up and running this month – details below and on the linked pages.

How to fit tiny bits of volunteering into your everyday life or have you heard about micro volunteering?

Image of a clock with activities.

Let’s be honest the idea of volunteering is great – the satisfaction of helping others and supporting a cause you care about  (and the endorphins can even give you a helper’s high) – but time is a big issue for most of us.  Fitting another thing into an already busy week can seem impossible so that’s why the idea of micro volunteering is such a good idea.  For lots of people committing to a day or half a day of volunteering a week just isn’t an option.

Micro volunteering is just what it sounds like a short burst of feel good volunteering.

Fortunately for you (and us) at Win on Waste our activities are ideal for people looking to do some good but in a limited time frame.

At the most if you volunteer for a full session you are looking at a maximum of 3 hours one Saturday a month, (assuming a 2 hour session with set up and tidy up) and not all sessions are 2 hours long.

However if this still a step too far for you at the minute – how about 30 mins – if you could come along at the end of a session you could help bag up and weigh items, or help set up at the beginning. 

Most of our sessions are in central locations so you could combine your volunteering with another Saturday morning chore or even something more fun! Whatever your Saturday plans we’ve got a session that will fit in.

For example, if you were helping at Poole – you could drop off your own collected items, help out for half an hour and meet a friend for lunch in The Spire café, or go on a thrifting session (I found the almost most perfect dress in a charity shop in Poole the other day – almost in that it was a size too small!)

Our Hamworthy, Kinson and Oakdale sessions are at the local library – you could pick up some new library books, drop off your own collected items and help out for half an hour (and if you don’t have a library card why not – free books what’s not to love?!)

If you need to do shopping on a Saturday morning then our Parkstone session is just in the right place, drop off your own collected items, help out for half an hour, then do your shopping.

Fancy a bit of lunch after then do you know how many restaurants and cafes there are near to our Southbourne session, no neither do we – there were too many to count! I’m not making any recommendations as I haven’t tried them all yet but I’m always up for a challenge. So how about but how about dropping off your own collected items, helping for half an hour, then taking a walk through Southbourne for a bit too eat!

Our Christchurch session is just off the High Street, so lots of options, but how about dropping off your own collected items, helping for half an hour, then taking a walk through the gardens and down to the Quay.

In Corfe Mullen – the session is on at St Nicholas’ Church, so you could drop off your own collected items, help for half an hour then enjoy a coffee (or similar) in the café – meet a friend or just take a book and give yourself a half hour break (GASP!)

If you need to get your steps in at our Lytchett Matravers session – you could off your own collected items, help for half an hour, then take a walk – the WI have some lovely ideas – you could start with a couple of laps of the rec and build up – there’s even one that’s over 13 miles (which may not be best for a Saturday lunchtime stroll!)

Win on Waste Sessions in August 2025

9 of our sessions are up and running this month, as some of our teams take a well-deserved break for the summer – details below and on the linked pages.

As previously advised, the plastic lunchbox/bottle programme, and the household cleaning programme have now sadly closed, so we are unable to take this waste any longer.

Win on Waste Sessions in July 2025

All of our sessions are up and running this month – details below and on the linked pages.

As previously advised, the plastic lunchbox/bottle programme has now sadly closed, so we are unable to take this waste any longer.

This will also be the final month for cleaning/laundry packaging across all sessions – apologies for any inconvenience.

Win on Waste Recycling Awards 2025 – Now Open for Nominations

Win on Waste is excited to announce that nominations are now open for Dorset’s top recyclers in 2025!

After our successful event in 2023, which also celebrated our 10th Birthday, this year we will be rewarding local recyclers across seven categories at an event on 27th September. This year’s event coincides with #RecycleWeek, a national initiative to encourage people to increase and improve their recycling, at home or at work.

It is so important to recognise dedicated recyclers who are giving so much of their time to help the environment and also encourage others to refuse, reuse and recycle – we know that there are so many incredible local people making a difference, so now it’s your turn to nominate them!

The standard of nominations at the previous event was incredibly high, and we’ve been amazed and, in many cases, humbled when we’ve seen exactly how much they’ve achieved, and how much they are valued by their communities.

So, talking of nomination forms, we’d love to see lots for the Recycling Awards this year.

These are the categories:

  1. Adult recycler (18+)
  2. A team of recyclers from a private/statutory/voluntary organisation (where its main business is recycling)
  3. A team of recycling volunteers (a group of individuals who come together to recycle)
  4. The No 1 recycler (a person who has really gone the extra mile)
  5. Young recycler (age 17 and under)
  6. A private/statutory/voluntary organisation whose employees recycle (but not where its main business is recycling)
  7. School or college

To nominate, download our nomination form (in Word or PDF format), complete and either email or post it to us by the closing date of Sunday 10th August. Please do check with the nominee before you submit a nomination – we will require some contact information, so must be sure that they are happy for you to give it.

We’re really looking forward to reading all about the recycling action your nominee is taking to help make the environment, and especially their local area, the bit better!

Download the Nomination Form:

Microsoft Word

PDF Version

Win on Waste Sessions in June 2025

10 of our sessions are up and running this month – details below and on the linked pages.

As previously advised, the plastic lunchbox/bottle programme has now sadly closed, so we are unable to take this waste any longer.

Win on Waste Sessions in May 2025

All of our 11 sessions are up and running this month – details below and on the linked pages.

As previously advised, the dental waste programme has now been closed, and this has now been joined by the programme collecting coffee and tea waste. The coffee waste can now be widely recycled in supermarket soft plastic collections.

Win on Waste Sessions in April 2025

Due to the Easter weekend, our Corfe Mullen and Southbourne sessions will NOT be running in April, but the remainder are unaffected – details below and on the linked pages.

As previously advised, the dental waste programme has now been closed, and this has now been joined by the programme collecting coffee and tea waste. The coffee waste can now be widely recycled in supermarket soft plastic collections.

A Successful Fortnight for Win on Waste!

Poole-based environmental charity, Win on Waste, is celebrating after success in two local awards programmes over the past two weeks.

Marion Burton (Trustee) and Stacey Woods (Business Manager) accept the Green/Eco Business Award at the Wimborne Business Awards.

On 20th March, Win on Waste volunteers in Wimborne were awarded Gold in the ‘Green/Eco’ category of the Wimborne Business Awards and this was followed by the whole team being named winners of the ‘Green’ category at the CAN (Community Action Network) Voluntary Service Awards on 27th March.

Stacey Woods, Business Manager at Win on Waste said ‘These awards are a testament to the hard work of our volunteers across East Dorset’. She continued, ‘As a volunteer-led organisations, we rely on the commitment of our volunteers, plus their knowledge and expertise – we could not do the work we do without them – so to see them rewarded locally is fantastic!’.

Stacey Woods (Business Manager), Marion Burton (Trustee), Linda Bunting (Recycling Ambassador), Richard Burton (Trustee) and Harriet Sephton (Trustee) accept the Green CAN Voluntary Service Award.

Based in Poole, but working across 11 areas of East Dorset, Win on Waste provides community-based waste collection sessions, where local people can bring a range of hard-to-recycle waste. This is then sorted and diverted towards good causes who can use these items for their fundraising or projects.

Last year, Win on Waste welcomed over 4000 local households to 124 sessions, and kept 2.5 tonnes of common household waste out of general waste and recycling systems.

Sessions are ongoing in 11 locations across East Dorset, including in Southbourne, Wimborne and Corfe Mullen. Full information on sessions and the items collected can be found at www.winonwaste.org

Win on Waste Sessions in March 2025

We’re back in 11 areas of Dorset in March, with the details below and on the linked pages.

As previously advised, the dental waste programme has now been closed, and this has now been joined by the programme collecting coffee and tea waste. The coffee waste can now be widely recycled in supermarket soft plastic collections.