Don't be a tosser and other Suffolk rubbish news!

I interrupt this broadcast with the news that there will be a slight delay in publishing the latest guide to The Rubbish Diet Challenge, on account that I've been tied up in Suffolk all day.

When I say "tied up", I'd like to reassure you that I haven't actually been physically restrained or strapped to my wheelie bin and dragged around the county.  I've actually been busy floating between a whole range of exciting projects that have been launched today.

 

The morning kicked off with a live interview with BBC Radio Suffolk's producer Philippa Taylor, at my local bus stop, for the station's Breakfast Show.

The interview was part of Mark Murphy's annual "Don't be a Tosser" anti-litter campaign, which promotes the county's Keep Suffolk Clean project to raise awareness of the amount of rubbish that is dropped around Suffolk and to inspire local communities to tackle it.

Now I know that looks like my coat in the poster, but I promise you it wasn't me who dropped the litter guv!   It's just not my style to toss cans or bottles or indeed anything else in our street, so don't worry, I've not been up on a charge of being a litter lout.  I'm actually fully supporting the campaign and was being interviewed to help raise awareness of the litter in my locality and to see if I could pull together some community help for a local litter pick.  In fact, if you've been wondering what I'm doing in the photo at the top of the blog, I'm actually holding up a broken umbrella that was one of the many items that had been dumped behind the bus shelter. If only I'd had an old leather bag to accompany it, I'd have looked like a modern day Mary Poppins.

So having put out a call for some enthusiastic litter pickers and then sharing the good news that our council has ordered a bin for the bus stop, the next task was the Seven Suffolk's Street's Waste Reduction Fortnight, which also kicks off in my street today.   Hooray, after months of talking about it, it's finally here.

But there's no peace for the wicked you know and my first stop was to drop into our school's morning assembly, to see the Eco Team's presentation of new recycling and composting bins, which under their guidance will help the school reduce its classroom, staffroom and office waste.

The staff were also keen to weigh my latest fortnightly rubbish in public, which at 700 grammes was unusually heavy thanks to Mr A bringing the bread-bin back into service - without my knowledge, I hasten to add - and consequently leaving half a loaf in there to rot..  Typical eh, but shows that food waste accidents can happen even in a waste aware household and despite my most polite suggestion, he didn't really fancy chewing on it for today's lunch!

So if you're wondering what 700 grammes of rubbish looks like, I can shamefully reveal it below, before proudly stating that at least the size of that bag is still a tenth of what we used to throw away in a fortnight.  Just over two years ago, this bin would have been full.

And no sooner had I wheeled out my bin, the refuse lorry arrived, along with the lovely recycling officers from Suffolk and St Edmundsbury \ Forest Heath councils, who'd come to monitor the launch of our street's waste reduction project.

As I had my camera, I took a few more snaps for the cause, both on my street...

..

...and at our school.   Just look at the size of that bin - it'd take me a good couple of years to fill that!

Now although I'm keen, it's not as though I'm like a groupie or anything so I quickly left the professionals to their work and scooted back home for the next appointment in my diary, which was an interview with the lovely Anna Makepeace from Suffolk's Creating the Greenest County project...and Chris, her very patient cameraman.

 
Despite being distracted by camera envy, I tried to answer Anna's questions as best as I could, without gurning too much and ensuring that I managed at least one big blooper for the DVD, which will feature all the candidates that have been shortlisted for the Greenest County awards.  You can see the full shortlist here at www.greensuffolk.org.

So amongst all this news I would also like to apologise for being unable to publish Week 8 of The Rubbish Diet Challenge today.  If you've been looking forward to the finale, I'm afraid we'll have to postpone that excitement until tomorrow, but I hope with the sparklers I've got planned, it will really be worth the wait.

What a busy day eh! I'm actually quite proud about what I've managed to fit in to help promote Suffolk's various campaigns.

The only irony of it all, is that I'm actually Welsh! 


So as it's St David's Day, I'm going to give a blimmin' huge plug for that too...and treat you to a retro look from my home village inWales, circa 1974.  Check out the little imp, third row up, second from left.  She's not looking bad despite having eaten the previous night's leftover Angel Delight for breakfast!

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