Bins can only get better! A Rubbish Diet update.

Hello.  Remember me?  It's been a while since Zero Waste Week, but I am still here.  Well, here, there and everywhere.  Putting one foot in, one foot out, doing the hokey cokey and shaking it all about.

Lots of great things have been happening in the world of The Rubbish Diet recently and to keep you in the loop here's a quick run down!


Revamped website:

If you haven't seen the new website lately, please do pop over to www.therubbishdiet.org.uk where the team has been busy populating it with new stories as well as a growing list of top tips.   If you still haven't signed up to do The Rubbish Diet Challenge, now's a great time to see if you can have a go at slimming your bins by Christmas.  What a great way to end the new year!


Facebook page:

Despite me being totally pants at Facebook, we now also have a Facebook page, thanks to the dedicated social-media elves at Rubbish Diet HQ.  That's the beauty of collaboration and teamwork!  Do pop over and have a look,  It would be great if you could like it and invite your rubbish busting friends.  The more the merrier, as they say.   More details at  www.facebook.com/therubbishdiet


Harrow Rubbish Diet:

It's with great excitement that I can announce that The Rubbish Diet is being rolled out in Harrow, West London, and we have appointed a Bin Doctor to help make that happen.  Debra Alexis has already taken up the post and you can find out more about her here.  If you live in Harrow and can help spread the word about the Harrow Rubbish Diet challenge that's launching in January, please do get in touch with Debra.


Awards & Competitions:

Excitement is also building over the prospect of the CIWM awards this Thursday, where the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet is shortlisted for an award in the Media Communications Campaign category.  I'm travelling down with presenter Mark Murphy and his production team that championed the campaign. It would be brilliant to bring such a prestigious prize back to Suffolk and celebrate once more the support and good work of all the participants. 

Hot on the heels of the awards is also next week's NESTA interview, where the team behind The Rubbish Diet joint venture, will be making our final pitch for a £50K prize to invest in rolling out the diet in more communities around the UK.   Imagine that!  It would be simply awesome.  It was our finalist position in NESTA's waste reduction competition that funded the development of our website and the Rubbish Diet trials in Suffolk, Shropshire & Powys, so the chance to support even more communities would be an amazing opportunity. 


ScrapstoresUK:

Not directly linked to The Rubbish Diet, but still very important to me, I have recently accepted an invitation to join the board of trustees at ScrapstoresUK, an umbrella organisation and charity that supports the work of Scrapstores and resource centres, which reuse surplus and waste resources from retailers and manufacturers as supplies for children's art & crafts.  Scrapstores are always looking for more suppliers of materials as well as volunteers.  More information at www.scrapstoresuk.org.


Media Representation:

And last but certainly not least, having received an increasing amount of interest to contribute to media productions on both radio & TV,  I have taken the huge step and signed with Sue Rider Management, a fantastic agency that is now working with me on some exciting developments.  While I swoon in awe at the agency's other clients, I am doing my utmost to remain grounded between bouts of running around with great excitement at the prospect of even more 'rubbish' adventures to come.  I think the words to use are: watch this space.



I think the theme of this update is most definitely one of great excitement about all that's happening, but amidst this I am naturally still keeping an eye on what's happening in the wider world of waste.  If only I'd had time to blog after the RWM exhibition in September, I'd have applauded some of the great work that the Co-operative is doing to backhaul its recycling from the network of small stores to its distribution centres.  And as for Ann Summers, the company's 50 Shades of Waste presentation was a real revelation - and a very pleasant one at that! And what about the latest news from Tesco eh! Finally, a supermarket publicly announcing their levels of waste in fresh produce and committing to reduce it.


And finally our ITV family, The Heaps, who were recently featured on Tonight's Throwaway Britain, are maintaining their slimmer bin at 95% of its former self.

Now that really is great news!

I shall indeed be back soon with more.  Thank you as ever for following and supporting the adventures of The Rubbish Diet and this Almost Mrs Average.  You are lovely!