ABOUT

The Rubbish Diet blog is a personal blog written by Karen Cannard, a housewife and now freelance writer, based in Bury St Edmunds, where she lives with her husband and two young children.  The blog was only intended to last for just 8 weeks, to chart Karen's attempts at slimming down her bin for Zero Waste Week in March 2008.  However, having realised the importance of the issue, it has since been impossible to shut the woman up and went on to inspire many others. As a result, Karen's work was shortlisted in the 2009 Media Guardian Awards for Innovation, in the Independent Media category and was also a finalist in the CIWM awards for Environmental Excellence in the category of Recycling Champion.  For 2013, her work with BBC Radio Suffolk has seen the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet being shortlisted in the Media Communications Campaign category and as a joint-winner in the Green Suffolk awards.

The Rubbish Diet challenge has been made even simpler over at the new website: www.therubbishdiet.org.uk, where working in partnership with Powys social enterprise Cwm Harry, 'Bin Doctors' are even available in certain parts of the country.  Thousands of people have already signed up, so please join them and give it a go.

Karen is also a regular guest on BBC Radio Suffolk and has made appearances on The One Show,  Channel 4's Dispatches, ITV1's Tonight documentary 'Throwaway Britain', Woman's Hour, BBC Wales, Heart FM as well as BBC London, BBC Three Counties Radio and BBC Essex.

She is also a motivating speaker and in the last three years has presented at a range of events including the Zero Waste Dialogue 2013 in San Francisco, CIWM 2013 and the Recycling and Waste Management conference (RWM with CIWM) at the NEC in Birmingham. 


More information about what Karen gets up to is also available at www.karencannard.co.uk.


A few shiny accolades

"The Rubbish Diet shines a worthy spotlight on Karen Cannard; an entertaining and realistic writer, who tackles waste reduction in a practical and encouraging way."  
Tracey Smith, Writer/Broadcaster Sustainable Living

  

"She does have this way of inspiring you!"

James Hazell, Presenter, BBC Radio Suffolk

"The Rubbish Diet is not complicated and it's a brilliant way to make a big difference very quickly "  

Tony Juniper, Campaigner, writer and sustainability adviser

"Having slimmed down her bin to 'almost size zero' Karen Cannard aims to encourage us to do the same"  

The Times

BEING green, like other good causes, starts at home, and there's no better place to start than your bin... 'Almost Mrs Average' leads the way with her running commentary of wheelie bin 'weigh-ins'.

Scotland on Sunday

"Karen has helped influence and inspire thousands of other recyclers and the judges liked her slogan: It's not about living with less - it's simply about living with less waste"
The CIWM Awards for Environmental Excellence 2009.
Shortlisted for the Recycling Champion category

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