The Rubbish Diet could be coming to a town near you!

The Rubbish Diet team visiting Nesta!

Please excuse my tardiness in sharing this VERY EXCITING news with you. 

I should have done it last week, but with news of my mum falling ill, then rushing to Wales to see her, then losing my laptop en route, and continued worries about her health, understandably this blog has had to take a back seat.

However, I can't keep it quiet any longer!  What's happening with The Rubbish Diet is far too exciting to keep tucked away in my desk drawers and if you follow me on Twitter, you may have indeed caught a few snippets of the news.

So to the sound of an imaginary drum-roll, I am chuffed to pieces to announce that my Rubbish Diet challenge has been selected as a semi-finalist in a national waste reduction competition, which could see the 'slimming club' analogy rolled out to villages, towns and cities, right across the UK, helping communities achieve an amazing impact on reducing their rubbish.

The Waste Reduction Challenge, run by Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation, and funded by the Cabinet Office, aims to identify new ideas that can influence and mobilise communities to make significant reductions in waste and impact behaviour for years to come.

In partnership with the Zero Waste Alliance UK (working with Katy Anderson, pictured above), the Rubbish Diet competition entry proposes to engage with established community groups around the UK, including schools, Transition Towns and W.I. branches, to help them organise their own waste-busting challenges, following an 8-week plan of fun and lively events that will help to empower households to slim their bins.

The idea is, of course, based on the very roots of this blog, when I took St Edmundsbury Borough Council's Zero Waste Week Challenge almost five years ago, (remember that plaster?), and which then developed into the online Rubbish Diet Challenge 2012, where I mentored 8 households through the process of slimming their bins, by at least 50%, at the beginning of this year.


Building on that, I have since been busy with Transition Shrewsbury, which has already launched its Rubbish Diet Shropshire community pilot, where 20 households have signed up to reduce their waste.  This is just the first stage. The Rubbish Diet Shropshire project, which is being managed locally, will launch even wider in the new year,  with events run by the community for the community, with households just like yours and mine, sharing knowledge about how they reduce their waste and attempting to overcome the hurdles that arise.

And it's that process, which the Nesta Waste Reduction Challenge will help to replicate around the UK.

So, we're in the semi-finals!  What next?

This is where even more hard work begins, in putting together an ambitious but realistic plan to roll-out the Rubbish Diet challenge next year, featuring a communications strategy, participant engagement, measuring & monitoring procedures and lots of other exciting things that will help communities launch their own slimming clubs for bins.

So, there really really could be a fun Rubbish Diet challenge coming to an area near you.  Just imagine!

We just need to get through the next round! But, boy, is the competition tough! So please keep watching this space for further news.

And of course, if you think your community would like to join in, then do get in touch.

___________________________________

The Waste Reduction Challenge Prize is offering a prize for the innovation that achieves the biggest measureable reduction in waste, by providing new opportunities for communities to come together to give time, skills and resources.

The semi-finalists (which also includes a Mattress Recycling Scheme in my home county of Suffolk) will be supported to develop a detailed plan for their idea. In January, five concepts for each, with the potential for sustainability and scale, will be selected to test their ideas. They will receive up to £10,000 and professional advice to set up and test their projects before a winner for each challenge is selected in September 2013 and awarded £50,000.

The Rubbish Diet Challenge 2012 - And you're invited!

Next Monday on 23rd Jan, I am launching the Rubbish Diet Challenge 2012.

And I am inviting you to take part, along with your friends and family and even colleagues at work.

Your mission will be to find ways of slimming your rubbish bin and you will have 8 weeks to do it.  In the final week, if you want to push the limits and create a name for yourself, there's even the chance to attempt a Zero Waste Week.

Rubbish and waste management is still a huge problem in the UK and even though recycling targets and are being increased and often met by local authorities, we still have a long way to go in tackling the wider issue of waste reduction.

I believe that people power is a key component to tackling the country's waste problem.

The Rubbish Diet Challenge aims to empower average households everywhere to do something positive about waste reduction at home or at work, even if it's just taking the opportunity to learn that little bit more about local recycling, tackling food waste or encouraging your council or community to introduce a new recycling bank.

During the next 8 weeks I want to take you on a journey of discovery, and I know I'm going to learn a whole of host of new things myself.

And just with any other diet, there will be regular weigh-ins, starting on Monday, when I will be introducing some of the families, whom I will be personally mentoring over the course of the next couple of months.

But this will not be formulaic. I have no idea of the outcomes, which I confess makes me slightly nervous. At the moment I don't know much about their rubbish, or how low they will go, but I look forward to finding out more as we investigate different lifestyles and recycling issues from all around Suffolk, London, Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire and even New York City.

So if you want to join in and be part of the conversation, come back on Monday and find out more. In the meantime, if you want to know more about the challenge itself and see what's going to be coming up week-by-week, take a look at the Rubbish Diet Challenge page on this blog, which features links to an online guide to the next eight weeks.

So are you up for it?

I hope so!

And if you want to join in the conversation on Twitter too, tweet @KarenCannard. sharing your results, questions and thoughts, using the hashtag #TheRubbishDiet

________________________________________________________

Background info: The Rubbish Diet Challenge is based on my own experience of taking my local council's Zero Waste Week challenge in 2008.  As a result, our family's household waste reduced from almost a full wheelie bin's worth of rubbish per fortnight to what now is on average one carrier bag's worth per month.  Since then, The Rubbish Diet has been featured in all sorts of places including BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and C4 Dispatches  It also inspired a national Zero Waste Week, which is the creation of Mrs Green over at My Zero Waste.

Disclaimer: If you're looking for picture of a perfectly empty bin, or an all-singing-dancing industry expert, I am not that kind of girl.  I'm simply an average woman, who still battles against her own family's rubbish habits, but who happens to know how to deal with it and has a passion for tickling people into wanting to find out more about theirs.  But I do confess to being a geeky waste groupie and poking my nose into the world of new technologies, meddling with my local council and talking rubbish at conferences.

For more info email: karen[at]therubbishdiet[dot]co.[dot]uk

Almost Mrs Average gets to speak at waste exhibition

It was a real honour to speak yesterday at RWM, the UK's largest recycling and waste management exhibition, especially as I was sharing the stage with the very inspiring Joy Bizzard, chair of the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC)

The context was very much how local authorities can engage with householders to help individuals and communities reduce waste.  Joy's presentation was packed with advice on how councils can raise awareness and find new ways to inspire new audiences, despite the current economic culture of squeezed budgets.

The area that particularly interested me was the subject of peer endorsement, i.e., the difference that can be made by engaging ordinary members of the public to share their own stories amongst their peer groups.  It's a subject that has fascinated me for a long time and certainly set the scene for me telling my own tale of the Zero Waste challenge that I undertook in 2008 and the events that have unfolded since.

It is an extremely surreal experience addressing an audience of waste and recycling professionals.  I've done it a couple of times before and it's very difficult not to feel like a waste geek groupie, especially when you know how hard officers are working to battle against the problem of waste, which comes with its own set of economic and contractual constraints, misguided government strategies and often divisive public opinion.

And as I said yesterday, I am no expert in behaviour change. I can only tell my own personal story.  However, since taking St Edmundsbury's Zero Waste Week challenge in 2008, I have become more aware of the challenges that exist, the opportunities that are available and the need for formerly disparate groups to work together in accepting increased responsibility, whether that's producer responsibility, local authority responsibility, individual responsibility or from further along the waste chain.

In context to yesterday's event, I really feel that to work towards the UK's 2020 Zero Waste goal, local authorities are going to need to work harder and smarter in engaging their immediate community groups and actively seek out more formal relationships with individuals, who are themselves happy to inspire others within their own communities.

Last week, I made this very point at the Making 2020 Zero Waste Work conference in Coventry.  So you can just imagine my delight, whilst returning home from yesterday's exhibition, I read news of a volunteer training programme that's been rolled out by Zero Waste Scotland.  It's fabulous news that the Scottish agency has already created a blueprint for this and are putting such ideas into practice, having itself been inspired by the Master Composter network.

And for any doubters, who might raise an eyebrow over the effectiveness of such action, I could highlight many examples of personal stories that I've received from my own community where I've seen the impact locally.  But even more significantly than that, I'd like to point readers in the direction of one of the most successful peer endorsement case studies of the last three years, and that's the story of  "My Zero Waste".

You may have to enlarge the photo below, but pictured at the centre of the presentation slide is the Strauss family, who were unknown to me four years ago.  However, thanks to St Edmundsbury Borough Council engaging me in a Zero Waste challenge, and as a result of me writing about it on the Internet and my story being broadcast widely on national radio, word soon got around.  Rachelle Strauss noticed and consequently felt empowered to reduce her own family's household waste.  Driven by environmental concern, she led the way in creating her website, www.myzerowaste.com, attracting a growing community of people keen to seek advice and share ideas about reducing their waste.  This year Rachelle hosted her 4th National Zero Waste Week, a simple grassroots campaign that received over 12,000 hits within just a few days of being announced at the end of August.

Yesterday's visit to RWM was most certainly an interesting one and my only regret is that I didn't get a chance to have a proper gander around the exhibition, but that's only because I was too busy catching up with some of the folk who spend their professional lives trying to inspire others.  I'll just have to make sure I visit next year.

Me, Me, Me...Revisiting Almost Mrs Average

Hello, hello, hello. I'm back from my "week off" and it's been a fun old week consisting of experiments with yoghurt, making a Jedi costume and drinking cider with Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley...

...okay, I exaggerate...Tony Hadley was in the same room while opening the East Anglian Beer Festival in Bury St Edmunds. We didn't quite get the opportunity to chew the fat over a beer, but we did engage in some brief banter while he was posing for press photos on the other side of the bar.

Anyway, we start the week with the news that The Rubbish Diet is featured in our regional newspaper, The East Anglian Daily Times and I'd like to extend a warm welcome to readers who have popped over as a result. Also a huge thank you to Sheena Grant for such a great write-up.

It's fabulous to be back. I really did miss the blog last week.

As ever there was so much happening in the world of trash, I was itching to get out my laptop and add my two-penneth, but in honour of International Downshifting Week, I managed to refrain.

Instead, I took the opportunity to have a good old ponder over the events of the last few months. I still find it bizarre how having reduced our family's landfill waste has led to so much attention and that it has had such an impact on how others look at their rubbish.

However, it really is great when people tell me their stories of how they now rethink their habits, e.g. a mother from school who now uses containers rather than clingfilm for packed lunches, another mum who's changed her toiletries for products that use recyclable packaging and there's regular reader Baba, whose household has even developed a new catchphrase. Apparently "I'll tell Amost Mrs Average" can often be heard amongst the four walls of their kitchen, when pondering throwing things away.

...All from having set up a blog and talking rubbish to anyone who'll listen.

Some people may have described me as an eco-warrior, campaigner or an activist. I'm not quite sure if that is true. I'm just someone who thrives in a creative environment and loves to share a few good ideas (and some frustrations) through the joys of writing.

At the end of the day, I am still your Almost Mrs Average. I'm the same person who set up this blog 3 months ago when I decided to take personal responsibility for our household waste, joining a whole host of other people who are already doing the same thing but who are not eccentric enough or have got better things to do than to write about their efforts.

When you think about it, trying to reduce your rubbish shouldn't be anything special as it's no different to taking personal responsibility for looking after your home and garden, your finances or your diet. It's just a simple lifestyle choice, which like many other decisions offers a positive change to your personal life.

It's like having a blimming good declutter. Call it Feng Shui for your bin if you like and the best thing is, you don't have to be rich, green or eccentric. It's something that an average person can happily attempt, even if it means reducing your rubbish by just 10%.

I suppose you could think of me as an old-fashioned girl who takes advantage of 21st Century opportunities, enjoying modern life with a sensible approach. If I get given the odd carrier bag, I won't fall to the power of guilt in the same way as I don't confuse common sense with obsessiveness.

You certainly won't find me telling people where to stick their rubbish and I definitely wouldn't want to teach grannies (or indeed grandpas) how to suck eggs. That would be rather rude.

I'm just happy to carry on with my tales of ordinary living, some of which will make you laugh and some will make you cringe. I only hope that whatever the outcome, they will continue to inspire.

And on that note, I hope that regular readers managed to have a gander at Ruby's Rubbish update which she posted on her Living in Bury St Edmunds blog. I'll be summarising Ruby's efforts later this week, but the big update is that she's now also set up her own rubbish blog, which you can find at www.rubysrubbishblog.blogspot.com. It's worth taking a look to see how she is being affected by the problem of overpackaging.

Another blogger who will be trying her hand at her own Rubbish Diet soon is Jo Beaufoix at www.jobeaufoix.com. Jo is busy doing an audit on her rubbish this week, so we can work out the easiest way to slim her bins. There'll be more on that soon.

So with Ruby being "Miss April" and Jo signing up as "Miss May", if there are any volunteers who also fancy having a go at slimming their own bins and who want to join up for June, just drop me a line at enquiries@therubbishdiet.co.uk.

I can see The Rubbish Diet calendar coming can't you? - Now that would be a fun project, as long as it could be recycled of course.

The other big feature that is coming up this week is an interview with Andy Hamilton, one of the twins behind www.selfsufficientish.com and their new book The Selfsufficient-ish Bible. So watch this space to find out more about their book, what it was like being on BBC Breakfast's famous red sofa and of course what they've got in their bins.

Oh, and I might also tell you about my visit to the cobblers! Such excitement I know. I always like to leave a good cliff-hanger!
____________________________________________________________________

The BBC, landfill and my own back garden

I know it's April 1st but I promise you this is no April Fool.

When I woke up yesterday morning I had no idea that by the evening I would have a BBC news team in my back garden, filming my recycling habits for today's Breakfast programme on BBC One.

Again, I know it's April Fool's Day, but the issue being covered is no joke. Today the landfill charge is being increased by £8 per tonne of waste in a major step by the government to encourage businesses and householders to recycle and compost more of their waste.

In financial terms, this means that the cost of waste disposal in the UK's landfill facilities will rise from £24 per tonne to £32 per tonne. Until now annual increases have been just £3 per tonne. However it appears likely that we will see further increases at the new level until at least 2010, when landfill tax is expected to reach £48 per tonne.

So it looks like there is something else to hit our pockets. Talk about kicking a man when he's already down and brow-beaten by other economic problems, but if our country has to meet the targets set by the European Landfill Directive, drastic action is needed.

If each and every one of us had to bury our own waste in our own back gardens, surely we would want to do something about reducing it well before the authorities come knocking on our door.

We are simply running out of space in the country's back garden, which we call landfill. Already this week we've seen Plymouth's landfill site close because it is full to capacity. The city's waste in now destined for alternative facilities in neighbouring Cornwall. Our local facilities in Suffolk are facing the same issues, with space expected to run out in six years time.

So it is no coincidence that more and more councils are choosing to change household waste collection to a bi-weekly service, with the aim of encouraging people to reduce their rubbish.

At the moment I don't mind paying the extra council tax that will need to be recovered to cope with the issue, as it will be a while yet before society gets used to having to reduce our levels of household and business waste. I just hope that some of the money collected by government is invested in improving recycling facilities to help alleviate the problems.

However, ask me the same question in a couple of years time when I might be a lot more hacked off if I have to pay for a share for my neighbours' waste to be dumped. I may not be so generous.

In the meantime, consumers should not become the "fall-guys" of waste management problems. The whole manufacturing and retail chain needs to demonstrate significant changes to help us reach the targets set by Europe. Councils across the UK also need to provide comprehensive recycling facilities that are both easy to use and effective. I feel lucky that our local authority offers excellent recycling services. I would certainly not be happy paying a local council for dumping my landfill waste on the basis of poor local facilities.

However, let's look on the bright side as it's not all doom and gloom. I recently highlighted on the Sustained website, the figures from Defra which reveal that non-recycled waste levels were lower in 2006/2007 than those recorded in 1983/1984. Having peaked in 2000 at 450 kilos per person, the annual figure for 2006/2007 was down to 351 kilos per person.

What this shows is that there are lots of folk out there who are already slimming their bins and having talked rubbish with so many others, I know there are plenty more people out there who would like to take proactive action too. We just need to capture their imagination and show them how easy it can be.

Anyway, if you're up early you'll see me briefly demonstrating my own recycling facilities on today's BBC Breakfast and later on News 24. Look closely and you may even get to see my lovely wormery. So it's definitely a case of the early bird catches the worm and all that.

Addendum: Have just come back from an interview at a Suffolk landfill site, which should also be on the BBC1 lunchtime news as well as other broadcasts throughout the day.

Useful sources:

More information on the 2008 budget and landfill tax can be found at Lets Recycle. Waste disposal statistics can be found at Defra.
____________________________________________________________________