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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Knock Knock: Who's there? It's a rubbish blogger in Brandon!

So today was the day I volunteered to help promote the Seven Suffolk Streets waste reduction project in Crown Street, Brandon, which is the area that's taking part in the Forest Heath district of Suffolk.

And it was a cold, wet and snowy day, certainly not the weather for walking the streets.

But it was a case of simply wrapping up warm and getting on with the job in hand, which was to knock on strangers' doors to raise awareness of the waste reduction project that's taking place in two weeks time.

Despite having my official's badge, I must say it was rather a daunting task.  I might have got used to presenting at conferences and doing radio interviews about ways to reduce waste, but knocking on doors is different.  It's a little more intimate and it's difficult to know how people will react, so I can only admire the other door-knockers who have been pounding the streets over the last two weeks on behalf of the Suffolk Waste Partnership.


But as with most fears, I needn't have worried, because most people who answered my rata-tat-tats or ring-a-ding-dings of the doorbells were interested in the issues and keen to take part.  And in certain cases the team - which was made up of me and David whom I introduced last week - got a very warm welcome indeed, with residents being happy to talk about waste issues that affected them.  It was also a great opportunity to introduce new services that had been rolled out at the local household waste recycling centres.

So after a day out on the streets, I am now glad to be tucked up in the warmth of my home and would like to wish Crown Street lots of luck in the challenge ahead.  I also hope that it's a lot sunnier when David and the other regular door-knockers return to visit the rest of the street soon.

I'll certainly be thinking of them... from the comfort of my blog! 

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On the street where I live

David & Halle, promoting the Seven Suffolk Streets project

It's always great to see a friendly face when you're out and about and as it happens, just as I was arriving home yesterday, I bumped into David and Halle, a couple of our local master composters, who are promoting the Seven Suffolk Streets project on behalf of the Suffolk Waste Partnership.

If you haven't heard of the project before, it's one of the Zero Waste places announced by Defra last year and which has received funding from BREW to help reduce the amount of waste across the county.

Each of the seven districts in Suffolk has selected one street to be the focus of the waste reduction campaign and as you can guess, my very own street is one of the lucky few, as chosen by St Edmundsbury Borough Council.

In November residents received a letter outlining the project as well as a questionnaire about their rubbish and over the last couple of weeks, door-knockers have been visiting homes to introduce the idea in more detail and to offer additional knowledge if needed.

It's all leading up to Waste Reduction Fortnight, which will take place in March, encouraging residents, businesses and schools to have a go at reducing their rubbish by 50%. And the best news is, no extra bins are needed, just extra signposting to local facilities that exist nearby.

Waste Reduction Fortnight kicks off in our street on 1st March, when our previous rubbish will be weighed for the very first time on bin day. To measure the success of the project, the bins will be weighed for the second and final time two weeks later on 15th March.

So far, it seems that residents have been very happy to take part, which is brilliant, not just regarding waste reduction, but also because there will be prizes for the streets that perform the best too! So, we could be onto a real winner for our neighbourhood!

And I am glad that people have responded positively, because I'm going to be doing a bit of door-knocking too, not on my home patch, but joining the crew in Brandon. So if you live up that way, look out because very soon I could be coming to a street near you.

All I can say is, I hope the weather warms up because yesterday I had to rescue David and Halle from a hailstorm that fell thick and fast soon after I took the photo. So keep your fingers crossed, as I don't fair well in the cold.

More information about the Seven Suffolk Streets project can be found at the Suffolk Recycling website: www.suffolkrecycling.org.uk.
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A sense of déjà vu: but this time we've got company

I've got some really exciting news about the Seven Suffolk Streets project about which I wrote a few weeks ago.

We received a letter today announcing that St Edmundsbury has selected our street to be part of a major waste reduction project, which is being co-ordinated by the Suffolk Waste Partnership. And over the next few months residents will have the opportunity to sign-up and find out ways in which households can volunteer to halve the amount of waste that's currently sent to landfill.

The idea is that during March next year, fellow residents will attempt to cut our rubbish by half for a Waste Reduction Fortnight, which is a whole collection period. There won't be any extra wheelie bins laid on for additional waste streams. It's simply about raising awareness of recycling opportunities that already exist and sharing tips about reducing waste.

Of course I am very excited that our household can be part of this project. However, at the same time I am extremely nervous too and I'm not sure why.

It's not that I think we'll have any problems throwing out so little waste. It's actually the opposite. We haven't put out our black wheelie bin since February thanks to having very little rubbish and we only had to put it out then because of some cat litter and giblets. Before that the last time we dragged out our black bin was the beginning of January.

I'm not even worried about filling out the questionnaire, which goes into detail about the stuff that gets thrown in our bin. Because of all my previous rubbish antics there is the issue that the recycling officers will know who I am and will also learn exactly what I throw away. But I'm pretty comfortable with that too.




So I might as well admit here that I'll be simply ticking the box marked "Pet Waste" and then "Other", specifying details such as odd crisp packets, sweetie wrappers,plastic foil wrappers from collectors cards, polystyrene, old pens and pieces of broken toys. Geez, that's a far cry from two years ago when I would have been ticking all the other boxes. Shows how times have changed eh!

Of course, where I would have once been nervous about any media attention that such a project could potentially bring, these days I'm now comfortable with that too and am much more confident than I was almost two years ago when my voice trembled during the Woman's Hour radio recordings - and that wasn't even live! Since, I've been happy to go on air and regularly chat about my exploits to anyone in Suffolk who'll merrily listen. Thanks to the new project, I am sure there will be other community champions who will come forward and will be keen to support the initiative too.

So really, this time around, there should be absolutely nothing for me to worry about at all. There'll be advisers on hand to give help and advice and we'll even get a visit from the Recycling Bus. There'll also be compost give-aways, home composting clinics and Give & Take events to promote reuse. And to top it all there's the promise of awards for the best performing individuals and streets.

Indeed it's all positive news, with so much to look forward to.

So what's the worry?

Well after pacing around the living room, I think I've finally pinned it down.

I'm not worried about the challenge at all. I can only congratulate Suffolk Waste Partnership for winning the funding and having the vision to roll out such an exciting project.

No, the one thing that I'm feeling very nervous about is...

...that people in my street will discover I've got this blog!

Oops!

Oh heck!

I may be an old hand at this blogging lark & the bin slimming challenge, but I still can't get used to people I know finding out about my blogging habits.

So if anyone from my street is looking in, I just want to say, good luck if you're joining in. It's not as hard as it sounds, honest, and I promise I am still as normal as I was before I set up this blog.

I may not throw much rubbish out, but in every other way, I am still almost average!

Well, I'd like to think so anyway.

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More information about the Seven Suffolk Streets project, including the locations that have been selected, can be found on the Recycle for Suffolk website.

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