Almost Mrs Average seeks Zero Heroes and Slim Jims

Help! Help!

Arthur are you there? Hilda, can you hear me? Henry? What about you?

Please come forward because in the words of Bonnie Tyler, I NEED A HERO, lots of heroes in fact but unlike my Welsh sister, for this mission I am happy to hold out longer than the end of the night.

To celebrate National Zero Waste Week I am on the lookout for the unsung heroes of the UK and I am officially starting my search for our fellow countrymen and women who almost never need to use their bin because they create so little waste, people like Tony Sanders from Leicestershire who was featured in his local paper earlier this year.

The idea of zero waste or indeed minimal waste living can often sound daunting, but there are so many people like Mr Sanders who have been living like this for years as well as folk who have only just started. They're probably the type who don't normally shout about it, who don't think they're doing anything special, but in truth they are, because by living almost waste-free, they are minimising the contribution their rubbish makes to their carbon emissions.

I've been lucky to meet people who have already made significant steps to reduce their rubbish footprint who are active on the old Interweb and are spreading the word in everything they do.

However, I'd also like to find out about the folk who are hardly present on the internet, including people who wouldn't naturally describe themselves as local heroes but who indeed are. I'd like to talk to them, in confidence, and find out more about what they think about our country's waste and see if we can create a national picture our Zero Heroes. If you have links to anyone special, please get in touch through the usual process, email me at karen[at]therubbishdiet[dot]co[dot]uk, or via my Twitter profile at www.twitter.com\therubbishdiet.

But don't rush off yet. As well as celebrating National Zero Waste Week, I have some other exciting news.

Yesterday I signed up to 10:10, a national challenge created by the team behind Age of Stupid, encouraging individuals, government leaders and organisations to cut their emissions by 10% by the end of 2010. I would encourage you to join too because the challenge of tackling climate change looks like it needs you even more than ever. To find out more visit www.1010uk.org for details.

As the pressure hots up for our country to reduce its carbon footprint, taking effort to reduce our waste is most definitely up there in the list of eco-strategies along with wasting less energy, reducing car use and saving water. At the end of the day whatever we put in our bins, whether it's for landfill or recycling, it's a reflection of not just our personal consumption to satisfy our needs and wants but also reflects the energy used to create and transport those goods to meet our demands.

So, I'd like to put waste minimisation on the map!

Literally!

Whether you're an accomplished bin slimmer or whether you are just starting out, I would love you to join me by adding your details to the map at the side of the blog. As it grows it will give a wonderful picture of all folk who are working hard towards slimming their bins and I hope it will inspire others who want to join in too. Visually, it will help us get in touch with those who are in our local communities as well as discover who are the Zero Heroes and Slim Jims around the rest of the world.

Joining is so simple, you just click on the pin, where you will be asked to add your location. This can be your city or the first part of your postcode. Then enter your name or nickname and select whether you're a "Zero Hero", a "Slim Jim" or "Slimming Down". You can even add a comment or your photo if you like. It only takes a few minutes. I've just added my own details and as I throw out about a carrier bag's worth of rubbish per month, I see myself as a Slim Jim unlike Mr Sanders mentioned above who is most definitely a Zero Hero.

I may have created the map, but it's not mine to call my own. I would be happiest if it could be shared as widely as possible. So if you have a blog, it would be great if you could add it to your sidebar, so that your readers can join the map too.

I'm quite excited about who we will find out there in the big wide world and would like to thank you for your help in making it happen.

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Zero Waste Week: Thinking about the Young and Old

Life has become really crazy this week.

It's been very strange getting used to the daily "appearance" on Woman's Hour and juggling the various interviews that have been arranged for various radio stations and newspapers. It's almost as though I've stepped into someone else's life.

When I first started The Rubbish Diet, I hadn't quite expected the attention that the blog would receive. I'm now beginning to think that I've really gone and opened a can of worms, but have been glad to have raised the issue about how much waste we generate as a society.

What really brought this home to me was the front page story in yesterday's Daily Express, highlighting that people are paying as much as £200 each year to private companies to take away their rubbish. Apparently, households across the country are creating too much waste to cope with the fortnightly waste collection routine that many councils are now adopting.

Does that sound like Britain's gone mad? I'm beginning to think so. But who's really to blame? It would be so easy to blame the households, wouldn't it, or even have another pop at your local council? However before the fingers are pointed in either direction, we need to take a good look at our culture and how this situation has arisen.

I am still trying to get a handle on how our country and indeed how Western Society has reached a point that we are locked into this long-term relationship with this big ugly monster called waste. It's like an impossible divorce. We don't want to live with it, but we find it difficult to separate our lives from it. While humans have existed and consumed products, waste has been a by-product of society. It's nothing new and you can see for yourself. Wasteonline has some excellent information about the Chronology of Waste. But what's worrying is why do we have so much today?

When I was a child in the 1970s, we had just one bin, which contained the ashes from the fire and all the household rubbish. Of course, we didn't have to deal with so much packaging back then, so all the empty tins and other similar offenders all went in together. But even then, we didn't really throw much away.

However, fast-forwarding to modern life in the 21st century, I now feel part of a generation that has somehow lost its way and which now needs to get back on track. I suppose, all I have been doing over the last few months is revisiting some of the skills of our forebears, who were more sustainable than we are today, mainly because they had to. There was no other choice. However in what appears to be today's land of plenty, sustainability has dropped off the agenda of mainstream everyday life, and only makes a guest appearance on the latest wave of green initiatives. Just like food was organic back in the old days, people were also "greener", even if they didn't quite know it back then.

It is interesting to see that writer and broadcaster Tracey Smith, of what is now International Downshifting Week. is petitioning the government to bring sustainable living lessons into schools. This would be a great way of introducing the much needed skills that our future generations will need to help us create a more balanced sustainable society in the 21st Century. I wish her well.

On a separate note, I touched on the conveniences of the 21st Century very briefly during yesterday's interview with James Hazell at Radio Suffolk, when we talked about how we should be able to enjoy many of the conveniences of contemporary life, while adopting "best practice" from decades gone by, for example being able to buy things that aren't so heavily packaged.

We also chatted about the general problems of waste and how The Rubbish Diet can be adapted to many situations, where even if people are able to make just one small change, it would be something to be proud of.


It was great to have the opportunity to visit the studio for the live interview yesterday. The subject of No Smoking Day was the main topic on the show and with that in mind I couldn't help but mention the fact that it can take up to 15 years for cigarette butts to decay down to what becomes a plastic powder (thanks to St Edmundsbury staff for that info). What this has made me aware of is how difficult the Zero Waste thing must be for smokers, unless they've got a fire into which they can throw the cigarette ends. I now wonder if anyone has gone as far as giving up smoking as part of their Zero Waste challenge. That would be one hell of a commitment.

Anyway, I am amazed that at the end of Day 3 of Zero Waste Week, we still only had one plaster in our bin and that's even after I had been out for the whole day (don't forget the rules are, that any rubbish I create I have to bring home for disposal)!

So... what excitement is coming up today?

Well there's a photo session lined up with a regional paper and I've also been invited to do a telephone podcast for Wiggly Wigglers.

However the big event of the day is the Zero Waste Lunch at our local primary school, where all the children at Abbots Green are going to attempt to be Zero Heroes, by eating all their lunch and making sure that their lunch-boxes contain no packaging.

Now that will be amazing!

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