Zero Waste greetings from California

So here I am, thousands of miles away from home, following in the footsteps of Jeremy Irons and his recent movie Trashed.  Except, I've not ended up in Hollywood.  I'm somewhere far more exciting! Yep, as part of this year's international Zero Waste conference, I'm 'on location' in San Francisco, visiting Recycle Central, which was featured in the documentary, and exploring how the city and county of San Francisco is so advanced in its journey towards Zero Waste.

And that trash truck that you see there, is one of the few that can be seen heading for landfill, taking less than 5% of waste from Recology's recycling MuRF/Recycling Depot, after the paper, plastic, cardboard and cans have been baled for processing.   Overall, thanks to its well-streamed organics and recycling facilities, San Francisco's diversion rate from landfill is 80%, not only placing it high on the Zero Waste league table, but well on its way to its goal of 100% Zero Waste by 2020.

And that's Zero Waste to landfill or incineration!

Now that's a very high ambition indeed and gives many of the best Zero Waste goals of even the UK a run for their money,  but judging by what I've seen on my first day, I would bet my bottom dollar (see how I threw in that local colloquialism there) that San Francisco is going to achieve it, or at least get pretty damn close.

And this stems from the fundamental belief that the rubbish generated by San Francisco's visitors, businesses and residents is too valuable to bury or burn and has much higher economic, social and environmental value being reused or recycled as a resource.   Consequently, San Francisco's municipal Environment Department and business community have overcome many of the perceived barriers and hurdles, working together to introduce alternative solutions that benefit their zero waste agenda and its local community.

As we drove away from Recycle Central yesterday, these solutions were pretty easy to spot, with the piles of demolition rubble that now has to be processed for construction reuse instead of being buried in landfill.  Further afield, but close to the city, organics (including all forms of food waste) are also diverted out of the landfill thanks to composting and AD facilities, creating a product that is now highly in demand by local vineyards, farms and recreation facilities.

But to achieve this, high levels of participation are needed and during our tour around the very popular Fisherman's Wharf, it became clear how re-education, attitudes and the right financial leverage tools are helping to realise San Francisco's Zero Waste culture, especially within the business sector.

Take Scoma's Fish Restaurant for instance.  According to one of its executive chef's Kelly, who gave us a behind-the-scenes tour, it now diverts 97% of its waste from landfill, saving an estimated $1100 per month. 

Scoma's is one the top 20 grossing restaurants in the United States, with 170 staff on its books, serving up to 2000 people a day.  Its corporate philosophy is heavily linked to sustainability and embraced by its staff and thanks to the supporting waste collection infrastructure, diverting restaurant waste from landfill has become very easy.

As Kelly says "it's not hard, it's just using a different coloured garbage can".

But businesses in Fisherman's Wharf don't just stop at recycling goals.  There are some great examples of waste prevention too, and one of these is the lead being shown by fish supplier Two X Sea, which has redesigned their distribution packaging from disposable cardboard boxes to reusable hotel pans.

Owner Kenny Belov took us through how his company's one off investment of $8,000 in the streamlined reusable system, which integrates with the storage facilities of his customers, not only saves his company huge amounts of money from being wasted through disposable packaging, but it also saves his customers time and cash too as they don't need to process or repackage the fish at the other end.

While all this is happening 'behind-the-scenes' in Fisherman's Wharf, there is also more visible change on the streets too.

Our guide for the day, Lisa Lukacs, a Zero Waste consultant who's working closely with the wharf, demonstrated how the port authorities are changing their management of recycling through the application of the Big Belly solar recycling bins on Pier 45.

With facilities for passers-by to fully separate compostables and recycling, the system also has a solar-powered compacting system to manage the residual trash, alerting the authorities electronically when it's ready to be emptied.  With a leasing agreement of $230 per month, this method has already demonstrated a reduction in labour costs associated with emptying regular bins.

The day's tour ended with a presentation from San Francisco's municipal environment department, which addressed a whole range of topics from the 10c single use bag charge, the significance of the food hierarchy in diverting usable food to the San Francisco food banks and the promotion of home composting.  Also covered were the success of the Green Apartment programme as well as links to schools.

As the county progresses further down the path towards zero waste, there will now be a focus on extended producer responsibility, including redesigning waste out of the system and greater financial contributions for disposal.

You can find more about department's Zero Waste programme here at www.sfenvironment.org.

Of course, a day of introductions to San Francisco's Zero Waste initiatives wouldn't have been complete without a screening of Trashed at the Aquarium of the Bay, which is itself closely connected to the ZW goals.  The avid applause and whoop-whoops from the audience at seeing the achievements of San Francisco featured in the documentary were entirely appropriate, enjoyable and very well deserved.

It was inspiring enough to have seen these examples from afar as an audience member in the UK, but to have witnessed them in person has been even more of an eye-opener to the opportunities that are available to work towards zero waste efficiently and effectively.

There are great lessons to be learned from San Francisco and over the next few days week, I hope to find out more as well as discover news of what's happening from across the world at the zero waste conference that is bringing together experts from countries that include the US, Sweden, Italy, Wales, Brazil, Columbia, India, Bhutan, the Philippines, Italy, Canada and Australia.

It will be a real privilege to find out about some of the best practice from across the world and also share my experience of The Rubbish Diet with them too.  My thanks go to the Zero Waste Alliance UK and Zero Waste International Alliance for providing me with this fantastic opportunity.

More news will be shared soon.

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Postcard from Corsham: Celebrating the Rubbish Diet in Wiltshire

Back row L-R Sarah, Jen, Emma & Pip

Taken at the Pound Art Centre, Corsham's screening of Trashed

Dear all, 

Well, I'm back from Wiltshire, having spent a great night out with some of the Rubbish Dieters and Emma Croft from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, who have been working through their Rubbish Diet Challenge over the last 8 weeks.  Initial feedback? According to Emma and the participants, it's been a great success in more ways than one.  Check out their great blogposts at www.wiltshirewildlife.org, which includes some of the examples from the 15 households have taken part.  Please also visit Sarah's blog at Everyday life on a shoestring and Jen's Make do and mend year and keep your eyes peeled for the results of their current Zero Waste Week.  I had a great time staying over with Pip from Transcoco's Zero Waste group.  I reckon every town should have one (a Pip and a Zero Waste Group)!  Weather was fine, food delicious and the Q&A at the Trashed screening was very much of the positive kind!  Wish you were there.  Next stop -  the Zero Waste conference in San Francisco!  I'll send a postcard very soon.

Lots of love,

Me. x

The one where I popped over to European Parliament

European Parliament eh!  Well I'd never been there before, until last Thursday when I'd been invited to give a presentation about The Rubbish Diet at a conference organised by Zero Waste Europe.

The event, which was held in one of the large committee rooms in Brussels, brought together zero waste strategists, product designers, researchers, waste managers, communities and politicians from across Europe to discuss the cornerstones that are needed to move towards a society that is no longer so heavily dependent on landfill and incineration, integrating resource efficient solutions instead.

It was evident from the debates that we still have a long way to go, especially concerning national and local political will.  However it was also clear from the presentations that there are some great models of how society is changing, especially in Italy where there are now 123 towns, villages and cities actively signed up to Zero Waste goals, which are not just about waste but deliver economic, social and environmental benefits as well.  It all started with the small town of Capannori, where they now have a recycling rate of 82% and have introduced a range of waste reduction initiatives including a research centre, which now liaises closely with industry.

The province of Gipuzkoa in the Spanish Basque Country is also another case study to watch closely.  It was impressive to see how they have turned their waste strategy around from planned incineration, which would have cost 400 million Euros, to a solution supported by 3 MBT plants, 6 composting plants and a biogas generator, costing 183 million Euros by comparison.  Inaki Errakzin, the Environment Minister also outlined how, thanks to better recycling, their approach has helped reduce waste from a projected 240,000 tonnes in 2012 to 209,000.  In Hernani, an area with 20k residents, many living in apartment blocks, they have also seen the average amount of waste decrease from 250 kilos per person per year to just 70 kilos.  Currently 54 towns out of a total of 88 have signed up to zero waste goals, working towards a target of 75% recycling by 2020.

In attendance, for part of the day, was Janez Potočnik, the EU Commissioner for Environment, who also launched the Plastic Waste Green Paper that very same day, which I understand has already received a great deal of coverage in the UK media.

Potočnik sees waste not as a problem but as an opportunity, where with the right economic incentives and outcomes could see 400,000 new jobs across the EU.

It was encouraging to hear his drive, commitment, pragmatism and enthusiasm as he described how not only must we limit energy recovery to materials that cannot be reused or recycled, but we must also be careful about creating overcapacity.  He also declared that there should be zero plastic waste in the environment.

The Green Paper will now see consultations across industry alongside consumers and public administrations.  If you are interested in responding, you can access the relevant papers here and I suggest that you do.

I'm quite relieved I didn't have to give my presentation in that rather large committee room, with its daunting setting and a multitude of translators.  The afternoon was in a much more intimate space as shown below.

Here, we got to hear about some fantastic activities that are taking place across Europe, including an introduction to the excellent Reethaus design studio in Estonia, which creates clothes from fashion waste, an industry which suffers from all sorts of waste issues arising from cutting leftovers, roll ends, planned over-production and excess fabric, not to mention problems such as rejected and cancelled orders as well as faulty items.

Currently the design house works with factories in Bangladesh, where the fabric would otherwise be destroyed in incinerators.  Working in this way, they are able to produce garments using up to 95% less energy and 70% less water for each item.  I love creative design solutions like this and this practical case-study complemented an earlier presentation from the Cradle-to-Cradle Products Innovation Institute where we learned about products such as carpet being made from old recycled carpet and Puma trainers made from recycled PET, supported by a take-back scheme.  In the design world, there is much going on to change the way we look at manufacturing.

On the subject of designing out waste, if your Italian skills or Google Translate fancy a work out, you'll also be inspired by the Effecorta cooperative in Italy, a growing chain of shops which specialises in packaging-free produce.  Having begun in Capannori, the first zero waste community in Italy, the stores have now expanded to Ferrara and Milan.  More information is available on the Zero Waste Europe website.

One of my favourite presentations was from Pal Martenssen from the Kretsloppsparken, in Goteborg, Sweden.  Kretsloppsparken is a household waste recycling centre, but not as we know it.  It goes far beyond your average site, providing regular entertainment and education on tap as well as lovely gardens and a cafe too.  In fact, for some of the music events, they ask customers to pay in recycling rather than cash.

So if your Swedish is up to scratch, you can find out more about the park in this video.  But don't worry, even if, like me, you can't speak a work of Swedish, you'll still get a feel for what it offers.

The conference ended with the screening of the Trashed documentary, which was introduced by Jeremy Irons who had also been at European Parliament for the launch of the Green Paper.

Jeremy Irons addressed the audience, highlighting the issues of plastic waste that had witnessed during the making of Trashed.  If you haven't already seen it, you can read more in an earlier review I wrote about it here.

Some of his final words were that we have to make this problem as sexy as possible, to capture the interest and commitment from as many people as possible.

I wholeheartedly agree and have a few cunning plans up my sleeve myself, but for starters here's a fabulous lip-smacking bin lorry poster that I saw the following day, on a field trip to a waste management plant in Flanders, which boasts a 74% municipal recycling rate.  I confess they implement a pay-as-you-throw scheme which has helped get residents more engaged, but I reckon some clever advertising must also go a long way.

 

It was a real privilege to be part of such a momentous event, which is now expected to draw further interest from the MEPs that were in attendance.  There must be many more great case studies to be shared from around the continent and this could be the first event of many.

'But what of the sexy recycling bins at European Parliament?' I hear you ask... I am sure you're keen to know.

Well guess what I found in the corridors of the power house of Europe?

It's not quite the sexy pose I had up my sleeve but a good dose of comedy enthusiasm must help surely and certainly beats the alternative idea of bin planking! 

How I ever got allowed through the doors of the European Parliament, I'll never know.

My informal announcement of my very EXCITING news.

Be warned, this is not an official press release. This is more of a "Flippin' 'eck, how did we go from a bashful young me not wanting to even air my dirty rubbish in public five years ago, to OMG, The Rubbish Diet has just made it to the finals of a major national waste reduction challenge, so come on people, join me and let's rock this thing!" kind of statement.

In other words, The Rubbish Diet bin-slimming project, which was submitted to the Nesta Waste Reduction Challenge in September, has made it to the next stage of of the competition, along with 5 other finalists. Working with our small team, (including Katy, my project manager below), we will now have until the end of September to develop and trial our approach in Suffolk and Shropshire.  If we win, we will receive £50k to invest in rolling out the Rubbish Diet nationally.

Scared much?  Oh indeed, yes!  This is probably the most nerve-wracking thing I've ever done since agreeing to put my own rubbish in the spotlight in 2008 and then coming out from behind my bin to admit to caring so passionately about something that many people still might consider as mundane as the washing-up.

For me the challenge isn't just about helping people to recycle more, it's about bringing the topic so alive that they really want to do it, talk about it, share their expertise, help create waste-busting opportunities in their own communities and most importantly have a lot of fun in doing so.

Our challenge officially launches in Suffolk and Shropshire in April, where we will be asking people to take The Rubbish Diet together, setting up mini 'slimming-clubs' either at work, as part of an existing social group or setting up a local project just to focus on rubbish. So if you live in either county and want to get involved then please get in touch now! We haven't got long to reach the target trial of 100 households in each county, but I have a few exciting surprises up my sleeve which will hopefully be announced soon. 

We hope that our eight week Rubbish Diet challenge will give participants plenty of time to try different things and share their experiences. With peer-to-peer support, anticipated early successes and the goal of a personal zero waste week we also hope that bin-slimmers will achieve more than they might first expect.

So while it's going to be a scary ride for me, it's going to be very exciting really, especially as we will also be working with MyZeroWaste to run this year's National Zero Waste Week as our September project finale.

You can find out more about our vision in the video below, which we submitted at the semi-finalist stage.




The Rubbish Diet - Coming To A Bin Near You from Katy Anderson on Vimeo.


It really is great to have reached the Waste Reduction Challenge final and I owe so much of this to my fabulous project team who forged ahead with the application while my own attention was on my mother when she fell ill in November. At the time, none of us knew that she would only have just one month to live.  She passed away suddenly at the beginning of December and I miss her very much.  If she were still here to share the news, she would now be ringing her friends, rolling her eyes, and saying 'you'll never guess what that Karen is up to now'.

I guess the answer to that is that I'm rolling up my sleeves, beavering away in the background, preparing resources and smiling sweetly at people in such a way that they can't fail to want to get on board. As is my partner-in-grime, Ali, who's doing exactly the very same thing over in Shropshire.

So do watch this space for more news soon.  One thing's for sure, it's all going to evolve at a very rapid pace.

Meanwhile, I'd better put a stop to this soppy blogging and get on with writing the press release.  So, it's time to grab a coffee, sit up straight at my desk and start looking all official.

_______________________________

More information and details of the other fabulous finalists can be found in Nesta's recent announcement.

Nesta is the UK's innovation foundation, helping people and organisations bring great ideas to life. It does this by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills. The organisation is an independent charity and its work is enabled by an endowment from the National Lottery.

The Giving Challenges - Waste Reduction and Ageing Well - have been set to encourage community innovation in the giving of time, skills and resources for social good. The challenges are run by Nesta's Centre for Challenge Prizes and funded by the Cabinet Office and will see one idea from each of the challenges awarded £50,000.

Happy anniversary Rubbish Diet! Five years old today.

Distracted by the snow,  today's school closure and the prospect of sledging with the 8 year old, it almost passed me by that today is the fifth anniversary of when I launched The Rubbish Diet blog. 

So forgive my momentary lapse of celebration as well as my now very loud 'whoop-whoop'!

5 years!  Blimmin' 'eck!

Back then, I didn't think I'd still be blogging about rubbish even a few months later, let alone five years on.  And as for the amount of rubbish I've avoided and the money saved, that's worth celebrating in itself. 

So, thank you to ALL who have inspired me and to everyone who has taken steps to make a positive difference to help reduce the amount of waste our society generates.

I hope this is going to be a very exciting year in the world of bin-slimming and as I turned over the calendar this year, I realised that for the first year ever The Rubbish Diet is actually now bigger than this blog, developing a life of its own out there in the big wide world, like a small child that you wave off to school for the very first time.

Following hot on the heels of the first Rubbish Diet Shropshire trial, which took place last year,  it feels appropriate that today, of all days, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust launches its own Rubbish Diet challenge, engaging 15 households in the process of slimming their bins over an eight week period, following the very same method that I took back in 2008.

I can't wait to find out how they all get on and I look forward to heading down to Wiltshire to help celebrate during their finale, a Zero Waste Week, which takes place in March.

And March will indeed be a hectic month in more ways than one.  Not only is there a fair chance that you could see 'Yours Truly' making an appearance on The One Show, but I am also looking forward to representing the Zero Waste Alliance UK at an International Zero Waste Symposium, which takes place in San Francisco.  I am, as you can probably guess, both nervous and excited!

And that's just March.  Gawd knows what will happen during the rest of the year.... well, I have an inkling, but for now will just cross my fingers and wait, and burst into song only when necessary.

So, thank you all again for your inspiration, support and engagement.  It's you that keeps me going as well as that HUGE pile of unnecessary waste!

I'm now looking forward to the next five years and encouraging even more people to join in and help tackle it together. 

So good luck to everyone who takes up the challenge this year.  I hope it goes well for all involved.  It's really great to have even more people on board and I believe we can make a huge difference.

THANK YOU!!!

Now, I'm off to celebrate by dodging some snowballs and enjoying that sledge before the opportunity disappears...  ah, such imagery!

____________________________________

For more information about the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Rubbish Diet challenge, follow their project blog, which will feature all their latest updates. Also Wiltshire blogger, Jen, is joining the WWT challenge and you can follow her progress at Make Do and Mend Year. More news on Rubbish Diet Shropshire's project will be announced soon.

We've caught the swapping bug! Sustainable Bury launches its first Swap Shop

L-R: Pippa, Fiona & me: Some of the founding members of Sustainable Bury, at our very first Swap Shop. Photo credit: Sandy Jackson. 

I've been to several 'Swap shops' or 'Give & Take' days organised by Transition Town groups around Suffolk. the last one being being held by Sustainable Bungay in September.  I must confess that when I left that event, I was both quite jealous that Bury St Edmunds didn't have such an occasion to get the good town-folk out swapping, but also very much inspired to do something about it.

After all, in Bungay, what I witnessed was not just a great way of motivating people to declutter their unwanted items and let someone else take them home for free, but there was also a fantastic vibrant community spirit.  

Now left to my own devices, that inspiration might have remained a pipe dream due to competing priorities.  However, my visit to Bungay coincided with the gathering of like-minded folk in Bury St Edmunds - mainly in a pub - to organise a new Transition Town community group called Sustainable Bury.  As we were planning our events, I mentioned how much I'd love to bring the Swap Shop idea under our umbrella.  All it took was someone to suggest enthusiastically that we should run one just after Christmas and Bob's your uncle, the first community event for Sustainable Bury was born!  Such is the power of team-work.

The posters went up, leaflets were distributed and we received some great mentions on Radio Suffolk and excellent coverage in the Bury Free Press, but it was still quite nerve-wracking yesterday morning as we got ready for our 'big event'.  Would the good folk of Bury St Edmunds turn up?

Setting out the tables at the St John's Centre.

Thankfully, yes they did!

Including Kim, one of Bury St Edmunds' entertainment organisers.  I never did find out whether she took those funky specs home, but I really hope she did!

The idea was that people could drop off items that they no longer wanted and take anything away that they wished, for free!  If they didn't have anything to bring, they could simply leave a donation at their discretion.  Any items that were left, we simply pledged to donate them to the charity shops, dotted along St John's Street.

As with any Reuse event, the swap shop featured a real eclectic range of stuff.  I loved these little Saki cups.

And this unopened Body Shop gift pack was certainly a great find for its new owner.

As was this Past Times tea cosy. proclaiming "Where there's tea there's hope"!  That might become my new mantra.

I'm really pleased that for our first event we had around 30 people, perhaps even more.  To be honest, we were so busy listening to all the great feedback from the visitors who dropped by that it was really tricky to keep count.   In fact, the feedback that we received was so encouraging, we have decided to bring forward plans for our next Swap Shop, which we will now run in April.

I'm now looking forward to the Swap Shop becoming a regular event that supports the Reuse infrastructure in Suffolk, in a way that is truly fun and brings the community together.   For those who struggle to get stuff into town, it would also be wonderful for satellite events to be hosted by community centres and schools in the the surrounding estates and villages and I would certainly be happy to help get those rolling.

However, Sustainable Bury is not just about encouraging reuse and reducing waste, there are other great plans on the cards too.  There is a real wealth of ideas coming through, so if you have time, do check out this great piece by the Bury Free Press from yesterday's event, which also features a video of our members, sharing some thoughts about what they'd love the group to achieve.

_________________________________________

Sustainable Bury really is in its infancy, so while we wait for its website/blog to be created, more information can be found at the Facebook page or by following @SustainableBury on Twitter.   If you are local to Bury St Edmunds and would like to get involved,  please do get in touch via Facebook/Twitter, email me or alternatively leave a note below and I will be pleased to pass on your details to the team.  The next planning meeting is this Tuesday, 15 January, 7.30pm at the Fox Inn, in Eastgate Street.  All are welcome.

More information about Transition Towns can be found at www.transitionnetwork.org.

Don't let food waste be next year's shock headline - my two penneth

Well Happy New Year everyone.  I can see it's kicked off in fine style!

Having just got used to my back-to-school routine and having my first day at the laptop, this morning I found my Twitter stream awash with the topic of food waste and the media's shock that statistics published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reveal that 30%-50% of the world's food never gets eaten.

These are huge figures to contemplate, whichever way you look at it, with growers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers all playing a key part or being affected.

But this isn't the first time that the headlines have been full to the brim with the horror of food waste.  Here's a random sample, taking us back to 2007, when I first became aware of the issue.

2012 - Unilever calls on companies to tackle food waste mountain

2011 - UK families are wasting less food but are told to do more

2010 - UK Restaurants waste 600,000 tons of food a year

2009 - Elimination of food waste could lift 1billion out of hunger, say campaigners

2008 - Brown urges Britons to cut food waste

2007 - Call to use leftovers and food waste

Despite making inroads into the waste mountain, I am very much concerned that each spell of outrage even when followed by best intentions, dwindles back towards stunted action, as we move on - for whatever reason - to other competing issues in our lives and organisations.

However, with austerity biting at politics, retailers as well as the householder, 2013 could very well be the year that we look back on as being a watershed period in all our efforts to tackle this huge issue.  There is certainly enough expertise around us to help, with WRAP offering a bank of resources for the hospitality and retail sectors as well as its Love Food Hate Waste website for consumers.  And saving money is a bloody good carrot to wave in front of our noses.

But even so, it can be very easy to slip into old routines when hit by everyday pressures, and that, especially for the householder, is one of the greatest problems in tackling food waste.

If that sounds like you, there are simple steps to help you grab the problem by the balls, and which will help to ensure that you're not contributing to next year's food waste horror story.


1. Make yourself accountable.   Tell your family, friends, Facebook pals, Tweeters or blog readers that you are determined to tackle food waste.  If you think it'll help to keep you motivated, get them to sponsor you for a good cause.

2. Set a deadline to help give you a focus.   For example, trying to reduce it over the next couple of months.  It takes a while for new habits to form, so commit to going the distance rather than the novelty of a short sprint.

3. Start a food waste diary, to identify what type of food goes to waste and why.  This will help uncover regular waste habits.  And remember, throwing that mouldy fruit into the compost bin is still a waste, even if you think you're going to get some 'free' compost out of it.

4. Use a separate bin to monitor your food waste.   Then rejoice when you see it reduce.

5. Stop buying things that you regularly throw away.  If you reduce the problem at source, you'll have pounds in your pocket and less food in the landfill heap.  Check out my ornamental melons story as a very good example.  If you have regular leftovers when buying takeaways, just buy less next time.

6. Freeze it!  Food labels now advise that you can freeze certain products up until the use-by date.

7. Visiting www.lovefoodhatewaste.com is a must!  You'll get top advice on portions, recipes for leftovers and food storage.


Of course, if you've got fire in your belly and want to do more to either understand or tackle the wider issues of food waste, there are various avenues available, including

• Join food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart and his Feeding the 5000 campaign to help bring an end to food waste in the retail and supply chain.

• Follow Kerry McCarthy MP and her work commitment to drive change through parliament.  See last year's blogpost about her Food Waste Bill.  And of course, you can always lobby your local MP to get behind the issue.

• Contribute to the WI Great Food Debate, the NFWI's series of debates about Food Security, which reaches at the very heart of the organisation.

And last but not least, if you live in Wiltshire, Shropshire or Suffolk and want to get involved in slimming your waste-line either on your own or as part of a community project, keep your eyes peeled for some fantastic Rubbish Diet initiatives coming up.

For instance Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is kicking off the new year with a county-wide Rubbish Diet, which will mentor householders through slimming their bins over a period of 8 weeks. If we get through to the next round of the Nesta Waste Reduction Challenge competition, Rubbish Diet Shropshire will be hot on their heels in the springtime, with a choir, school and football club all joining in with the bin slimming antics.  And in Suffolk, my own neck of the woods, there'll be a lot of fun and games involving local well-known personalities who will be leading the way too.   Tackling waste will be a key topic for each of these projects.

Even if you're not a resident of any of these counties, hopefully you'll be inspired to take action from a distance and come together in National Zero Waste Week, which will be held in September, where there'll be another chance to work together to focus on reducing the amount of food waste, and other superfluous stuff that ends up in our bins.

Hopefully, this should all make for a great 2013, especially if we can pull together to ensure there are no shock food waste headlines this time next year.

And on that note... I'm off to have another word with my 8 year old, who's busy listening to BBC Newsround about this very topic.  Time to remind him about his bad habit of abandoning bread crusts!