Monday Meeting: The Rubbish Diet Challenge wk 1

Welcome to Week 1 of The Rubbish Diet Challenge, 2012.

Do pull up a chair and settle yourselves in.  My name's Karen. I'm a blogger, housewife and self-confessed waste geek and over the next eight weeks, I am going to take you through a programme of talking about utter rubbish.

The aim of the challenge is simple: to slim your bin over the next 7 weeks before attempting a zero waste week. But we won't worry about that now.  I don't want to give you the collywobbles.

And of course the reason for the challenge is to cut the amount of valuable resources that currently end up in landfill or indeed incinerators, as a result of a lack of recycling facilities, insufficient knowledge or insufficient incentives. We all lead busy lives, so I hope this challenge will provide a short break with opportunities to make long-lasting changes.

The Rubbish Diet will take you through this process gradually. The focus will be our Monday Meetings, highlighting mini-challenges each week.  These challenges will hopefully get your brain whizzing, thinking about new ways in which you can keep your rubbish down. There will be links to useful resources too.

You will also be encouraged to 'weigh-in' just like any other slimming club, where you can measure your progress over the coming weeks and see that weight coming off. How you record it is up to you. You can either get on the scales, count your bags or just take photos.


So, are you up for the Challenge?

It would be great if you are. And if so, here are your tasks for Week 1.

1. Write a list of the top 5 things that fill your rubbish bin, e.g. cooked food waste, plastic, nappies. This will be your Hit List, that will help you in your goal over the next 8 weeks.

2. Try to recall the amount of rubbish that went out on your last collection day and record the level that you put out next time.

3. Phone your council, visit their website or visit www.recyclenow.com to find out EXACTLY what can be recycled at your kerbside, local bring banks or your Household Waste Recycling Centre (commonly known as the Tip). Even if you think you already know, you may be surprised about new services that have been introduced. And don't forget retailers such as supermarkets or electrical stores. Leave no stone unturned! Even TetraPak has its own recycling website.

4. Organise a proper place to sort out your recycling at home, even a few empty boxes will do or hang some bags on a hook behind the door.  If you haven't got a compost bin, now's the time to consider one. Visit http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/

5. Think about ways in which you can reduce your waste, even before the need for recycling, e.g. reducing mail, (visit www.stopjunkmail.org.uk) reusing stuff, or simply making things last longer through repair or extending their use. If food waste is your issue, have a rummage over at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.

If you want further inspiration and ideas, check out The Introduction section of the online Rubbish Diet Challenge guide, which also provides the background to this challenge and the one that I took in 2008. Then have a read of Week 1, where there is a lot more information to support the tasks listed above.

Other great sources are: My Zero Waste and  Can I recycle this.

And if you can, do join in the chatter over on Twitter, either by following the hashtag #therubbishdiet or tweeting me @KarenCannard.


Participating Households

If you're joining in the challenge, you certainly won't be on your own. Eight households have volunteered - yes volunteered - to have a go and blog, tweet or show their friends their rubbish on Facebook.

So let me introduce you, along with any Twitter IDs and blogs that they might write. As their weigh-in results are recorded, they will be updated as they come in. I don't know much about their rubbish at this stage, but over the weeks all this will unfold as we get to know them better.  Just bear in mind, their rubbish will be collected on different days and they have chosen to record it in the best way that suits them.  This is okay as it's their personal challenge and not a competition.

1.  Terry-anna.
Household: 2 adults, in Ipswich Borough, Suffolk. 
Weigh-in: 1.5 large bags, filling one third of a wheelie bin (fortnightly)

2.  Ness.  @NessyThompson
Household: 2 adults & 5 children, a rural village in Mid Suffolk
Weigh-in:  2 full wheelie bins (fortnightly)

3.  Donna.  @Donna_De
Household: 2 adults, in Tower Hamlets in London. www.beatinglimitations.com/blog
Weigh-in: 1 30L rubbish sack. (weekly)

4. Amy. @AmyMarpman
Household: 2 adults in New York City.   www.beyondthebluebin.com
Weigh-in: 2 bin bags - estimated 9kg / 20lbs. (Weekly)

5: Kate. @BusinessPlumber
Household: 2 adults, in a rural village in Mid Suffolk : www.businessplumber.co.uk
Weigh-in: 1 unusually full wheelie bin - incl Christmas waste. (fortnightly)

6: Jax. @LiveOtherwise
Household: 2 adults, 3 children & a baby on its way, in Suffolk Coast. http://liveotherwise.co.uk/makingitup/
Weigh-in: 7 small bin bags - filling one third or half of a wheelie bin (fortnightly)

7.Melanie
Household: 2 adults, 2 children, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire
Weigh-in:  3 large bin bags, almost filling a whole wheelie bin. (weekly)

8.Tim @Dotterel
Household: 2 adults, 3 children, Lincolnshire.  www.bringingupcharlie.co.uk
Weigh-in: 1 full wheelie bin (fortnightly)

So, I guess that means that The Rubbish Diet Challenge 2012 is officially launched and it's no coincidence that it's the same week as I set up the blog four years ago, so this forms pretty much of a blogging celebration too.

Thank you too all who take part.  There'll be more coming up on the blog this week, as we find out more about the issues and challenges that two of our participants, Terry-anna and Ness, will be facing.

In the meantime, if you're around at 10am, listen in to The Mark Murphy show on BBC Radio Suffolk, where I will be talking more about the challenge and the households that are taking part, live from the Household Waste Recycling Centre in Bury St Edmunds.

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If you have a blog and are inspired to take up the challenge, I'd love to follow your progress, so do let me know about it by adding your blogpost in the linky box below.

My thoughts and hopes for The Rubbish Diet Challenge

It's the eve of the Rubbish Diet Challenge and I realise that part of me feels quite nervous but excited too. Who knows what will happen over the next few weeks as 8 households endeavour to slim their bins in public.

As four of these households are based in Suffolk, I will be officially launching the challenge live on BBC Radio Suffolk just after 10am, quite appropriately in an outside broadcast from our local Household Waste Recycling Centre in Bury St Edmunds. So if you get a chance, do listen into the Mark Murphy show, which is also launching its own Don't be a Tosser anti-litter campaign on the same day.

In the meantime, here's a video I made earlier today about my thoughts on The Rubbish Diet Challenge... warts and all.  See you again tomorrow for the first Monday Meeting, where I will send you away with your first set of mini-challenges.

Weight loss, Watt loss!

See that bin on the left?

That's our rubbish bin.

No, not the big one.

But that little one.

The teeny-tiny one on the left-hand-side.

Yes, I know it looks like an ordinary bathroom bin, but it actually is the main one for our household waste, and resides in the kitchen.

The bin on the right-hand-side used to be our rubbish bin, but during my very first zero waste challenge, it was promoted to handle our recycling.  As our rubbish gradually got lighter and the bin bag became slimmer, we didn't need such a huge bin, so downsized a little...or rather a lot. 


During the last few years we've also been doing the same with our energy usage.   However, unlike rubbish, it's much harder to visualise the impact if your energy source gets delivered through pipes and wires.

Wouldn't it be great if you could look at that small bin and pat yourself on your back with great satisfaction knowing that was all the energy your household used in a week instead of needing that huge bin.

Before I even begin to blow my mind with musings on the actual size of bin we would need to demonstrate that, there are simple tools that can deliver the kind of information needed for analysis, and that's in the form of an energy monitor. An energy monitor tracks how much electricity you’re using translates that into amount of money you’re spending by the hour.

We bought one several years ago and had so much fun. The children were even distracted from the TV and instead spent several evenings running around the house turning lights on-and-off and helping me to start the washing machine, dishwasher and oven.  I was just relieved they couldn't find the switch for the fridge\freezer or I really would have been in trouble.

But energy monitors aren't just fun for entertaining the kids, they're great for adults too, not that Mr A and I indulged in similar games of running around flicking the switches mind you!  STOP IT!  No, we'd look at the digital display and rub our hands together in a scrooge-like manner thinking 'Kerching' when pondering the savings made, while my mind distracted itself towards gorgeous vintage jewellery or shoes.  Wrong I know, and I've worked hard at improving my attitude since.

Soon everyone will be using them. The government has set a deadline of 2019 for all British households to have smart meters, gas and electricity meters that also monitor energy use. British Gas has already started upgrading its customers.

Since we've used our monitor, it's made me think twice about regulating the temperature of our radiators, making more efficient use of our hob & oven and even the amount of washing we do.  Where I used to bung everything in the washing machine after each wear, stuff now only goes in if it doesn't pass my quality control tests, i.e. having a whiff of it first. And we hardly use our tumble dryer these days, preferring to air-dry the washing instead.

But I know we've got to work harder.  Leaving on the various computers remains a problem for us (sometimes three can be running, talking amongst themselves, while we all sit down for dinner or are distracted by something on TV), which is why I've agreed to follow the Smart Mums Watt Loss Challenge.

Maybe I should get another bin, for recycling our Waste Electricals and if I see no progress, I can threaten to  bung the computers in there.  Ah, there's nothing like a spot of visualisation to inspire results.

And don't think I'm immune from my threat. If you don't see me again, you'll know my husband has read this post and has recycled my laptop for leaving it on when I should have turned it off!



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I’m a British Gas Smart Mums Ambassador, working with BritMums and British Gas to highlight energy issues in the home.

• Take part in the Smart Mums Watt Loss Challenge now!
• Meet the Smart Mums Ambassadors
• Grab the badge to show you’re a Smart Mum
• Find out how smart meters can save you money

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

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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

Saving energy on the hob!

As part of the British Gas SmartMums campaign, looking at ways, to save energy around the home, I have been asked to illustrate some ideas on video.

So here's me, getting underway with Sunday dinner, demonstrating the advantages of using a steamer instead of a hob full of old saucepans.



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I’m a British Gas Smart Mums Ambassador, working with BritMums and British Gas to highlight energy issues in the home.

• Take part in the Smart Mums Watt Loss Challenge now!
• Meet the Smart Mums Ambassadors
• Grab the badge to show you’re a Smart Mum
• Find out how smart meters can save you money

Where will it end up? Tracking my mobile with O2 Recycle

Look! That's my scared face, which says, "I don't really want to let go of this phone, but now I'm here and I promised I'd do it, I suppose I'm going to have to let you take it."

Have you ever recycled a mobile phone? 

I hadn't until today, despite having owned six of the things ever since I got my very first phone in 1998.  Look, it was such a momentous occasion back then, we even captured it on camera!  It was so big, I almost needed two hands to hold it up my ear!

Christmas morning, 1998. I'd never wear that dressing gown with FaceTime!

It's sad to think that phone is still packed away somewhere in my loft.  When recovered, it will be like an historic artefact from the days when phones were phones, not the mini computer devices that they are now.  Even though I have no use for it, it will probably be very hard to give up.  You see, I really do get attached to my phones for all sorts of odd reasons, whether they remind me of a time when I had a cool job, or contained the recording of my toddler telling me he loved me, or even symbolise the day I jumped into a swimming pool to rescue my drowning four-year old, with my phone in my back pocket.

There is one phone that I've not particularly been attached to though and that's my Nokia N97.  It might have been great at getting me onto Twitter and Facebook and juggling my multi-media usage, but I haven't half given it a good battering these last few years. Its time was definitely up twelve months ago, not least because the back-end would fall off at impromptu moments, It's also developed several other features that are noteworthy of its early demise, including the semi-detatchment of its silver fascia as a result of recent contact with the floor.  Then there's the way it would suddenly reboot while I was surfing the mobile net.

However, if it hadn't been for a discussion with some friendly folk from O2, this phone would be sitting in the drawer that's now dedicated to out-of-date gadgets and electronic leads, while I enjoy my more up-to-date technology.

I'd explained to O2 that given my bizarre attachment to old devices, I would only ever recycle one of my phones if I could be convinced that it was worthwhile.  After all, I'd much rather keep it in a drawer than go to the trouble of stripping off the data, just for it to be taken apart.

They then reassured me that just because my phone looked like it was due for the scrapyard, that wasn't necessarily the case and that it would most likely be refurbished and sold on as a reconditioned device, probably in an overseas market.

Suddenly I was interested in finding out more.

I wanted to know exactly where my phone would end up.

And I wanted to know the story of who would be using it.

I asked O2 whether we could do that, and after some phone calls around head office and to their recycling company Redeem, they said yes.  We could certainly track my old Nokia to its end market and depending on the privacy wishes and language capabilities of the new owner, it may be possible to discover the other information too.

And that got me very excited.

So, with all my photos copied, contacts deleted and messages stripped, I skipped off to our local O2 store this morning to do the deed.  Well, I say I skipped.  Actually, for some reason, I was very nervous.  I wanted reassurance that no sensitive data, or remote access to my emails or online accounts could be retrieved from my old phone, once I handed it over. 

Glendon, the Store Leader, reassured me.  In fact, one of the first steps was to restore the phone to its factory settings and ensure that everything had been deleted off.

The rest of the process was very straight forward, confirming that I should hopefully get around £32 for my old phone, which will soon be credited to my bank account, without me having to lift a finger.

It was really that simple, I'm now wondering what the fuss was about!  Look, I'm now looking much happier about letting go of that dodgy old phone and setting it free for refurbishment and onto pastures new.

By tomorrow, the phone will be somewhere in Scotland, being refurbished by O2's recycling partner Redeem, and once it's passed quality control, it will be despatched onto its journey, where it will be tracked all the way.

Apparently it should only take two weeks until it reaches its end destination.  Hopefully then it will quickly find its way to its new owner and I then hope they will get in touch.  It's risky I know, but I've sent them a message with my email and phone number.

Oh gawd, I could be opening up a whole new can of worms, but it would be exciting to find out with whom it ends up and to discover what really happens when a phone gets recycled.

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If you're interested in recycling your old phone for cash, there are many ways in which you can do it, but it you wish to use O2's service, you can recycle by post and fill your details online, or pop into a store near you.  You don't even need to be a customer.  More information is available at www.o2recycle.co.uk.  O2 don't make any profit from this service.  All proceeds from their sales go to their charity Think Big, which supports community projects that help young people.   Other gadgets such as iPods, cameras and even routers can also be recycled, although these are not processed on a cash-back basis.

My 5 year phone challenge....eeek!

I'm not sure whether this latest confession will demonstrate my inner lunacy or permanent state of wishful thinking, but eh oh, I'll show and tell and see what comes.  I'd be interested in the debate.

The thing is, I've just got a brand new spanking smartphone, an all singing and dancing top model iPhone.  It's been on my geeky-gadget list for the last 18 months and as my old phone began to fall apart / regularly freeze / randomly self-boot .... along with many other tedious failures, the seduction of the iPhone became more and more tempting, so much so that it looked as though finally it would make it to my Christmas list for 2011.

And hooray, it actually did arrive, but not quite as I'd expected (there'll be more on that later).  However, with such a frivolous addition to my gadgetry, it arrived with a new personal goal that will definitely challenge the way I think about about new technology, especially mobile technology.

You see, I am a bit of a gadget girl and since the introduction of smartphones that don't just keep you connected to the whole social-media universe out there, but come packed with video functionality and access to multimedia entertainment, I have found it harder to step back to the days when a phone was simply a phone.  I have wanted to keep pace with all the shininess that such a mini-computer in one's pocket can bring. 

My new iPhone will be the third smartphone I've owned in five years - although admittedly the first one only gave up the ghost as a result of it being in my jeans pocket, when I saved my youngest son from a potential drowning incident a few years ago.

The second phone, its replacement, has been causing me nothing but bother for the last 15 months, mainly though collateral damage, but has also developed a very clunky feel about it compared to other touch screen technology.  Consequently, my shiny new acquisition already offers much hope of a more streamlined and much more enjoyable experience in keeping me connected to the outside world of work, rest and play.

But the challenge I've set myself is to try and keep hold of this phone and keep it functioning for FIVE WHOLE YEARS!

I know I've not set myself a very good track record so far.

But aside from my accident-prone ways and technological desire, I hope this self-imposed challenge will not only encourage me to focus on the longevity of possessions, but will also bring into focus the challenges we, as consumers, have in a constantly fast-moving technological world.  And this challenge is not new. For decades, built-in obsolence has been a key consumer issue as have opportunities for exciting applications only being realised as a result of hardware innovations becoming available.

And let's face it, I am grateful for such advances in technological science.  After all, watching movies on our smartphones would not be so gratifying if we had to plug in a portable DVD player to do so.

Of course, opinions vary.  There are many friends who have told me that I've got no chance, mainly thanks to Apple's proprietary systems as well as the company's speed of innovation and all round creator of consumer desire.

But then, there are others who say that this iPhone, with all its latest technology and mod cons should see me through the five year period quite easily. 

So I guess the proof will definitely be in the pudding -or rather the apple pie -  and I'll just have to wait and see.  But I am going to try damn hard, against a world of high-speed technological change, to remain satisfied and keep hold of this phone for five years.  And I will be delighted if I can do it.

But for those who know better than me, or indeed know me better than myself,  I'd love to hear what you think.

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Disclaimer.  In the spirit of blogger openness, I feel it right to declare that my lovely new phone was a surprise thank you gift that came out of the blue from the folks at O2, as a token of appreciation for the free-time I dedicated a few months ago to brainstorming a whole host of campaign ideas for a phone recycling project that's coming up soon.  There will be more on that next week, when along with other bloggers who have now signed up for the campaign, I will be relinquishing my old phone for recycling and tracking to see where it goes.  And would you believe, for many reasons, I have never recycled a phone before.  So watch out for all that comes with that next week!