The Rubbish Diet: The 8 Week Zero Waste Challenge

Karen Cannard: The Rubbish Diet The Zero Waste Challenge

The Beginning
I really SHOULD do something about it!
I HATE MY BIN! It’s too heavy, too smelly And too FULL! New Year’s Resolution JAN 2008 Must reduce our waste Recycled EVERYTHING But still had 1 ½ bags per week © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Zero Waste Week Challenge
No landfill rubbish for one whole week
Could Recycle and Compost
Seven weeks to prepare
Request from council to become
a Community Champion
Featured on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour
A very daunting challenge in more
ways than one!
Photo: Copyright St Edmundsbury Borough Council © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

The blog was born A diary of the zero waste challenge!

Thinking about rubbish
Where does it come from?
Where does it go?
What is its impact on the environment?
© 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Where does rubbish come from? What we buy or get for free! Carrier bags, Packaging, Receipts, Disposable items, Magazines, Leaflets, Junk Mail, Telephone Directories. Things that break/become obsolete! Toys, accessories, electronic gadgets, CDs, DVDs. Food that’s wasted! Leftovers; out-of-date food; gone-off food. In the UK we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of wasted food per year. © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Biodegradable waste, e.g. food, dirty nappies, paper: creates Methane Gas - * A GHG - 23 x as powerful as CO 2 *
Leachate: toxins running into water table, diminishes bio-diversity.
Waste blown away from the landfill, impacts wildlife.
The Environment? © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Analyse my own rubbish.
Find out what could be recycled. Check with the council / Recycle Now & check packaging.
Set up a convenient recycling system at home as well as a routine to visit the HWRC.
REDUCE what could NOT be recycled or REUSE things wherever possible.
What could I do? © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

The Motivation
The goal of an empty bin.
Imagining burying our rubbish in our own garden.
The Motivation © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

SHOPPING: Reusable bags & containers; Ditched clingfilm; Chose loose produce; discovered unpackaged products.
CLEANING: Reusable cloths instead of kitchen roll; reduced range of products; switched to refillable products; washing balls.
How I slimmed my bin © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Including the stuff I never used to recycle before:
Plastic meat trays: In our blue bin
Tetra Pak Cartons: At the HWRC
Yoghurt Pots: In our blue bin
Plastic bags: Supermarkets HWRC
Food bags, e.g. Pasta bags: HWRC
Aerosol cans, e.g. deodorants: HWRC
Plastic plant pots: Wyevale garden centre
Recycled EVERYTHING © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Bought fewer perishable items during each shop.
Avoided the things I would regularly waste, e.g. melons and pineapples.
Cooked more of what the children liked.
Reduced portion sizes.
Used up leftovers.
Fed more scraps to the cats and the birds.
Bought a wormery and a Bokashi bin.
Reduced Food Waste © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Bokashi food waste.
Floor sweepings.
Vacuum cleaner contents.
Cotton wool.
Composted more © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Fewer packaged snacks: i.e. snack bars, crisps. More Fruit.
Changed products: cooked less pasta and rice in favour of more potatoes.
Cooked more homemade cakes.
Switched to products with less packaging; from teabags to shampoos.
Reduced packaging © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Personal Care
Switched from liquid soap to soap bars.
Made own liquid soap.
Shampoo bars.
Washable sanitary products.
Cotton buds with paper sticks.
Wooden toothbrushes.
Personal Care © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

After the success of ZWW, I challenged other bloggers, which led to amazing results.
Ruby: Reduced waste by 50% through reducing packaging and acquiring a council brown bin for kitchen and garden waste.
Jo Beaufoix: Achieved a 50% reduction through diverting kitchen and garden waste to a home composter.
Mrs Green: Achieved Zero Waste and now throws out on average about 100g per week and often less than that. Documents all progress over at www.myzerowaste.com .
Other blog readers have also been motivated into joining their local rubbish-free challenges across the UK.
Contagious consequences © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Pledge to waste less.
Reuse or recycle one more thing.
Start composting.
Say No to junk mail.
Attempt a waste free day.
Put your bin on a Rubbish Diet.
Share your experiences.
Blog about your progress
What can be done now! © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
www.recyclenow.com
www.recyclethis.co.uk
www.bookofrubbishideas.co.uk
www.myzerowaste.com
www.fakeplasticfish.com
www.cleanbin.wordpress.com
www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz
www.stopjunkmail.org.uk
Very useful resources © 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

Thanks for listening
Last weigh-in: ONE YEAR LATER: 18 March 2009
One week’s rubbish: 128 grams
Karen Cannard
www.therubbishdiet.co.uk
Enjoy the makeover

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The Rubbish Diet: The 8 Week Zero Waste Challenge

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The Rubbish Diet: The 8 Week Zero Waste Challenge — Presentation Transcript