My pledge for National Zero Waste Week decluttering my kitchen the final frontier!

Yes, you heard it here first!

Im going in!

Venturing deep into my kitchen, where for the first time in nine years I am going to attempt to clear out all the cupboards, banish the clutter, get organised and prepare myself for the new school term!

And that is my pledge for National Zero Waste Week, which kicks off on Monday.

The theme this year is to encourage participants to do that "one more thing" to reduce waste.

When I thought about what I could do, I knew that as we already recycle all we can, the only thing left to tackle was food waste. We still have some, not an enormous amount, but some food waste all the same.  And with the wormery still out of action, its the main thing that gets sent to landfill, along sweet wrappers and crisp packets.

I thought if I pledged to use up what we have in the fridge during National Zero Waste Week, and try not to go shopping until wed done that, it would be easy.

Then I thought again.

Thats like putting a sticking plaster on a broken leg.

The truth of the matter is I CANT STAND MY KITCHEN!
 
These days, I spend as little time in there as I can get away with and yet underneath I am a bloody good cook with a sense of adventure for creating good food.

But I need space to create.

I simply dont have it.

And its all got on top of me.

Our kitchen is tiny and as the household has become busier and busier, the space has become more and more cluttered. My previously much-loved gadgets,such as the yoghurt maker in the photo above, have become unused and gather dust, supporting bowls that cant even be squeezed into cupboards for lack of room!

All too often, when Im at my busiest, I take one glance at the kitchen, and sigh, before scooting the family off elsewhere.  Then follows the guilt of trying to rescue perishables in the fridge before they die a certain death. And it is here that I sometimes fail.

So Ive decided that this vicious circle must stop!

I need to clear out the stuff that I will never use again, rehome it or recycle it and find some space in the cupboard so that I can clear the worktop.

I must also decide how much I really need those gadgets and cookbooks.  The breadmaker, juicer and yoghurt maker all sell the idea of such a lovely lifestyle, but if they clutter up the workspace and make me feel too disorganised to use them, is there any point in keeping them?

And as for the sound effects that add to the atmosphere, my washing machine and dishwasher have both started groaning like a poor elephant with a hernia.

It really doesnt create a relaxing environment, so Im going to see if we can get them repaired.

Then maybe, if I make it safely back from my excursion into the unexplored corners of my freezer, I will finally have the quiet, uncluttered, well-organised kitchen I dream of...

... and the creative space I need to avoid food waste!

This National Zero Waste Week pledge may be my toughest challenge yet, but Im rolling up my sleeves and going in and hopefully I will feel better for it. Admittedly, I may need some gin first to avoid the lemons going to waste!

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To keep up with National Zero Waste Week, follow @MyZeroWaste on Twitter.  Now in its fifth year, the awareness campaign is really gathering momentum with a whole host of industry leaders, politicians and celebrities making personal pledges, and even before the week starts, over 800 people have signed up on Facebook. So it would be great if you could join in and do that "one more thing" to help tackle the worlds waste. Just one more thing!  And I doubt it will be as tough as my blimmin kitchen.

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Im feeling all decluttered after National Zero Waste Week

What a week!

I must have been absolutely out of my mind to suggest that I decluttered my kitchen for National Zero Waste Week. Nothing like pressure eh!

When I first mentioned my plans to my husband, he threw me one of his looks, accompanied by hands on hips, warning me that surely Id got the wrong idea.  That really, I shouldnt aim to chuck so much out during a week intended to slim our bin.

Having ventured nowhere near the far corners of some of the cupboards for... er... 5 years, he had a point.  I really didnt know what I would be up against!

But look!  The overhaul of the kitchen cupboards didnt impact on our rubbish at all. 

That small bin bag, pictured above, is the sum of our landfill rubbish last week, despite getting rid of a load of stuff!

If I had attempted the declutter five years ago, it would have been a different story.  Not least because I probably wouldnt have gone to the trouble of sorting it.

These bags full of unused baking equipment and storage containers would still have probably gone to charity.

But most of this junk, now destined for the reuse ecycling skips at the Household Waste Recycling Centre would have no doubt ended up in the bin! Thankfully, these days our local facilities include containers for broken hard plastics and small electricals, which helps tremendously when youre in the midst of a blimmin good clear out!

And as for this wonder drawer of mixed tat, my impatient hand would have dumped it all in a bag and got rid of it within minutes.

Instead, I set aside an hour to sort it properly, sending some random bits of plastic off for recycling and organising the rest of the stuff so it can be easily found and used.

Even the freezer, where our leftovers historically suffer a frozen death, received a visit from the decluttering hand, which helped to salvage a sausage casserole, a packet of mince, some fish, a dozen chipolatas and some bacon rashers,  This enabled me to happily avoid the supermarket for a week, using up what we already had.  I am such a lazy defroster and rarely plan ahead, the freezer proved to come up trumps as a right little goldmine during Zero Waste Week.  My aim now is to gradually work through the rest of the contents and relieve more space so that I can use it more efficiently.

But did I really achieve my overall aims last week?

Yes! I believe I did!  Working my way through this.

And creating much needed space in the cupboards to achieve this!

What pleases me most is that I am finally in control of the contents of my kitchen.  It took five days of sorting and clearing and no area has been left untouched. What helped me along were the wise words of a friend who reminded me that unwanted stuff left at the back of cupboards was just as wasteful as if it had been dumped into landfill. I am now confident that everything that I have kept will be put to good use. All the unused clutter has been rehomed and will no longer be wasted.

Of course my key aim was to create much longed-for space, so that I can put my creative culinary skills to good use again and be far better at avoiding food waste.

I can already see the return of the old me and I have been busy cooking up the random contents found lurking in the fridgefreezer. And having rediscovered a whole cupboard of flour to use up, benefiting from that space once more has really proved to be the icing on the cake!

I now wonder which room I should tackle next!

So thank you to everyone who left supportive comments as well as all the Twitter crew who cheered me along during the week. 

As well as having my head firmly in the kitchen cupboards, I have also been busy waving the flag locally in Suffolk for National Zero Waste Week.  Huge thanks to BBC Radio Suffolks Mark Murphy and James Hazell for giving me some much appreciated airtime.  And a major round of applause to Barry Peters, the editor of the Bury Free Press, for taking up the Rubbish Diet Challenge and doing a marvellous job for his own Zero Waste Week.

Well done to MyZeroWaste for an amazing awareness campaign for 2012. I was proud to support it.  For more information about what else was going on around the country, visit www,myzerowaste.com.

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Whats in store for National Zero Waste Week 2011

Ive just realised that the title of this blogpost makes it look like I run a shop.  So apologies to anyone who thought I might be doing a stock-check or reorganising my merchandising cabinets with a special twist for Zero Waste Week.

Sorry, this is more of a talking shop than a retail space, but if there are any stores who are applying innovative ways of reducing the amount of rubbish they stock, then please do share your news here. After all, the theme of National Zero Waste Week 2011 is "Reducing waste away from home", so if youre doing anything to help reduce the amount of trash that you pass on to your customers, then your comments will fit in nicely.

So what is happening at Almost Average HQ for Zero Waste Week?  Well, unlike my very first attempt back in 2008, Ive had diddly-squat planning time.  Not that Im good at planning anyway, but I suppose five minutes preparation would have helped things on the homefront, as would actually being at home, instead of zipping around the country on a secret mission.

Of course it would have also been useful to have reminded my husband and kids last week, particularly to avoid the surprise of arriving home this weekend to much excitement that theyd treated themselves to a huge multipack of crisps and 20 blimmin Capri-Suns.  Someone must be having a laugh!  We never normally have such things in the house, not necessarily due to being pedantic about packaging, but weve got no room in our cupboards for starters, and besides I dont trust my willpower!  But great timing eh!  Bought just in time for Zero Waste Week.

So things on the homefront will be more of a challenge than usual then!  Thats why the kids have gone into battle against my husband to see who can create the least rubbish this week!  Personally,  I think Ill leave them to it.

But of course the focus of this years NZWW  is reducing waste away from home, so whilst head-to-head challenges are taking place behind closed doors, Im more interested in opportunities to reduce waste while out-and-about and will be keeping my eyes peeled for good practice as well as being on a personal mission to avoid superfluous bits of plastic that commonly pop up in the catering trade.

Im travelling again at the end of the week, so will make sure Im appropriately kitted out to avoid all the rubbish that typically gets thrown at you when on the road.  Having read that sentence again, it sounds like Ill be wearing protective shields and defending myself with some form of waste-busting laser gun.  Im sorry if that makes the reality of a refillable coffee cup and water bottle sound far less exciting.

This week Im also on a mission to get more recycling bins on the streets of my local town.  I know were pretty lucky to have two, but for the size of the town thats pretty pants, especially as theres not even a single recycling bin in the town centres Abbey Gardens.   So this week, Im taking the attitude of  "if you dont ask, you dont get" and proverbially speaking, getting off my backside to wing over an email to some local authority officers and councillors.  Ill also email my MP, asking him to look at the wider picture at a national level.

And on the subject of bins, Im still on the hunt for photos for the 1000 Bin Challenge.  Its the final week, so Im going to have to do a tally soon of the number of photos that Ive collected over the summer.  Ive got a sneaking suspicion that I am nowhere even near the 1K target, so Im going to need your help more than ever.  To find out how you can help, pop over to www.1000bins.com and send in photos of any recycling litter bins that you spot in your town.  You may even be in with a chance of winning a georgeous ring pull clutch bag by Bottletop or a fabulous Waste-busting kit from Onya.

So I think its safe to say National Zero Waste Week 2011 is officially launched at Almost Average HQ.  Huge thanks to Mrs Green at My Zero Waste for organising it.  To find out more about how you can get involved, visit www.myzerowaste.com, where youll get more tips than you can shake a stick at.  And if you want to get up-to-date with what you can recycle in your area, pop over to www.recyclenow.com for the official lowdown.

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Teaming up with energyshare Hexam River Hydro

It is very rare that something pulls me away from talking about rubbish, but when I was asked to team up with an exciting hydro energy project thats competing for energyshare funding, it was far too interesting to miss.


Energyshare has been created by River Cottage and British Gas, jointly managing a campaign whereby communities across the UK have applied to energyshare to have their project funded. These communities have been shortlisted into a small number of finalists, all looking to have their project funded up to the value of £100,000.

The competition has also been supported by Channel 4’s Three Hungry Boy’s who spent five weeks touring the South West over the summer, visiting communities just like those shortlisted for energyshare funding. Trevor, Thom and Tim were challenged by River Cottage’s Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall to live off the land and barter their way around the countryside, sourcing the energy for their electric vehicle from renewable technologies.

Today the finalists have been announced and campaigning has now begun in earnest to help generate public votes to choose the winning communities.


All the finalists are brilliant in their own way.  The community that I am supporting is Hexham River Hydro, a fabulous project which will create a100kW community hydro power generation scheme on the River Tyne in Northumberland.   It is a joint initiative by Hexham Community Partnership and Transition Tynedale and for anyone who, like me, has grown up or lived near such a similar powerful waterway, it is very easy to get excited about the possibilities of harnessing such energy.

However, this project is not just about generating renewable electricity, it is also about securing sustainable funding for social and economic regeneration and community activities in the market town of Hexham and its environs, as well as creating an education and awareness-raising tool for residents and visitors alike.

When I say, Im very excited about this project, I really mean it and cant wait to get to meet the people and the community behind it. Having spoken to team member Gillian Orrell, this afternoon, I am now looking forward to a trip up north to find out more about their hopes and plans. This project may seem that its about technology, but at the heart of it, its really about people and harnessing the energy around us, without impacting on the environment itself.  Its amazing to think that it will generate approximately 700MWh of electricity per year – enough to satisfy the average electricity consumption of 150 households, whicle reducing Hexham’s carbon emissions by approximately 400 tonnes CO2 per year.

With such localised energy supply, it is also deemed a project of national significance that will be of interest to other similar communities around the UK.

I will be able to report on my discoveries next week, but in the meantime, if you are over 13-years-old and have just two minutes to spare, please get voting at the energyshare website.  More information about Hexam River Hydro can be found at www.energyshare.com/hrh. So, please pop over and if you like what you see, please do hurry and vote for them.

Voting is open until 5pm on 3rd December with the opportunity to win one of 5 books that River Cottage is giving away every day to voters. Furthermore, for the energyshare Group that gets the most supporters voting, there is the chance to scoop a £1,000 cash prize.

So please do get involved now and visit energyshare.com/voting.

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This is a sponsored opportunity on behalf of British Gas. However, all the authors views are her own.

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Zero Waste The international scene

So, my adventures in Zero Waste continue in California and on Wednesday I attended the Zero Waste International Alliance Dialog, which brought together representatives and interested parties from the USA, Canada, British Columbia, Brazil, Colombia, Sweden, UK, Italy, the Philippines, Bhutan, India, Australia, China and Hong Kong.

Rick Anthony, Chair of the ZWIA, (pictured above), opened the conference with a history of how the Alliance was developed and how things have moved on from what started as a passion to protect resources from landfills through recycling facilities, to a multi-action programme of now diverting those resources from incineration and reducing waste at source through redesign.  The international Alliance now provides a sound umbrella group for supporting national programmes through the sharing of knowledge and solutions that demonstrate Zero Waste in its true form (i.e. without the alternative of burning) is possible.

The programme of presentations featured experts who have embedded successful solutions in their own countries, working with communities, politicians, manufacturers and technologists to ensure the development of waste management solutions that protect the resources for recycling back into the system.

This is a great slide from Ruth Abbe, from the US, which simplifies the keys to achieving better resource management to a rate of 90% though physical & social infrastructure, with the remaining responsibility for the journey towards Zero Waste in the hands of the manufacturers and legislators to redesign products and ban those materials that cannot recycled or broken down through organic treatment.

Paul Connett, a chemist and international speaker on the topic of Zero Waste, who many now know from his contribution in the Trashed Film, explained in more detail the 10 steps to Zero Waste, which are summarised as follows:

A key theme that Ive picked up from the success stories in Paul Connetts presentation and the those that have been highlighted in my trips to San Francisco and Europe is the significance in making waste visible. i.e. to really find out what is being burnt or buried.

Once communities have a handle on that and the associated volumes, debates can then lead to solutions, whether through front end source separation, better community communications, waste hierarchy interventions or feedback to manufacturers for redesign.  It was reinforced again that if there is a political will to adopt this pathway towards Zero Waste, it is possible to embed alternative solutions to those that involve burning resources.

According to Paul Connett, the three international areas that are leading the way with embedding the true Zero Waste goals are Italy, Spain and California.

Again, like the NCRA conference, there was much to learn from the information exchange and here are some of the key points I picked up.

1. Canadians create the most municipal waste in the world, with only 33% being diverted through recycling and composting, but they are tackling it and Zero Waste Canada was created in January 2013.  As well as the challenges of developing its infrastructure, it looks like Canada will also have to protect one of the great things that already exists which is its deposit-based bottle reuse programme, which is currently at risk from centralised recycling schemes.  Elsewhere there are some great collaborative consumption schemes being implemented, including Toronto Toolshare.  Also Canada was the first place to declare BPA as toxic.

2. Great strides are being made in South America, including Bogotas Zero Waste plan, which has fought for its 20,000 waste pickers to be an official part of the recycling value chain.  Zero Waste Brazil has made significant progress too, creating a community based take-back model for recycling that pays participants in credits.  At a higher level, Zero Waste Brazil was invited by the UN peacekeeping force to find solutions for solid waste during the 2010 earthquake disaster in Haiti.  It will also be involved in pushing plans through for the Zero Waste Olympics in Rio.

3. Reports from the US showed how far Zero Waste commitments are spreading around towns and cities across the States and how the Solid Waste Association of North America has now changed the focus of its annual conference from Beyond the Blue Bin to The Road to Zero Waste, following the Alliances guiding principles.

4. From Europe, we saw the great examples once more coming out of Italy with 123 towns and cities that have now signed up to become Zero Waste communities.  It was also highlighted how business and government strategies in Europe have been heavily weighted towards the Zero Waste to Landfill goal, which risks taking away the focus and opportunities for a future down the line that is actually Zero Waste.  Fellow trustee of the Zero Waste Alliance UK, Jane Green, highlighted the development of the Museum of Bad Design as an action-based research response to the need to design out waste.  Elsewhere, Mal Williams warned that whilst planning future models in consumerism and wastage, we also need to prepare for economic shrinkage and make communities more resilient in managing the potential of their resources in a way that also develops social capital.  

5. Froilan Grate of the Philippines spoke of how their strategy for Zero Waste was born out of a terrible tragedy in Payatas in 2000, where over 200 wastepickers died during a sudden landslide on a landfill site.  Since then his organisation has been instrumental in creating over 1000 MRFs to better manage the resources and have developed Zero Waste programmes for management of waste and environmental issues at community level.  The Philippines was the first country to commit to a ban on burning resources and is hence committed to striving high for zero waste goals, so much so that the Minister for Environment was also in attendance.

6. With Hong Kong facing an end to landfill in 2029, Lisa Christensen of Hong Kong Cleanup, called for the need for a Zero Waste Hong Kong strategy to be developed and has committed to sharing the ZWIA expertise locally.


As well as the need for managing rubbish from a resource perspective, various speakers at the conference on Wednesday highlighted that it is a human rights issue too, striving to change infrastructures that move from a world where practice is many areas is simply dangerous to local communities and those who work with with waste.

Examples from Mexico showed how much work has been done to stop the practice of burning waste in cement kilns and from China we heard an urgent call for better management of recycling where evidence has seen untreated plastic medical waste being recycled into poor quality childrens toys.

This conference certainly taught me how there is still so much we dont know about the global problem of waste.  It was most definitely an eye-opening event that demonstrated not only how many amazing solutions there are out there if only we take time to look, but also if we look for long enough we realise too how many issues still need resolving.

However, what I saw on Wednesday was a room full of experts including resource managers, chemists,  designers, technologists, campaigners and professionals who are now Zero Waste managers, all sharing their expertise to address these issues. 

One of the key initiatives also announced at this years Dialog was the development of a new Zero Waste Youth organisation, which held a successful conference of its own in San Francisco on Sunday.  It highlights that the issue of waste is also inter-generational and that the innovation of graduates and young people are needed too to help develop the research and technical skills to implement solutions now and in the future.

And of course, I welcomed the opportunity to share my very own Rubbish Diet story and the details of the forthcoming Rubbish Diet challenge.  It was a real privilege to have the opportunity to profile this blog and my projects on an international platform and hear the amazing responses that followed.  Something tells me that once my Nesta Waste Reduction challenge is over and having the right support in place for the UK programmes, Id better get ready to roll up my sleeves to help support Rubbish Diet communities internationally.  With interest already coming in from the US, Canada, Hong Kong, it looks like life could get very busy!

But the weeks not over yet, and theres still much more to learn and report back on, including the development of international and national zero waste standards and a visit to a MRF that has its own pig farm.

But first, breakfast!

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Making 2020 Zero Waste Work Coventry Conference

Professor Paul Connett, presenting at the Coventry conference

Today, representatives from central government, local authorities and universities gathered together in Coventry along with social enterprises, mulitnationals, waste management companies, the third sector and environmental bodies, to explore how UK society can create a proper zero waste economy in line with aspirations for 2020.

For many, zero waste translates as zero waste to landfill, but a strong message that was made clear at todays conference was that a zero waste goal should be exactly what it says...simply ZERO waste, achieved through innovations that design out waste during manufacture and a society that promotes reuse and technologies that enable precious resources to be properly recycled rather than the assumption that the simplest destination for residual waste is to be burned with no other opportunity for recovery.

Anyone who has any doubts over whether this zero waste vision could become a reality, should consult with American waste campaigner Professor Paul Connett, pictured above, who presents a strong case for product redesign, economic incentives, community empowerment and the development of separation & research facilities at landfillincineration sites, as being vital components in making it work.

And the key to success is everyone in the chain working together to drive the results forward, an example of which was announced in Coventry today, where Coventry University, which already runs 50 courses in sustainability and the environment, revealed plans to create a Zero Waste research centre, working closely with the local authority.

Todays programme also presented examples of industrys approach to creating zero waste through manufacturing processes and facilities management as well as examplers of community-based programmes and waste stream development.

The presentation by Garden Organics Myles Bremner particularly struck a chord, as it was one of the strongest case studies  for how individuals can make a difference, not only regarding reducing their own waste, but by empowering their communities.  Through the Master Composter scheme, Garden Organics has been successful in creating a peer-to-peer network, where members of the public are able to help others, by sharing their expertise locally.

Of course I couldnt leave the conference without highlighting my strong belief that a similar peer-to-peer network is needed to nurture recycling champions across the UK, where trusted and enthusiastic members of the community are empowered to share their knowledge through local groups and at key events.  Social-networking has already demonstrated the power of word-of-mouth. If this could be replicated throughout local communiities, this greater awareness could bring beneficial results to not just recycling rates but to waste arisings too.

Although this event was organised independently of National Zero Waste Week, it was a welcome coincidence and well-timed for this weeks calendar.  It would have been news to most of those who attended todays conference that this week is indeed the 4th national awareness week of its kind.   And with reference to my earlier point about community champions, National Zero Waste Week, as organised by Rachelle Strauss of MyZeroWaste is an excellent example of how a positive role model can engage with the community around them, allbeit a virtual one.  With over 12,000 visitors to the campaign page, it certainly has proven its wide reach.

The Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was in attendance today and stayed for a short while following her keynote speech.  Although the government is placing waste prevention high on its agenda and has created a path towards a zero waste economy, todays  conference demonstrated that it needs to work harder and be tougher on manufacturing to design out waste and solutions for maximising the waste that remains.  I hope that government now shifts its expectations to fit more closely in line with the visionaries we saw today, who are passionate about better use of the worlds resources and the socio-economic opportunities of managing them more effectively.

Mal Williams, CEO of the Welsh community recycling network Clych, who also spoke at todays conference, really couldnt have put the point more bluntly.

"Waste is a mistake, not a resource," he asserted and referring to how society goes forward, he added that it is time to move from a "Careless system to a CAREFUL system".

And I have to agree, this should be the barometer against which a sustainable zero waste strategy should be measured and judged.

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This blogpost has been written in support of National Zero Waste Week 2011. More information about the awareness week can be found at www.myzerowaste.com.  Further details about the Making 2020 Zero Waste Work conference are available at www.climate-change-solutions.co.uk, where the speakers presentations will be published very soon.

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Making 2020 Zero Waste Work UK Conference 9th September

Wherever you are in the country, if youre interested in how the UK can develop an effective Zero Waste economy, you should try and get to Coventry on Friday 9th September for the conference Making 2020 Zero Waste Work: Achieving a low carbon resource efficient future.

With a keynote speech from the Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP, Secretary for State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the event pulls together some of the countrys key thinkers and international change-makers in the zero waste sector, including policy makers, retail representatives, local authority services and waste management companies.

Workshops will offer opportunities to explore topics that include:

• Best practice for business resource efficiency
• Closed loop recycling of food waste
• Accelerating the pace of industrial design
• How local authorities can drive zero waste
• Community engagement & eco parks.

The event promises to offer an exciting programme, which will see plenty of opportunity for networking with the thought-leaders from the Zero Waste sector.

For more information and to register, please visit:
http://www.climate-change-solutions.co.uk/Making2020ZeroWasteWork.php

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Guess wholl be hanging out with Saints for National Zero Waste Week

Ive taken my husband there, my children, my mother and most of my friends in Bury and friends who visit from further afield, not to mention an eco-friendly fireman and an incognito waste campaigner.  So I thought its about time I introduced you to my favourite café to hit Bury St Edmunds too, where I hope you will join me next week to help celebrate an exciting week thats about to hit the blogosphere.

Yes, Monday sees the start of National Zero Waste Week, an annual social media campaign that promotes ideas for waste reduction. Developed and managed by the grassroots website www.MyZeroWaste.com, it is now in its third year, and for the first time is sponsored by Tetra Pak.

This year’s theme, ‘Cooking for Victory’, is supported by celebrity chef Brian Turner CBE, who will share how he views food as an asset on the MyZeroWaste website and will demonstrate “a compost while you cook” approach during National Zero Waste Week. The topics are a response to research by WRAP that reveals households throw away 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink every year, costing the average family in Britain £50 per month.

Enthused by the celebrity chef’s commitment to the national awareness campaign, I asked Saints Café if they would also be prepared to help inspire people at a more local level, serving me a daily “pot luck lunch” to showcase how delicious meals can be made from even small amounts of usable healthy ingredients that busy households might otherwise throw away.  Can you imagine my excitement when they said yes!

Saints Café owners, Engin Aga and Bernadette McAleer, said: "since launching earlier in the year, we have always placed a high emphasis on minimising food waste, sourcing seasonal and local produce where we can, cooking in small batches and fresh to order, along with running a careful stock control system to ensure that the ‘Zero Waste’ model is never far from being achieved.

“We are very excited about the project and are pleased to have the opportunity to demonstrate that efficient use of ingredients can reduce household food waste and save families hundreds of pounds a year too”.

Rachelle Strauss, aka Mrs Green, from MyZeroWaste adds "Im thrilled that Karen has teamed up with Saints Café to promote National Zero Waste Week locally. It would be great if other eateries across Bury and Suffolk join in too, inspiring their own customers with ideas to try ‘pot luck recipes’ at home in a bid to reduce the nation’s waste.”

Despite having reduced my waste by 95% since I started The Rubbish Diet in 2008, I know I’ve got lax over the summer and so it will be great to pick up some new ideas and inspiration from one of my favourite cafés in Suffolk. There is a real buzz in the UK at the moment, where professionals are even being signed up by production companies to share their knowledge with prime-time audiences on national TV.   It’s an exciting time for raising awareness locally.

Professional chefs are extremely talented in managing food as a resource and minimising waste and even Brian Turner believes there is a role for local chefs to promote their food efficiency skills amongst their own customer community in a way that is fun and accessible. He says “To all chefs - make the world a better place, buy well, waste nout and make a bit more profit at the same time, itd be daft not to.”

So if you fancy joining me next week at Saints for a coffee or even some lunch yourself, do pop in.  Ill be there enjoying good food and blogging from 1pm every day.  If you do, and can share a top tip or two, Ill even feature you on the blog!   But if you live too far away to come along, dont worry, Ill be sharing their top tips and recipes on the blog throughout National Zero Waste Week, before I pack up and attempt to use up everything from my fridge at home.

So how excited am I to have a legitimate excuse to be a lady who lunches!   Well the answer is very, so do keep coming back for all the updates and if youve got a blog, why not blog about it too.

National Zero Waste Week takes place from 6th-12th September. Anyone can pledge to join in at www.myzerowaste.com, where there will be prizes for the most inspirational stories and opportunities to share news on Facebook and Twitter. For further information about Saints Café, check out their website at www.saintscafe.co.uk.

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Zero Waste Week 2013 Preparing for a bountiful feast

And here it is.  Zero Waste Week 2013 has finally begun. 

And Im joining in, starting with a Monday morning excavation of my fridge, freezer and cupboards in a mission to use up the contents and create zero food waste.

Many like to call it an audit - but for me its more like an archaeological dig, especially when it comes to the freezer.  For instance this mornings expedition uncovered a leg of lamb, chicken breasts, fish steaks and a mysterious lasagne whose packaging I used for a radio broadcast earlier this year and accidentally recycled afterwards - oops.

And as for the fridge, as you can see my haul has revealed a cacophony of pleading fruit & vegetables, wailing at me to use them up first to create a veritable feast.

But the most miserable looking felons that have been imprisoned in the fridge for far too long are those poor fruity yoghurts - still unopened and, ahem,  past their use-by date - and all because their biggest fan has gone off them.  In other words, hes become yoghurted out and being too busy, I hadnt noticed.

But I refuse to waste them without further investigation, and with my disclaimer of Dont try this at home and looking all innocent-faced, I shall be delving deep with my exploration tools, i.e. a spoon. I will of course take full responsibility for my actions.

Its also probably time to confess too that even after 5 years of talking rubbish, I am still absolutely crap at planning.  All that food hasnt been bought for a recipe.  Instead I shop with my imagination, buying things that I know I can make use of and blend with various herbs and spices. 

So when I look at the ingredients above, I can already see a sweet and sour chicken balti, a fish pie, fruit smoothies, roasted vegetables and possibly a green salsa.

But thats all very well when my imagination is working on full power,  However when youre tired and busy, culinary creativity can be buried deeper than that leg of lamb in the freezer.  Then Beans on Toast becomes the highlight of the day.

Thats why Zero Waste Week provides a good kick up the backside to put great food back on the table of priorities.   And after dragging the contents of my kitchen out into the open, I can already see that I wont need to go shopping this week, except for perhaps a top-up of cereal and some bagels.

Well thats a turn-up for the cook book.

So are you joining in the latest chapter in this Rubbish Revolution and committing to feed your belly not the bin? 

Yes?  Oh goody!  See www.zerowasteweek.co.uk for more info.

And if you tweet, dont forget that #zerowasteweek is the hashtag.  Wouldnt it be great if we could get that trending this week.

Well heres to the launch of Zero Waste Week.

Ill see you later, well thats if I survive the yoghurt and those dodgy looking plums that accidentally froze at the bottom of the fridge.

And as for that month-old leek, I shall be asking Mr C exactly what his intentions were when he bunged it in the trolley. 

That ones his responsibility.

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Adding glamour to zero waste

Vivienne Westwood Skyscraper design

Forget cardboard compactors.  These days jumping on your used pizza boxes in killer heels is the way to go to for adding extra sex appeal to recycling. Especially if youre wearing zero waste shoes.

Okay, I jest. I know I like to entertain my friends but the only way these shoes would add such glamour to my recycling activities is in carrying my feet towards my kitchen bin!   Performing star jumps in high heels just to crush old boxes is a little far fetched, even for me.

However, the zero waste aspect of these shoes isnt.  Theyre one of the latest designs to come out from Melissa, a Brazilian based shoe manufacturer that prides itself not just on great design and ethical policies but on zero waste operations too.  Not only does the factory recycle its waste water, but any excess material used in its current collection gets recycled into the next seasons shoes.

Melissa shoes, made from its mono-material MelFlex (apparently a toxin-free adaptation of PVC, developed from bio-engineered and recovered plastics) have emerged as one of the darlings of the eco-style world and have become popular with vegans and the eco-conscious alike. They even come with the promise that they can be 100% recycled.   And I admit I too have fallen for them this season.  Thanks to a friend bringing them to my attention, I was quickly seduced by a pair of Vivien Westwood heels especially designed for Melissas Anglomania range,

Yes I admit, they add that special "je-ne-sais-quoi" never witnessed by my wardrobe in recent years and their comfort will hopefully ensure they remain a key item for many decades to come.  However, despite my love of having shoes that have been made via zero waste production, I feel it fair to dispell the promise of a zero waste nirvana when it comes to recycling such items in the UK.

Just because a shoe is made from a single material that says it can be recycled, it doesnt mean it can be easily recycled.  The Melissa range is the only collection of shoes I know that have a recycling triangle on them, (revealing type 3 for PVC), however in the UK, the municipal collection of this type of material is not particularly widespread.  With that said, it is a sector that is currently being met by major research and development in Europe and eco-efficient collection and recycling processes, which replace less sustainable ways of managing such waste, should see much improvement over the next decade thanks to the development of voluntary agreements such as Vinylplus.

The recyclability may be marketed as a selling point when it comes to the end of a shoes life. However as any "zero waster" should know, its the product maintenance and reuse aspects that are the most obvious solutions to enjoying an item and managing its life-span post use.

As with anything, post-consumer recycling is just one consideration when making a purchase, but commitment to longevity and an ethical manufacturing process should be high on the agenda too, and for those reasons I think Im going to enjoy my relationship with my Melissa shoes for many years to come.

I really was joking about jumping up and down on pizza boxes.  I think these shoes are more suited to moments of enjoying cocktails and wine.

And of course, the closest they will ever come to a recycling centre, is if a touch of glamour is needed when recycling the empties.

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More information about the Melissa shoe range can be found at www.melissa.com.br/en, supplemented by a wealth of reviews appearing in Eco magazines that include Ecosalon, Dare2Magazine and The Ecologist.

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National Zero Waste Week 2011 Just one week to go

Just like the kids starting a new school year, I cant believe that Zero Waste Week has come around so quickly or indeed that its in its fourth year.  It doesnt seem that long since Mrs Green at myzerowaste.com held the very first National Zero Waste Week back in 2008.

Back then, it felt like a huge challenge and I thought Id take a walk down memory lane to the preparations that Mrs Green was making for her very first ZWW three years ago.  I remember packaging being one of the key problems, as it still is for many people whod want to have a go today.  However, undeterred, Mrs Greens Zero Waste Week saw over 160 people pledge to increase their commitment to reducing waste, reusing, recycling or composting, providing a great platform for her Myzerowaste site to host its second National Zero Waste Week in 2009, encouraging supporters this time to tackle their food waste.

Last years Zero Waste Week returned with an even greater emphasis on food waste, with Mrs Greens campaign week gaining official support from celebrity chef Brian Turner CBE, who shared tips on how he uses up ingredients and how he composts while he cooks.   For me it was a great excuse to find my own local chef and hang out at one of my favourite eateries, picking up tips on how good food can go a lot further with some extra imagination and fabulous recipes.

And so to this year.  As ever, National Zero Waste Week 2011 comes with another waste-busting topic, with this years challenge "Reducing waste while away from home".   This theme holds a special significance for me as it was the same unexpected twist that came with the local councils ZWW challenge back in March 2008, where any waste that I created "on-the-go" had to be brought home and added to my rubbish bins booty, which would be declared later that week.   With such a personal challenge back then, is it any wonder that I get excited about the "recycle-on-the-go bins" that feature in the 1000 bins campaign.

So, what are we asking you to do this year?

Thats simple. Whilst getting on with reducing waste on the home front, Mrs Green and I would love you to become more aware of the rubbish that can be created whilst youre out and about and take measures to reduce such waste that would ordinarily end up in landfill.

From tackling disposable cutlery to recycling drinks containers, there are loads of tips over at the National Zero Waste Week 2011 information page, where you can also share your own ideas in the comments section.  If youre on Facebook and want to receive further news, theres also an event page, which already has 190 people attending.

Dont forget, National Zero Waste Week is also the finale of the 1000 bins photovideo challenge.  Thanks to all who have submitted photos and videos this far.  There are now only two weeks to go to submit your entries and be in with a chance of winning a gorgeous Luciana clutch bag from Bottletop.org, or a fabulous waste-busting goodie bag from Onya Bags, which includes an Onya Back, Onya Bag, Onya Lunch, Onya Weigh, H2O Bottle and a People Towel.

So please send in your entries by Midnight (GMT) 11 September, either at www.facebook.com/1000bins or email me directly at standup@therubbishdiet.co.uk.  Mrs Green and I will then get cracking on voting for the most interesting bin photo as well as the one that made us smile the most and will announce the winners as soon as weve stopped laughing.

Heres one of my own photos taken whilst out and about at a festival in Staffordshire....go on, surely you can do better...............

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From St Edmundsburys Zero Waste Week to Zero Waste Europe

Zero Waste Europe - representatives from 13 European countries

I hope youre prepared for another one of those moments where I proclaim, "I would never have guessed that when I signed up to St Edmundsburys Zero Waste Week challenge, that Id end up throwing out just a plaster or visiting landfill or going on the BBC............... or even still blogging about it three years later.

Well, I trust that youre sitting down, because I most definitely could not have guessed that three years to the exact week that I took the Zero Waste Week challenge I would end up at an international strategy meeting in Brussels.

Trangressing away from the question of "how the blimmin eck did a housewife from Suffolk end up in an international forum on the continent,  and more importantly ...who was left sorting out the recycling back at home",  I really want to emphasise what an important step, the creation of a Zero Waste Europe alliance actually is to the future of sustainable waste practices on the global platform and at local level.  Anyone who is at all interested in the subject of reducing waste should certainly keep the development of this alliance at the forefront of their awareness, and if appropriate tap into the emerging network of Zero Waste expertise that is developing across Europe.

So what is it?  At its most simple definition Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) is an alliance that brings together municipalities, companies, universities and organisations committed to work to eliminate waste in Europe.
Its about raising awareness of the philosophy, the strategies, and defining practical tools that seek to eliminate waste, not just manage it and the alliance coordinates the development of these concepts throughout Europe and organises activities to promote it.

With links to the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA), which itself was created in 2003, ZWE works at a more local level, acting as an umbrella group for the Zero Waste interest groups that are starting to emerge throughout Europe.  Some of these groups were represented at Mondays strategy meeting, including the ZWUK, Zero Waste Italy, Zero Waste Catalonia, and  Zero Waste Hungary, along with waste reduction campaigners and strategists from organisations such as Friends of the Earth, WasteWatch, the European Environmental Bureau and Centre national dinformation indépendante sur les déchets (CNIID). 

I could go on, but I think its enough to say that with representation from countries that included France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Romania and the UK, we are looking at great potential for change and sharing of best practice.

As well as coming together to define the strategic direction of the alliance, the group was also able to hear first hand about the successful experiences in developing local Zero Waste vision and practical examples within communities, ranging from villages to municipalities. 

Rossano Ercolini, founder of Rifiuti Zero Italia shared the latest update from Italy, where over 35 municipalities have now formally adopted the Zero Waste goal in a move that improves waste reduction processes for a combined population of over 12 million people. They have also developed an official Zero Waste Research Centre, an idea that demonstrates the necessity of knowledge management and research in the move towards Zero Waste economies.

The UKs Mal Williams, founder of ZWIA, ZWUK and trustee of CLYCH, Wales Community Recycling Network, outlined the success stories of Zero Waste areas in Wales, including St Arvans and more recently Presteigne,  With news that the community should achieve an 89% recycling and waste reduction goal by the end of the year.

One thing that struck me about Mals presentation, was that aside from the practical processes and economic or sustainable benefits of Zero Waste, his vision is to implement the philosopy as a productive instrument for social change.  By rethinking the whole idea of waste management,  there are opportunities to empower ownership within communities and to redistribute wealth drawn from recyclates back into the community, supporting a movement towards renewed self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

With so much information that was shared at the ZWE and strength of collaboration that exists, I have to concede that this blogpost could not even stretch to covering it all.  Just this minor snapshot cannot do it proper justice.

However, the message that I really want to convey is that the goal of Zero Waste is certainly here to stay, as is the visionary journey towards it.  And it is thanks to the commitment, knowledge and skills of professionals and practitioners who are developing a world where the idea of waste will eventually be regarded as historic as a world without wheels.

So, if this is something that you or your oganisation supports and would like to find out more information, then Id encourage you to make contact with your local representative body.

In the UK, your first line of contact should be the Zero Waste Alliance UK, which also happens to have its AGM taking place in April.  Of course, if youre elsewhere in Europe, Zero Waste Europe will be able to direct you to your local alliance.

Finally, would I ever dream of coming back without a souvenir of my recycling memoires?  Of course not.  So, courtesy of Eurostar and Brussels-Midi train station Ill leave you with a photo of the most colourful and fabulously designed set of recycling bins Ive ever had the fortune to experience.  And look at those holes, so reminiscent of a toddlers shape-sorting toy, I bet I could have kept my kids entertained for days!

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Shedwyn gets her skates on for the end of National Zero Waste Week 2011

To celebrate the last day of National Zero Waste Week, I sent the 1000 Bins mascot Shedwyn, into Suffolks  rollerskating venue CurveMotion, to check out their recycling.

They have great recycling facilities behind the scenes, but dont have any specific recycling bins in the public zones.  Consequently customers end up throwing their empty bottles and cans into the general rubbish bin.

Even if there were public recycling bins, there is a real issue that the number of unemptied containers that are often thrown away by the customers, would quickly contaminate any efforts to recycle properly. So Shedwyn was on a mission to think of ways that could improve recycling without having to rely on expensive and sticky recycling bins.

After a spell of whizziness with the laptop and a touch of lamination, a simple methodology was born.  A  sign advising customers to leave their containers at the servery counter instead of shoving them in the bin!

Whether its an effective solution, only time will tell, but it is an idea thats worth trying and if response is low its well worth testing out new wording or different poster designs.

So with the job done, Shedwyn was ready to do a few laps around the roller rink before scooting off home to put her feet up for the rest of the day, but the bonkers old bird got so inspired by CurveMotions Charity Skateathon that she challenged herself to 50 laps, "Anything for charity", she said, knowing it would be a struggle to keep on her feet for even 25.

However, fifty laps later she was still going strong.

After a wobbly start, taking a tumble over a fallen-down child at lap 75, and peforming a spectacular forward-slide-and-knee-bounce herself during the 200th lap, our recycling bin champion knocked us off our chairs as she made it to 211 laps, the equivalent distance of a half-marathon!

The poor old girl couldnt walk for ages after shed come off the rink and was soon caught napping when she should have been on binwatch.

211 laps eh!  Whod have guessed that would happen this Sunday, rounding off National Zero Waste Week  with bruised knees.

So, could the moral of the story be that no matter what your goals, assumptions or expectations, Shedwyn has shown that its possible to exceed these, even if obstacles and setbacks get in the way?  We just need to to keep setting our sights much higher and pushing ourselves just that little bit more whether thats about recycling, reducing waste or other ambitions (government and industry are you listening?)

Then again, as a friend suggested after Shedwyns super-impressive tumble, perhaps the moral of the story is that she really should have worn kneepads! 

So, while the bespectacled roving reporter nurses her knees, I wish you a happy end to National Zero Waste Week. I hope its been a great week for you.   Of course, if like me, youve enjoyed Shedwyns expoits with the 1000 Bins Challenge, it would be fab if you could sponsor her for her charity skateathon today.  It would help her knees get better much more quickly and its for a a brilliant cause too:  St Nicholas Hospice in Bury St Edmunds, which needs as much money as it can get to continue its great work.  You can find all you need at my Justgiving page or click the blue fundraiser badge at the top of the page.

So thank you all for your support this week and during the last three monthss 1000 bins challenge.  Its been spectacular.  Heres to National Zero Waste Week 2011.  Special thanks go to Mrs Green at MyZeroWaste for organising it.  With another successful week over, who knows what will happen next year! Whatever happens, I bet your bottom dollar it will be exciting.

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This post has been written in support of National Zero Waste Week 2011, which is hosted and organised by www.myzerowaste.com. This years theme is reducing waste away from home.  The photo competition for the 1000 Bins project, promoting "recycling on the go", ends at midnight today (11/9/2011).  See www.1000bins.com for details.  Huge thanks to CurveMotion for extending a very warm welcome to Shedwyn today.  More information about their Charity Skateathon and other events can be found at www.curvemotion.com.

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My unexpected Zero Waste Week harvest

Proper gardeners & allotmenteers wont particularly be that impressed by the produce to the left, but I am absolutely surprised by the results, in a good way.

For this is yesterdays haul from my garden and for a non-committed and fair-weather gardener like me, the results have been encouraging...

... with the exception of that bowl of potatoes, the only harvest that came from three abandoned potato plants.  However,  I am surprised we had any at all and as Id forgotten to buy extra spuds yesterday, these were a welcome and unexpected addition to todays lunch.

The blackberries are a real surprise this year, especially after I deliberately hacked back the bramble to clear some space.  I hadnt quite expected nature to love my brutality so much and as a result weve picked several bowlfuls of blackberries over late summer.   After such great results, Im now planning to take the loppers to it again and see if we can create the same harvest next year.

And as for those tomatoes, having only planted 6 cherry tomato plants in late spring/early summer, since the first one ripened about 10 days ago, Im delighted to have collected a small bowl of ripe tomatoes every other day.   We normally have to ripen any tomatoes that we grow using the banana in a bag trick, which can be dispiriting, so this has been a fantastic surprise ~ especially for a tomato fiend like me.

But the greatest unexpected treat of all has been that bucket of apples.  Having planted the tree seven years ago, each year it has disappointed with small offerings that are populated with unwelcome creatures that eat the apples from within.

For the very first year ever,  this summer has provided a bucketful of apples that are a decent size and the majority of which are bug free.  As it happens, the tree was pruned last year too and with great weather, finally it seems to have worked.

But of course, as Zero Waste Week comes to an end, the issue at the forefront of my mind is storage and preservation so that we can make the most of our apple harvest. I would hate for any of it to go to waste.  So, having followed Love Food Hate Wastes advice for years, it was a no brainer to store as many as I could in the fridge for future inspiration. A Twitter conversation on the topic also brought tips from @melaniebbikes whose advice led to stewing some to add to the freezer.  I also liked this tip too, which Im going to try another day.

@KarenCannard apple is also a great base for herb jellies, great way to preserve those too! (River Cottage Preserves handbook is my bible)
— Melanie B (@melaniebbikes) September 7, 2013

Collecting so much produce from our small garden this week has made me much more aware of the rewards in growing even just a few things that save food miles and packaging ~ and for very little effort too.  It would have been such a wasted opportunity not to have planted those tomatoes. Pot luck was definitely on our side.

Meanwhile, to prove that sweet things pictured above arent just for dessert, I cooked up some of yesterdays blackberries, added some chopped apples, a few veteran spring onions, a handful of mint from the garden and pepper seasoning, creating a great sauce to accompany todays lamb. 

Now that was another unexpected Zero Waste Week result!

So with Zero Waste Week 2013 almost over,  I hope youve had a great week yourself.   If youve missed it and want to catch up with all the news, visit www.zerowasteweek.co.uk, where there are lots of tips.  Those of you who are particularly enthused may even want to sign up for The Rubbish Diet and see how much further you can reduce your waste over the next eight weeks.  If you havent tried it yet,  do sign up at www.therubbishdiet.org.uk. 

But before I sign off, perhaps I should confess to our own food waste tally.  We didnt quite get to zero, but we didnt do badly.  I have no qualms in blaming most of it on the kids, with the abandoned Toasthenge, a few dregs of bottom-of-the-bowl-moist-cereal, a tiny bitesize piece of bagel, a small amount of pasta that competed with an unusual lack of appetite and some unappealing leftover fries from an emergency fast food pitstop this evening.  Sadly my own contribution was some very burnt stewed plums which Id forgotten that Id left on the hob during school pick-up on and my two slices of bread with mouldy measels.  All the above, of course, have been fed to the worms, so nothing has gone to landfill.

Huge thanks to Rachelle Strauss of MyZeroWaste for all of her hard work and inspiration in running another successful and well supported campaign.  Such a great start to September!

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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, Ive not ended up in Hollywood.  Im somewhere far more exciting! Yep, as part of this years international Zero Waste conference, Im 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 Recologys 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 Franciscos 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 thats Zero Waste to landfill or incineration!

Now thats 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 Ive 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 Franciscos 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 Franciscos 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 Fishermans Wharf, it became clear how re-education, attitudes and the right financial leverage tools are helping to realise San Franciscos Zero Waste culture, especially within the business sector.

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

Scomas 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 "its not hard, its just using a different coloured garbage can".

But businesses in Fishermans Wharf dont 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 companys 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 dont need to process or repackage the fish at the other end.

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

Our guide for the day, Lisa Lukacs, a Zero Waste consultant whos 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 its 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 days tour ended with a presentation from San Franciscos 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 departments Zero Waste programme here at www.sfenvironment.org.

Of course, a day of introductions to San Franciscos Zero Waste initiatives wouldnt 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 whats 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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To achieve Zero Waste we MUST keep focusing on the target

The future of waste is something thats been on my mind lately, not least because tomorrow I will be attending my first board of trustees meeting of the Zero Waste Alliance UK.  Ive also got several exciting projects coming up over the next few weeks, which will highlight how our culture is changing.

My mind goes back to 2008, when I volunteered to take part in my first Zero Waste Week challenge. Despite my enthusiasm, I thought I must have had a screw loose for trying it.  I worried that people would think I was a weirdo and as for the reducing waste so drastically, I didnt think it was possible. 

But the results of the challenge showed otherwise and, at the time, shocked me.

I realise now that my pre-challenge assumptions were based on limiting judgements, lack of knowledge and embedded habits, as well as expectations that fitted well within my comfort zone.  Consequently, when I first signed up for the challenge, I confessed to the council that the best I could commit to during Zero Waste Week would be a carrier bags worth of rubbish.  It was a comfortable target.  With such a busy family lifestyle, it felt far more realistic than producing an empty bin. And to be honest, knowing how much rubbish we threw away before that, I knew Id be happy and proud to declare such an achievement.

But this declaration was 8 weeks before the Zero Waste Week.  I was unaware of the discoveries I would make in the coming months, including the recycling solutions that were continually improving, or how I could take control over reducing waste that could not be recycled.  As my knowledge grew during those few weeks, my assumptions changed and so did the horizon of the challenge that lay ahead.

With my limiting judgements being sledge-hammered into oblivion, thanks to my new knowledge, experiences and conviction, I was able to look afresh at the Zero Waste target and the goal looked more easily attainable. Thats how during that week in March 2008, we only came to throw out a plaster.  And thats how those who took part in the Rubbish Diet Challenge that I set at the beginning of the year, also came out with fabulous results.

Thats the power of the target, no matter whether its zero waste or any other personal usiness goal.
 
And this is why we must keep the focus on zero waste and underpin it with a commitment to learn, innovate and improve the processes and solutions that help us move towards that goal.

Zero waste isnt just about recycling more, its about not creating that waste in the first place.

Whether youre a designer developing your next product or packaging, a buyer for your own business or a large retail chain, an events manager organising the smallest of events, or a householder who thinks you have nothing at all to do with the waste stream, you can make your own contribution towards a zero waste future whoever you are.

Even if all you do for now is take a proper read of your councils latest leaflet or your companys waste management policy, that is a key step to recharting the future of waste.  As a resident, you may find new services that you never realised existed and begin to recycle more as well as reduce other waste. As a designer or buyer you may discover that the future of your product can only be landfill and decide to design-out that waste.  Or if youre organising an event based on plastic cutlery or polystyrene, you may decide to consider alternatives that could help make your event waste free.

By setting yourself a zero waste target now, even if you dont think it is achievable, it will kickstart your interest and your inner innovation.  Then once your learning curve is underway and you become satisfied with your progress, a sustainable zero waste future will become more attainable, and youll be ready to pounce on any new technologies or services that become available or more easily respond to legislative pressures.

Sometimes, all it takes is a little imagination to want to do things differently and great results can be achieved, such as that shown in the business case study here or illustrated by community based programmes that include WasteWatchs Our Common Place, or the examples demonstrated by individual contributors to MyZeroWaste.

You just need to keep that target in mind, even if it feels like it will take you five years to get there.

So begin now, by setting yourself the target, learn, innovate accordingly, reap the benefits of interim successes and review regularly.

I strongly believe youll get there, even if you need the genius of scientistsdesigners to help you or invigorated markets to drive the demand for recycled goods.


As a society,  if we focus on the target, the road to zero waste and closed loop recycling will always remain open and all other diversions will become closed.

Anything else, can only be second best and is less than our future deserves.


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Useful websites to feed your inspiration:

www.wrap.org.uk
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
www.recyclenow.com
www.wastewatch.org.uk
www.myzerowaste.com
www.feeding5k.org

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Cheering myself up with zero waste flower power

Ive been feeling totally rubbish today, possibly overtired following the weekends BritMums conference.  Ive got a busy few days coming up, Mr Cs at a long conference and to be honest, Im feeling overwhelmingly disorganised and quite glum!

After a morning of sweeping and mopping the floors like a charlady - no, we dont live in a huge house, it just takes my procrastination that long to get into the swing - and working my way through the emails and four cups of tea, my mood still hadnt lifted.

There was nothing for it!

I took to the garden with a scissors. Not even my pruning shears.  Honestly, there was no time for such precision in getting the proper tools.

I was on an urgent mission to find something cheery amongst the flowerbeds!

I know I could have sat down on a bench and admired the Sweet Williams outdoors, but I was after mood-lifting prettiness, to give me a visual energy boost and supplement those mugs of tea, indoors!

As I dropped the cuttings into the vase, I acknowledged that this was something I now take for granted, but here I had a vase of flowers with:

no plastic packaging;
no rubber bands;
no plastic packet of flower food;
no paper wrap;
and zero flower miles. 

Thats very different to the regular bunches of flowers I used to bung in my trolley at the supermarket.

I tell you, I was that excited thinking about how much crud Ive saved on my floral habit, I also got snip-happy with the Alliums

There are lots of resources and discussions about growing food, encouraging us to keep it local and to avoid packaging, but its floral cousins get much less attention, even though almost 90% of cut flowers are imported into the country. So if youre looking for proper inspiration regarding what to grow in your garden or further information on buying British seasonal flowers, I recommend the following links.

Cut Flowers-Growing & Selection, The RHS
Choosing British cut flowers, Sarah Raven.
Growing cut flowers, BBC
Why buy British grown cut flowers, The Flower Co-Operative
British flower bouquets, Wiggly Wigglers

Now as for that glum mood, which inspired this blogpost in the first place.  I am very happy to say that its lifted!

Heres to happy planting!

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Zero Waste Europe my top 10 favourite blogposts

So, did you know its the European Week for Waste Reduction?  I guess its not the most snappy of names to roll off the tongue, but I love the fact there is one week in the year thats dedicated towards bringing our diverse continent together in the fight against waste.

It also makes me feel that my dusty old degree in Modern European Studies from (cough) the 1980s, still has some relevance to my life today.  The concluding motto in 1989 was that Europe is a unity through its diversity.  I cant remember what I made of that back then, but when it comes to tackling our mountain of waste, its certainly relevant to todays range of initiatives - diverse yet united towards the same goal, that of waste minimisation.

So for EWWR, (a much snappier title), I thought Id kick off with an introduction to one of my favourite Zero Waste blogs, Zero Waste Europe, and my top ten favourite blogposts, revealing some of the great ideas that are taking place on the continent as well as inspiration from further afield.

The association of Italian Zero Waste towns has been created

Little Museum of Bad Industrial Design

Kretsloppsarken. Recycling or amusement park?

A Zero Waste month in Sweden: 4 people = less than 1kg of waste!

The first European university to ban bottled water?

Retorna – When waste has a value it stops being waste

Repair café – a project to make friends, not waste

The art of Zero Waste!

David Andersen Copenhagen; designing waste out of fashion
 
On the Road to Zero Waste: Lessons from around the world


But seriously, dont stop there.  There are plenty of other great posts, including some wonderful examples of waste reduction activities in the UK too, such as Nappy Ever After and Unpackaged.

For anyone who wants to explore the wider approach to Zero Waste, Zero Waste Europe really is a great place to start.

And on that note, as you travel virtually from country to country, perhaps all thats left to say, is Bon Voyage!



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European Week for Waste Reduction runs from 17-25 November.  More information can be found at www.ewwr.eu.  To follow events and discussion on Twitter, use the hashtag #ewwr.

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Zero Waste standards tours a party for good measure

The last few days of the international Zero Waste convention in San Francisco and the East Bay area have been very hectic with much debate and learning taking place.  It has become evident that this part of the world is very justified in having such high standards in its expectations regarding the future of zero waste initiatives.

Standards

On Thursday, there was much heated debate in Oakland City Hall, led by Gary Liss, on defining a Zero Waste standard for business certification.

It was clear that Zero Waste certification is already being carried out on some major international businesses and is currently being managed by a range of organisations, including UL, NSF-ISR and the US Zero Waste Business Council who, in consultation with the Zero Waste International Alliance, are preparing an American standard for Zero Waste for submission to ANSI.   Even though the current programmes are working towards high standards for Zero Waste (without landfilling or burning), it was debated that they arent yet high enough and there could be a range of loop holes.  Also there needs to be clarity of a standard for businesses that have very minimal wasted resources.


Pigs & Peacocks

Following the days debate at City Hall, it was back on tour again, this time for dinner at Marin Sanitary Service, a family-run waste management company that serves Marin County in the East Bay area.

Ive now been to a wide range of MRFs but Ive this is the first time Ive ever visited a site that keeps pigs or even peacocks, not to mention the chickens, which feature as a popular and unexpected item on their educational tours.

The philosophy of Zero Waste is at the heart of the companys activities and I love this poster where our host Devi Peri outlined how once youve harvested the low-hanging fruit, it is possible to incorporate other services to a point where the only things left are Extended Producer Responsibility, including redesign.

Mattress Recycling


On Friday we visited a mattress recycling company in Oakland, which is now processing 150,000 mattresses per year with only 10% of its waste ending up in landfill.

Mattress Recycling is a great example of how recycling is progressing but if manufacturers designed products for better deconstruction at end-of-life, waste reduction achievements could be even better. 

The companys landfill stats may appear to be minimum but there still needs to be a push for products such as the one below, which cannot be disassembled, to be redesigned for disassembly.

However, for the majority that can be separated, the company is able to deconstruct the mattresses into good quality components, including metal that is sold onto metal dealers, wood that can be used in mulch, compost or energy production and cotton & fabrics that are sent onto the textile markets.

Dual Stream Bins & Buy Back

Having stayed in Berkeley this week, it was interesting to have a peek behind the scenes at Berkeley Recycling, the citys waste management company that serves residents and businesses locally.

One of the key points I drew out of the tour was the success of the companys dual stream collection, i.e. collecting recycling in split wheelie bins.

This allows for better quality of materials as plastic & metal packaging can be kept separate from paper and cardboard, which means easier and more efficient sorting at the MRF and maintains their ability to create one of the cleanest streams of recycling the the Bay Area.  Currently Berkeley Recyclings MRF maintains just a residual rate of only 2-3% and thanks to the quality of its recycling streams doesnt experience any rejections.

It was also interesting to see how there are different service levels of participation to engage the public.  Residents have a range of options for recycling, which include the kerbside service through the dual-streamed bins and a front-end recycling centre at the MRF.

The bins shown above cater for all the kerbside materials plus hard plastic, but as you can see below there is also a Buy Back service, where visitors can get paid separately for bottles, cans, paper and scrap aluminium, incentivising those who want to earn some extra dollars either for themselves or a community initiative.

I was intrigued to know the amount of materials collected through these different service levels.  The figures are as follows:

Bring back: 100 tons per month
Buy back: 250 tons per month
Kerbside: 650 tons per month

It was also interesting to note that Buy back services are an integral part of recycling services, not just in Berkeley but across California.



Innovations in Reuse

Throughout the week I have seen many examples of how Reuse has been an important feature in this areas waste hierarchy but it was the visit to El Cerritos recycling centre which really demonstrated how this can be made not only visible to the public but also integral to a local culture.

The El Cerrito site underwent a major redesign in 2012 and has fast become one of most attractive recycling sites I have ever seen.  Its popularity amongst local residents is such that it restricts visitors to two hours onsite.  Two hours?  Most people I know are in and out of a recycling centre in just 20 minutes.

The attraction of El Cerrito is that it is not just a recycling centre, it is also an exchange centre, featuring an onsite book store, where you can pick up items of interest for free and those who are registered can also pick out various items from some of their deposit bins.  As well as managing a range of recycling streams on site, it also supports local community reuse organisations such as Urban Ore and the Goodwill charity.

For anyone interested in modelling reuse and community exchange facilities into their own recycling centres, it really is worth looking closely at the El Cerrito model and more information can be found on its website.


Party Time at Urban Ore

On the topic of reuse, one of the most amazing centres in this part of California... or indeed anywhere else that Ive had the pleasure to visit is Urban Ore, which is a huge reuse and building materials exchange operation in Berkeley.  It is also an active contributor to the Zero Waste programme and its website is really worth a visit for anyone who want to push activities further up the waste hierarchy in their own localities.

Urban Ore was also the venue for the end-of-week party and with the opportunity to browse around the store, I couldnt think of a better place to be.

This place is cool with a capital C!

Its not even afraid of reselling electricals and electronics.  The onus is simply on any interested purchasers to test them out onsite first!

But when I say that Urban Ore is huge!  It really is!  Even this photo of party central doesnt do it justice.  And in fact, the outside is even larger than the inside.

The Urban Ore party really was a fitting venue for the end-of-week celebrations.  It has been a great study tour of some of the best practice Zero Waste practices that are taking place in the world right now and if there are any local innovators, great thinkers and aspirational leaders in the UKs waste sector who want to be connected up to what Ive seen this week, I would be delighted to make those connections.

I know waste management and working towards Zero Waste to conserve resources isnt easy, but it starts with rethinking the impossible and realising its potential towards a new reality.  We should never be scared of these levels of innovation but should be excited about the technological, economic and social opportunities that they bring.

What Ive witnessed this week have been communities that care about making the impossible actually possible, forging ahead with their vision and working together with City officials, service providers and strategists who are not daunted by moving away from old models of thinking.

This is something that is worth celebrating big time!  So thank you San Francisco, leading the way with your 80% diversion rate, and to all the organisations from the Bay Area that shared their experiences this week.  I feel very privileged to have been here with many of my International friends.

Folk, I think its now time to watch this space.  Meanwhile, heres another photo from the coolest party Ive been to in a long time... and most probably ever!

California rocks!  And so does its path to Zero Waste!

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