Karen Cannard: The Rubbish Diet

The Zero Waste Challenge

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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 EVERYTHINGBut still had

1 ½ bags per week

© 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

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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.

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The blog was born

A diary of the zero waste challenge!

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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.

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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Food that’s wasted!Leftovers; out-of-date food; gone-off food.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.

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Where does it go in Suffolk?

Landfill tax: £40 per tonne

Fine: £150 per tonne over allowance© 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

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• Biodegradable waste, e.g. food, dirty nappies, paper: creates Methane Gas - * A GHG - 23 x as powerful as CO2*

• 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.

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1. Analyse my own rubbish.2. Find out what could be recycled. Check with

the council / Recycle Now & check packaging.3. Set up a convenient recycling system at home

as well as a routine to visit the HWRC.4. REDUCE what could NOT be recycled or

REUSE things wherever possible.

What could I do?

© 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

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The Motivation

• The goal of an empty bin.

• Imagining burying our rubbish in our own garden.

The Motivation

© 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

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• 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.

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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.

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• 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.

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• Bokashi food waste.• Floor sweepings.• Vacuum cleaner contents.• Cotton wool.

Composted more

© 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

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• 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.

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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.

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Progress over 7 weeks

3rd Feb 2008 17th Feb 2008 2nd March 2008 9th March 2008

Orange bag: plastic bags separated

from other rubbish© 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

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Zero Waste WeekThe results of Zero Waste Week

Just one plaster!17th March 2008

© 2009, Karen Cannard, The Rubbish Diet.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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Thanks for listening

Last weigh-in: ONE YEAR LATER: 18 March 2009One week’s rubbish: 128 grams

Karen Cannardwww.therubbishdiet.co.uk

Enjoy the makeover