From the Rubbish Diet to the Suffolk Diet and other news!

Today marks the final weigh-in of the Waste Reduction Fortnight on my street and as I type, the recycling officers are busy monitoring the success of the project in this part of St Edmundsbury.  Our street is the first to reach the end of the project and over the next couple of weeks will be followed by the other participating streets throughout the rest of Suffolk. 

So has it been a success in our Almost Average household?  Well I can confirm that it has.  Regular readers may remember that two weeks ago at the beginning of the project, our fortnightly rubbish weighed in at 700g, which for us was unusually heavy.

And our challenge was to reduce it by 50%

Two weeks later, the official weigh-in is...dum,dum,dum.....50grammes!

And that's a fine result, given that it's half the size of what we would normally throw away.  The bag you see contains stuff like Weetabix wrappers, a few pieces of food soiled cardboard and some fiddly bits of broken kids toys, which are too small to recycle.

So, having had another astounding challenge on the waste reduction front, what's next?  Putting my feet up and having a rest?

How I wish.

But no...as of today, I am embarking on a brand new challenge which will see me taking a break from talking rubbish and instead embarking on enjoying local food.

For the next seven days I have been challenged to see how easy it is to live off nothing but food that is either grown, reared or produced in Suffolk.

And I am really looking forward to it.

However I won't be blogging about it here.  In fact, I've launched a brand new blog, appropriately called The Suffolk Diet, which will feature updates about how I get on.

So do visit if you can, as it would be lovely to see you.  And who knows, you might even feel like joining me in the challenge - whether you live in Suffolk or not.  And if you've got any recipes you'd like me to try or can even advise on the most delicious ways to use up my fridge full of  Kale, then please feel free to join in and keep me company.

You can find the new blog over at www.thesuffolkdiet.com.  There are a few introductory posts there already, but you haven't missed much as Day 1 of the challenge actually starts today.

And don't worry, I won't be taking my eyes off the bins.  I'll be back next week to tell you whether my Suffolk Diet has created any extra rubbish.

I suppose you could say, I'm just having a little holiday and I hope you have fun too.  It would be great to hear if you spot any new local food in your own neck of the woods.

The only problem I think I'll have, with all the good food in Suffolk, it's not just my bin that I'll need to keep slim.  I've got a feeling that I'll need more exercise too.

___________________________________________________________________

Read more ►

Nothing much to report here...except....who stole my recycling?

I'm amazed that I'm still with you today, especially after this morning's surprise, when I went to put out our recycling bin and discovered it was hardly worth bothering about.  There was so little in there, I almost fell inside with shock.  You get the image: head first, legs dangling upwards, crying for my neighbours to come and rescue me.   "Almost fell"  I said, just almost, but hold onto that vision while it lasts.

It was a very surreal moment. When I first opened the bin it was empty.  I then tipped the contents of my kitchen recycling bin into the wheelie bin and it still only came a third of the way up.

Two weeks recycling taking up so little space.

It just didn't seem right, especially as it's mostly 50% or 75% full.

And before you ask...no I haven't had a lazy half hour and just dumped it all in my black bin. You know I would NEVER do that AND it's Waste Reduction Fortnight, which means I'm keeping a closer eye on my rubbish than usual.

So a peculiar situation indeed and just shows it really is possible to slim your rubbish bin without tipping your recycling bin over the edge...well that's if you know the secret of course.

And I've been scratching my head to figure out what that secret might be.

I realise what it is now as I look out of the window towards my car.

My little Fox-mobile is still not working, having been stuck on the roadside with a flat battery for almost two whole weeks, which means I haven't done much shopping with the exception of picking up fresh produce from the market. 

But we haven't gone without.  We've still been emptying our cereal boxes.  The cats have been nibbling on their Whiskas and we've enjoyed the odd tin of beans and bottle of apple juice so perhaps that's not the secret ingredient after all.

So maybe, just maybe, someone really has stolen my recycling.  And if they have I'm watching!


____________________________________________________________

Read more ►

Knock Knock: Who's there? It's a rubbish blogger in Brandon!

So today was the day I volunteered to help promote the Seven Suffolk Streets waste reduction project in Crown Street, Brandon, which is the area that's taking part in the Forest Heath district of Suffolk.

And it was a cold, wet and snowy day, certainly not the weather for walking the streets.

But it was a case of simply wrapping up warm and getting on with the job in hand, which was to knock on strangers' doors to raise awareness of the waste reduction project that's taking place in two weeks time.

Despite having my official's badge, I must say it was rather a daunting task.  I might have got used to presenting at conferences and doing radio interviews about ways to reduce waste, but knocking on doors is different.  It's a little more intimate and it's difficult to know how people will react, so I can only admire the other door-knockers who have been pounding the streets over the last two weeks on behalf of the Suffolk Waste Partnership.


But as with most fears, I needn't have worried, because most people who answered my rata-tat-tats or ring-a-ding-dings of the doorbells were interested in the issues and keen to take part.  And in certain cases the team - which was made up of me and David whom I introduced last week - got a very warm welcome indeed, with residents being happy to talk about waste issues that affected them.  It was also a great opportunity to introduce new services that had been rolled out at the local household waste recycling centres.

So after a day out on the streets, I am now glad to be tucked up in the warmth of my home and would like to wish Crown Street lots of luck in the challenge ahead.  I also hope that it's a lot sunnier when David and the other regular door-knockers return to visit the rest of the street soon.

I'll certainly be thinking of them... from the comfort of my blog! 

______________________________________________________________

Read more ►