Have you heard? There’s a rubbish revolution happening on the streets of west London and we’d love you to join in.
All you need is your bin and a sense of adventure and in just five weeks’ time, you could go down in history as one of the heroes that helped this side of London slash its trash and put an end to the battle of the bulging bins.
This revolution starts with putting your bin on a diet: five easy steps that could halve your waste in just five weeks and help you think differently about rubbish forever.
Leading this fun revolution is the Rubbish Diet, the UK’s very first slimming club for bins. You simply sign up on the website, and over the next few weeks you’ll receive motivating tips to help you on your way to a lighter rubbish bin—and more money in your pocket, too.
West London Mums who live in Harrow may have already heard of the Rubbish Diet, where the challenge was launched in January with Debra Alexis, Harrow’s local Bin Doctor. Hundreds of residents have joined in, as well as a local community radio station, HCR, which brought the diet to life with lots of fun and laughter on air. Sarah Thorp, a busy caterer and mum from Harrow, took the Rubbish Diet challenge and reduced her waste by 75 percent. “I loved the challenge and have become much more careful about what I buy,” Sarah says. “I’ve saved lots of money by reusing and buying in bulk. And it was really helpful to be able to ask for advice if I wasn’t sure about something.” (You can listen to Sarah talk about her experience here.)
Most of those who took part in the Harrow Rubbish Diet challenge reduced their waste by almost 50 percent, and others by even more. As a result, the Rubbish Diet campaign is being extended to the rest of west London, with information being tailored for residents who live in Brent, Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond.
Karen Cannard, the creator of the Rubbish Diet, says, “This is such an exciting time for the challenge. It’s great to witness its success in west London and see the pleasure that people have in reducing their waste. I’m now looking forward to even more people, including bloggers and groups of friends, taking the challenge and sharing their own stories.”
In fact, the Rubbish Dietstarted as a blog, in the form of Karen’s personal diary as she slimmed her bin in preparation for her council’s Zero Waste Week challenge in Suffolk. From the starting point of a full wheelie bin’s worth of rubbish dragged to her kerbside every fortnight, she shrank her bin bags so much that when the big week arrived, all the waste they had for landfill was a sticking plaster.
During those few weeks, her blog featured tales of overcoming recycling confusion, battling food waste, avoiding stuff that couldn’t be recycled and repairing things that would have once been binned. She finally hit Zero Waste Week itself—with her husband, two small children and their primary school in tow, and with the added surprise of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour broadcasting her daily column. That was in 2008. Life would never be the same.
“I decided to reduce my waste as a New Year’s resolution,” reveals Karen. “I was turning 40 and rubbish was one of a list of many challenges that I wanted to overcome before my milestone birthday. I hadn’t expected something so ordinary to have such extraordinary outcomes.”
By reducing food waste and switching from disposable consumables to products that last longer, Karen estimates that her family has saved over £1,000 per year. From a bin-management perspective, her household waste has now settled at around one or two carrier bags’ worth of rubbish per month, which means they hardly ever need to drag the bin out or panic if they miss a bin day again. Even the recycling bin contains less, thanks to getting excess packaging under control.
Karen has since featured again on Woman’s Hour, on BBC London and The One Show, and has also helped families reduce their waste on C4’s Dispatches and ITV1’s Tonight documentary “Throwaway Britain”, where she motivated the Heap family to slim their bin by 95 percent.
So what makes the Rubbish Diet approach different to other waste-reduction campaigns? “It’s because it’s personal and fun!” laughs Karen. “Just like any other diet, participants set themselves an achievable goal. Because everyone’s rubbish is different, they simply tailor the advice to their own lifestyles.” And you don’t have to go it alone: “It can be a social experience, too. We’ve had a street of 22 neighbours take the challenge together with some great outcomes.”
The challenge starts by simply asking you to take a look at your rubbish bin and jot down the top five types of rubbish that fill it. Then, over the next five weeks try to eliminate them, whether it’s food waste, awkward packaging or other annoying stuff. You can do it on your own, or ask friends, family or your regular social group to try it with you. And as it’s spring, you could even use it as a great excuse to declutter part of your home without anything going in the rubbish bin.
For more details, visit the Rubbish Diet website, where it takes only a couple of minutes to sign up. You can also follow events and updates locally on our Facebook page and on Twitter as @rubbishdietWL. If you’d like to blog about your Rubbish Diet experience, please contact Karen@therubbishdiet.org.uk, who would love to hear from you.
