Find out what Shropshire Rubbish dieters have been saying...

How much of our waste is actually recyclable?

So here is the challenge - how low can you go if you put your mind to it?

Our amazing Rubbish Dieters in Shropshire have been slimming their bins over the last few weeks to spectacular effect

here are a few quotes:

"I can't believe what a difference taking all the polythene out of my bin makes! Wouldn't it be great if everyone took their polythene to Sainsburys, Morrisons or the Coop"

"I'm loving my Bokashi bin - no more food waste in my bin - and my bin is so much slimmer"

"Doing the Rubbish Diet with my neighbours has been a great way to meet people who live on Ashley Street"

"I asked the council to take away my big wheelie bin - now I have a tiny one because my rubbish has gone down so much I don't need a big one. The little one is easy to move and doesn't take up much space"

If you would like to know more about the Rubbish Diet - give me a shout on 01743 351014 07972 858313 or follow us on twitter @rdshropshire Alison@therubbishdiet.org.uk

Sign up to the Rubbish Diet www.therubbishdiet.org.uk or come to 8 Woodfield Road Monday 17th June at 7.30pm all welcome for cake and a rubbish chat

Cat Litter - is litter in more ways than one!

In my day job I often find myself faced with a pile of somebody else's rubbish to sort into categories - it's called residual waste research.

Now, we start the day in good spirits with lots of banter to keep the mood light and the work swift. However as the day wears on my mood generally dips a little and I  have been known to rant a little!!

About what you ask - what could possibly make you cross when you are sorting through rubbish!! Well, in my case, the thing that tends to set me off is the endless bags of heavy, inert and totally non-biodegradable cat litter that we find in the rubbish.

Most people are extremely considerate and wrap up the used litter in a plastic bag so it is not particularly offensive to deal with but boy, is it heavy!! In some waste sorts that we do, cat litter makes up 30% of the weight of rubbish. So 30% of the cost of landfill is because of cat litter!!

Now cat litter is a double edged sword - people who use cat litter can be seen as responsible cat owners who don't let their cat poo all over someone else's garden. But the resultant waste is incredibly heavy and therefore costs a lot of council tax to dispose of it in landfill.

So is there a solution? How can cat owners continue to be responsible pet owners but at the same time not produce incredibly heavy bins? I asked a few questions on twitter and this is what came back....

There are a number of cat litter products on the market that are biodegradable and compostable

Fed & Watered ‏@FedAndWatered  reckon that Cats' Best is the best product - flushable, compostable and economical

 

                              

Our Altrincham ‏@OurAltrincham agree "Better still is Cats' Best degradable cat litter which is so readily degradable it can be flushed down the loo or composted."

 

So if you have a cat and are looking for a way to slim your bin perhaps using a biodegradable cat litter that can be composted is the way forward!

 

If you have found another product that helps you slim your bin please let me know.

 

thanks

ali

 

 

 

 

Woodfield Road, the latest street to take up the Rubbish Diet Challenge!!

Never ceases to amaze me!!

Over the Easter break I got my kids to post a little leaflet about the Rubbish diet challenge through my neighbours doors. I offered cake and a chat about rubbish! Low and behold 5 people turned up last night - all live on my street, but do you know what  - I hadn't even seen them never mind talked to them. So even before we get into the benefits of taking the rubbish diet together - I already know 5 more of my neighbours!

I decided to ask people on my street to do the Rubbish diet with me having seen the great things that have happened in Ashley St - where 22 households are slimming their bins together and sharing journeys to the Household Recycling centre for cardboard, tetrapak and electrical items.

It's bin day today so the bin slimmers of Woodfield Road have thrown themselves straight into the challenge -aiming to reduce the amount of stuff that ends up in their blue bin by recycling more, composting for England, trying to avoid non-recyclable packaging etc.

We have decided to share cardboard recycling as well - so I will put out a sack for cardboard on Sunday and people can wander down the road with their cardboard instead of  driving it to a bring bank.

I love getting to know my neighbours so I am really looking forward to slimming bins with the folk of Woodfield road over the next 8 weeks.

If you think your street would like to meet up and eat cake and talk rubbish - let me know and I will happily come and have a chat and help you set it up. It really works and it's good fun.

Have a look at our lovely new website and sign up for the Rubbish Diet: www.therubbishdiet.org.uk

Alison@therubbishdiet.org.uk or give me a ring on 07972 858313

The Rubbish Diet Website goes live!!!

Hello

Well after a lot of writing, rewriting, testing and talking - we are proud to announce that the Rubbish diet website is up and running ready for our launch of the Rubbish Diet challenge in Suffolk, Shropshire and Powys next week.

Which county will lose the most? - which county has the most to lose? We will find out over the next 3 months as we attempt to persuade over 200 households to take the rubbish diet challenge.

Whether it's a space thing and you can't get everything in your bin, your bin smells because of rotting food or you just can't stand our throw away lifestyle  - the rubbish diet will help to solve your waste problems.

It is a really straight forward process - all you need to do is sign up on the website www.therubbishdiet.org.uk and you will receive an introduction to the rubbish diet with step by step instructions of how to slim your bin.

Ali Thomas is your local Bin Doctor - and is really happy to come and have a rubbish chat - drop her a line on Alison@therubbishdiet.org.uk or ring 07972 858313 if you and your neighbours want to take the Rubbish Diet together or if you think your school, guide group, church or toddler group might be interested in slimming their bins and saving money at the same time.

Here's to slim bins in Shropshire this Spring!

Ashley St Rubbish Dieters off to a flying start

15 Households on Ashley Street are slimming their bins together! The Rubbish diet challenge, Spring 2013 has got off to a flying start with 15 households on Ashley St, Cherry Orchard, working together to slim their bins. Jackie Jones and Naomi Hutchings began the bin slimming process before Christmas and were so surprised at how effective it was, that they decided to get ask their neighbours to join them. Jackie Jones said “We can’t believe how many of our neighbours have joined in – we thought it might just be a couple of other houses. It is proving to be really popular and we take it in turns to host meetings each fortnight to eat cake and exchange weights.” Naomi added “We have decided to share lifts to the bring banks and the household recycling centre – so each fortnight, one family collects all the cardboard, tetrapaks, electrical items etc from the street and takes them for recycling – so we are saving 14 journeys very 2 weeks as well helping people without a car to recycle more.” The results after the first 2 weeks were astounding with most families reducing their waste by one third and one family reducing their waste by a massive 20kg! Whether it’s a space issue and you can’t get everything in your bin, your wheelie bin smells because of rotting food or you just can’t stand our throw away lifestyle – the rubbish diet challenge will solve all your waste problems. It’s very simple to do: you start by weighing your rubbish the day before bin day – so that you have a starting point and then you weigh it for the next 4 bin days. Each slimmer is given a starter pack with a step by step guide to how to slim your bin. This is full of top tips for reducing your waste and avoiding difficult materials. The great thing about doing the Rubbish Diet Challenge is - it really works! The results are dramatic and the support you get from other local dieters is great. To find out more about the Rubbish Diet please email Alison Thomas on alison.thomas08@gmail.com or call 07972 858313. Alison said “I would love to hear from you if you fancy taking the Rubbish Diet challenge to see how much waste you can lose, we are hoping individuals, streets, schools, clubs or businesses will take up the Rubbish Diet challenge this Spring. The Rubbish Diet is a finalist in the NESTA Waste Reduction competition and we are looking for 100 households to take part in a trial with us in April. I will come and talk you through the process and connect you to other people in your area and support you through the 8 week process.”

The Rubbish Diet is taken up by a street in Shrewsbury

The Rubbish diet has been taken to a new level this week with a street deciding to take on the rubbish diet challenge. 10 households on Ashley Street in Shrewsbury are planning to slim their bins together. The big weigh-in is next Wednesday the day before bin day. Then they will spend the next 8 weeks trying to produce less and less rubbish by following the Rubbish Diet. This process really works and helps you to get to grips with what you can and can't recycle, it helps you save money because you get really good at not wasting food. On average each household reduces waste by 50%. Slimming bins together is great fun - it is fascinating to find out how little rubbish we need to produce. The bin doesn't smell anymore because the foodwaste has gone, the wheelie bin is never more than half full so no need to panic when you are lying in bed and hear the bin lorry coming down the street!! Now the families in Ashley street are not just doing the rubbish diet - they have also set up a rota to share trips to the HRC or bring banks for all the cardboard, tetrapak, batteries and rags which don't get picked up by the council. So under their new regime, each family will only have to make the trip once every 10 weeks now - so they are saving time and money and the planet! by recycling together! If you think your household, your street or your friends might like to take up the rubbish diet challenge or would just like some bags to collect cardboard and tetrapak please give me a shout on 07972 858313 or alison.thomas08@gmail.com - we have a new diet starting at the beginning of April 2013.

Should food go down the sink?

I have been thinking a lot about food waste this week and which is the best way to treat it.Obviously we all agree that the best thing is not to produce any in the first place! And we re doing pretty well at that since the rubbish diet started here in Shropshire!!! I am not talking about how to treat the packet of ham that's gone off or the half a loaf of bread that nobody got round to eating or chicken bones. I am thinking about the plate scraps - such as peas and gravy, the odd bit of meat or dessert the rest of the cereal bowl. What is the best way to deal with these things? Ok - I have learned this week that quite a lot of UK sewers take sewage to anaerobic digestion plants where stuff gets broken down and energy is produced instead of methane being released to the atmosphere. Then I heard about these Food Waste Disposers which are designed to macerate food as it goes down the sink - which is an alternative to collecting food waste from households - as it gets transported to the AD plant via the sewer - neat eh? So I was thinking if your waste water and sewage is going to an AD plant why not just mash up any waste food and wash it down the plug hole? The risk is blocking the pipes but as long as the food is mashed up into really small pieces it seems to me to be a better to wash waste food down the sewer than to put it in your refuse where it will end up making your bin smell, then go to landfill releasing methane to the atmosphere. So am I right - is it ok to mash up food waste and stick it down the drain? If it is ok - then I can put my dog on a diet too!

So here we are in the New Year - I always start a diet in the New Year - well I try to at least..... but this year, how about a different sort of diet - the Rubbish Diet - slimming your bin is great fun, it saves you money, it makes your council tax go further and of course it means that less stuff goes to landfill,loads more stuff gets recycled - saving space in landfill, saving energy and making much better use of valuable resources. One more great thing is no more panic about missing bin day - cos there's hardly anything in your wheelie!! The Rubbish diet – Here are the 7 easy steps to slim your bin: 1. Imagine that after your next bin day there will be no more refuse collections – and you will have to deal with all your waste – anything that can’t be recycled you will have to bury in your own garden – your very own landfill right up close! 2. With that picture in your mind you need to baseline your rubbish – so on the night before your grey bin is collected have a look and make a note of how full your wheelie bin is – roughly how many bags. If you are really keen – weigh each bag so you know how much weight you are chucking out. A photo of inside your bin is a quick way of recording your starting point. 3. So the lovely bin men come and empty your bin – now you are ready to start the rubbish diet – the first challenge is get your recycling system sorted out so it doesn’t drive you mad…. We produce a lot of cardboard and paper so I have 2 stacking boxes next to the bin one for card and one for paper – on top I have a tray (one from an old fridge!) – I put all my plastic, cans, foil tetrapaks, batteries etc in here and empty into recycling boxes every couple of days. The other top tip is to have a bag hanging on a door or under your sink for all plastic wrappers, bread bags, toilet roll bags etc. 4. So challenge for the first week is to try and recycle everything you possibly can – check out this website to find out exactly what the council will collect from your kerbside and what can be taken to bring banks at supermarkets and the Household recycling centre: www.shropshirewaste.gov.uk Don’t forget that all that plastic wrap can be put into the plastic bag recycling bins at supermarkets. 5. After one week of taking out all your yoghurt pots, foil, cans, glass, card and paper and plastic wrapping – the next step is to look at what is still in the bin – make a note of the stuff and have a think about whether there is an alternative that doesn’t produce the waste. For example, foil lined crisp packets – everyone loves crisps but can you cope with buying Sainsburys basic tortilla chips in a clear plastic bag that can be put in bag recycling instead? Will your cat eat canned food instead of the food pouches? Can you buy big pots of yoghurt instead of the little individual ones so you only have one lid instead of 6? 6. Give yourself the challenge of not putting any food in the bin for a week. Investing in a compost bin for all your peelings from fruit and veg is a great way to reduce your waste – maybe a neighbour is a keen gardener and would be happy to have your compost. Can you avoid any wasted food? This is the bit that has been brilliant for us – by cooking once and eating twice we have saved money and avoided waste food in the bin. www.lovefoodhatewaste.org.uk is a great website with all sorts of tips to avoid food waste – the portion measure has really helped us. 7. The rubbish diet is about talking to other dieters so that we support each other – maybe someone has a solution to a waste problem – like using the orange plastic nets from oranges as a scourer. Maybe you have found a waste free alternative and can share that with other dieters So please tell us how you are getting on – follow the Shropshire dieters on Twitter @RDShropshire and check out the blog www.rubbishdietshropshire.blogspot.co.uk and send us your thoughts, questions, complaints and discoveries to Alison.thomas08@gmail.com Thanks and good luck with slimming your bin!!

Using your loaf! Bread and Butter Pudding Bag in the freezer

Just been speaking to one of our Rubbish Diet families - Katy and Wilf, with a neat solution to the end of a loaf problem - you know when the last slice gets too dry to toast. They have come up with the Bread and Butter Pudding Bag in their freezer and they just add the odd slice and then when they have enough they defrost it and celebrate with a delicious bread and butter pudding. Great stuff

Swapping my 240 litre wheelie for slim-line version

As I struggled to get my blue wheelie bin past the car in the drive last week I had a thought - the Rubbish Diet has reduced my rubbish so much that I don't need a great big wheelie bin any more! So I contacted Shropshire council to see if I can swap my 240litre bin for a slim line version. Apparently I can - so hopefully very soon I will be getting my smaller bin. It will take up less space on the drive and will be easier to move about. Oh the joys of slimming my bin!! So far the benefits have been: No more smelly bin as we have stopped wasting food, No more panic about missing the bin men as it's no big deal if I have to wait 4 weeks for a refuse collection, We are saving money by planning our meals to avoid waste, And I am saving the council on landfill tax as more and more of our stuff is getting recycled. And I feel like the environmental impact of our household is getting smaller as we begin to use resources more wisely and waste less stuff. Determined to keep a lid on waste this Christmas! Best wishes Ali

Christmas challenges on the Rubbish Diet

Feeling fairly daunted about trying to keep a lid on consumption over Christmas - any tips would be gratefully received. Here are a few things I am going to try and do.... Christmas cards: • It is so easy to buy charity cards and those made from sustainable sources – and sometimes I even make it in time to go to the charity Christmas card shop in St Marys Church!! • In our office we agree with work colleagues not to send cards but to put £2.00 in a pot to support a charity instead • We are famous in our family for keeping all our Christmas cards with the intention of making present tags and new cards - we do make a few but probably better to take all your cards to Marks and Spencers after Christmas for Woodland trust Christmas presents • One job this weekend is to give the charity shops a Christmas present by having a clear out - this feels like a present for me as well as we declutter a bit! • No doubt I will be looking for a special reuse gift while I'm dropping off the stuff! (must make sure I come home with less though!) • I love to give my family OXFAM gifts like latrines, water, chickens or school meals - presents that don't clutter up their house, produce no packaging, don't need batteries and have a practical, positive impact in the world! • At Christmas I love going to the Fairtrade Shop in town - beautiful things and food that taste FAIRLY good!! • It's great to be given gifts of time - dog walks, promises of house work assistance, cooking once a week! I wonder if that will happen this year - I might have to drop a few hints! Wrapping paper • My challenge is not to buy any wrapping paper at all as my "it'll come in corner" is taking over the whole room! I also have to use all that shiny chocolate wrap to decorate paper - I know this is just sending my rubbish to someone else's but at least the stuff is REUSED before it hits the bin. • I found this guide to make a present box which even I could manage with quite pleasing results! http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-gift-box-from-paper-without-glue-or-/ • I also have some pretty pieces of material that I can wrap things in. Christmas lunch • We are going to my mum's for Christmas lunch. It is always great fun to cook together and my boys eat loads - however - we have to coordinate to make sure we don't both buy stuff - panic food buying is a sure fired way to food waste in the bin. • Christmas tree dilemma - what should we do? plastic or real? Christmas Rubbish challenge • Having been on the Rubbish Diet for 6 weeks now, we will be trying not to overload our bin at Christmas. I dread the packaging - but never fear because as long as it isn't polystyrene it should be recyclable. Anticipating visitors makes me realise that my compost bin is pretty full already. Shropshire Council www.shropshirewaste.org.uk are selling them at £16 each and get second half price - does anyone want to buy one with me? I will be saving all our cardboard for Cardboard Christmas on 5th January! - got a dumpy bag out side to store it. Let me know if you would like a bag or can volunteer with us on the 5th. Christmas electricity Can I have Christmas lights? Please..... I think as long as they are LED they use very little electricity am I right? Hoping we packed them away carefully last year so they will be in good working order for this year. Found 3 sets of lights in Rubbish sort yesterday - if you find yours don't work - you can take them to a WII bank - there is one at HRC and another at Red Barn Pub on Longden Road. How do you keep a lid on the bin over Christmas? Best festive wishes ali

5 weeks into Rubbish Diet Shropshire and .....

Well we had a good chat last night - only a few people were able to make Rubbish Diet meeting but a big welcome to Gill, Katharine's mum who is now on board with us. The feedback from you all has been great over the last 5 weeks .... James is managing to reduce each week and was down to 520g for week 3 - any more data James? Tina has noticed a huge reduction in volume and is homing in on those awkward items. Howard brought up a really good point - we both realised very early on that getting down to one plaster was not an option for us. BUT both our households have managed to reduce volume by three quarters and weight by at least 50% from where we started. Does it matter if we don't get down to a plaster? My feeling is that we are showing that without wearing a hairshirt we can reduce our waste significantly and still make a difference. Shropshire is already doing quite well when you compare average bin weights - 16.4kg per household per fortnight with national averages. The average household size is 2.4 people in our area which makes an average of 6.8 kg per person per fortnight. The Shropshire rubbish dieters have completely smashed those figures! Even when things go slightly wrong our fortnightly weights are way lower than these averages for example, Anna with 3 adults in her house has just turned in a weight of 1.21 kg compared with an average of 20.4 kg for a fortnight. My first fortnight weighed 5.4 kg for 5 people instead of an average 34 kg!! Last night we talked about how the process is making us change behaviour.... Lots of discussion about leaving black trays on the shelves - Anna left a bargain on the shelf because it was in a black tray And we agreed that it is ok to not feel guilty about everything! It's ok to eat crisps and catfood in foil-lined packaging occasionally! Overall, people seem to have found the process interesting, a challenge and rewarding - my highlight has been putting the wrong bins out and it being no big deal! Incidently, 4 of my neighbours tried to tell us that we had got it wrong - they were so worried that we would be left with overflowing refuse for another fortnight! little did they know!!! Would love to hear your highlights - and Katy is devising a simple online survey for us to put down our thoughts. I am really glad to have made myself and my family go through this process and thrilled that you guys have done it too!! We have proved to ourselves that it is possible and indeed straightforward to slim your bin in Shropshire. So armed with the findings of our trial I am really keen to roll it out to more people in the New Year. People thought we should produce a ten point guide to the Rubbish Diet Challenge The Guide would start with all the benefits: No more smelly bins No more worries about missing the bin men Saving money by not wasting food Less money spent on bin liners! Council Tax going further if less has to be spent on landfilling stuff As well as the overall impact of using resources more wisely saves energy, saves landfill space and saves raw materials All leading to a happier planet! Then we can take the Rubbish Diet challenge to different people... Tina and I are thinking about trying to get Meole Brace School on board in the New Year. Gill is thinking about getting her choir on board Katharine had a great idea of taking it to a Young Professional Forum Could you get a friend, a neighbour, work colleagues on board - or would your club, guide pack or football team be up for a challenge? Have a think and let me know if you have any ideas, suggestions, comments or bin weights.... Many thanks and best wishes ali

Rubbish Diet Shropshire are meeting up 3rd December 7pm

Well the Rubbish Diet Shropshire group have been going since the 25th October and by all accounts we are all still on track with minor diversions from bin slimming caused by dogs, cats and children that don't seem to understand the concept! For all those who would like to come and meet a few Rubbish Dieters - find out what all the fuss is about and join us for a mince pie please come to the Hobbs Room, Shrewsbury Library, 7.00pm on Monday 3rd December. We will be celebrating the loss of all those collective kilogrammes and sharing information on how we think we can sustain the slimmest bins in Shropshire! Hope to see you there Best wishes ali

Got to stop guessing on quantities

I have never been an exact cook - a bit of this and a bit of that for about that long. However - I find that my approximate approach to recipes means that I often over buy by a couple of portions. I carefully store the leftovers intending to eat them the next day - when low and behold they get forgotten behind something in the fridge and have to be thrown away or at the dog - what a waste of money!! But things are going to change!!! I have just discovered this great tool devised by the Love food Hate Waste campaign http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/portions/everyday It works out how much of different ingredients you need to buy. Now, I have 3 boys who eat way more than I do so I put in 5 adults rather than 2 plus 3 children and this seems to work for us. Over the next 2 weeks I am going to use it to see if I can eliminate food waste all together. I would love to hear your top tips for avoiding food waste

The results are in.... 1st fortnight on Rubbish Diet Shropshire

Well after 2 weeks of eating, sleeping and talking rubbish - tonight I have weighed our rubbish..... da da daaah 5 people and a dog have produced 2 and a half bags of rubbish weighing a total of 5.4 kg. My wheelie bin is one third full. Our wheelie bin at the last bin day was nearly full with 5 bags in it weighing a total of 10kg. So in both weight and volume we have reduced our rubbish by almost 50%. The reduction is great but is 5.4kg still high? What weight of rubbish does an average UK family throw away each fortnight? Can anybody tell me? My next question is can we get any lower? Well, we seem to be getting into a rhythm now - avoiding non recyclable packaging. Our recycling system has had an overhaul to make it more efficient and the boys are heeding the big notice on the bin that says NO PLASTIC, NO METAL, NO PAPER, NO CARD AND CHECK WITH ME FIRST!! Our biggest problem is food waste. A couple of errors on portion size or forgetting to use up leftovers and bingo you have another kilo of methane just waiting to happen! So my big push over the next 2 weeks will be to be much more careful planning meals, buying food - trying not to be drawn in by bargain buys and using my freezer more effectively. Check out www.lovefoodhatewaste.org.uk to stop feeding landfill!! And thanks to the grow cook share project in Craven Arms because tey are going to share their Bokashi knowledge with us.

Thoughts from a bin slimmer

I'll admit to making a somewhat half-hearted attempt at slimming my bin. Partly, because it seems to be quite slim already. This isn't because I'm some eco-warrior, just because I've done the easy stuff and I'm not sure what to do next. 

I unintentionally slimmed my bin a few years ago, I actually had to go out and buy a smaller bin. We were emptying ours so infrequently that it was really starting to smell!

I wasn't really trying to at the time it was just a lucky coincidence. 

The things that made this happen were:

1. We bought a house with our very own garden and started composting. All the veg peelings that used to go in the bin are now outside making lovely compost for my veg patch.

2. We stopped buying milk in plastic bottles or cartons and instead have it delivered. Three times a week a bottle of fresh milk is on the doorstep before breakfast and the empty bottles are taken away to be re-used. This is surely one of the most wonderful and environmentally friendly ways of packaging anything - nothing to throw away at all! 

These two things made a dramatic difference. And, I'd got rather complacent until I heard about Karen Cannard http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.co.uk/ getting her weekly rubbish down to just one plaster. 

I'm definitely a long way off from that one.

I quick peek in the kitchen bin has revealed the following:

A cake box - This is mostly cardboard so could have been recycled but is also coated in sticky icing and needs the plastic film window peeling out. I was too lazy to get covered in lemon icing while trying to rip out a bit of necessary plastic that I just binned it. 

Washing up gloves - I always bin these and dishcloths. I think the only answer is to buy a more expensive, better quality brand, in the hope that they last longer and so I throw away less. Also, instead of binning a pair of gloves I just bin the one with the hole in and so only need one new one. I occasionally end up with two left hands, but every little helps! 

A biro - At the risk of covering everything in blue ink, I'm going to hunt down my old fountain pen from secondary school and stop using disposable pens.

Hope you've enjoyed these ramblings and please share your bin slimming challenges and successes!