Could you do the Rubbish Diet?

Karen Cannard at Great Blakenham's landfill site, filming with the One Show in November 2012

Karen Cannard, a mother of two,  from Bury St Edmunds, took St Edmundsbury's Zero Waste Week challenge in 2008 and blogged about it. By the end of an 8 week trial she threw away only one plaster! Now 5 years on, thanks to getting through to the finals of think-tank Nesta's waste reduction challenge, Karen is teaming up with Mark Murphy and BBC Radio Suffolk to launch the Rubbish Diet across the county Over the next 3 months we‘re inviting the whole of Suffolk to join Mark and his colleagues in the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet challenge –

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 BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet challenge will help to solve your waste problems. The Rubbish Diet is like a slimming club for your bin, shrinking what you send to landfill, saving you money and once your bin is slim - you’ll never have to panic about missing bin day again!!

The Diet is really easy to do. All you have to do is keep track of what you throw away and then find ways of making that waste disappear by recycling it, finding other uses for it or just avoiding it all together. You’ll find solutions that work for you with the help of other Dieters around Suffolk, and from your local 'Bin Doctors', which include Karen Cannard and Kate Kelly, who took the Rubbish Diet last year.

Karen, Kate and Mark are busy getting ready for the big launch on 15 April, sign-up information will be available soon.