8 Weeks! One Challenge! It's a wrap!

Whether you've been eating up your yoghurt pots, turning your boiled-up chicken bones into a mobile or cleaning your floors with last week's napkins, the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet is over!

As they say in the business, it's a wrap!

But how have people been getting on?  As many participants come to the end of their diets, we shall receive their feedback very soon.  Meanwhile BBC Radio Suffolk has been busy this week catching up with some of the leaders in our community who have taken part.

It's been great to hear how Abbots Green Community Primary School now has in place a paper recycling bank, which earns them money for every tonne of paper collected via the school and the local community.  They've also taken delivery of a new composter this week too, so I'll be looking forward to seeing that in place soon.

Simon Daykin at the Theatre Royal confirmed that by simply changing all of the under-desk bins in the office to recycling only and having just one rubbish bin for everyone, they now have only one small bag of rubbish that goes out each day instead of what would have once been 12 or 13 before the campaign started.  Staff now also take their own containers to the local Greene King cafe, across the road, instead of bringing back polystyrene containers.

Simon Ginders-Coxshall, manager of Haverhill Leisure has also seen a difference since they've removed individual bins and have instead created 'recycling stations' in the office.  Thanks to sharing the Rubbish Diet updates and a staff visit to the local Viridor MRF, staff have become more aware and engaged in the process.  Even though this is the end of the campaign, Simon sees it as just the starting point and is now looking forward to the year ahead.

The BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet has also proven to be a campaign of contrasts.  Josiah Meldrum from Sustainable Bungay was already good at waste reduction, but it was great to hear that even for him the Rubbish Diet tips made that extra difference, introducing new ideas and raising awareness of even more things that can be recycled in Suffolk, especially when it comes to garden waste such as pots.

Lynne Mortimer, the EADT's TV critic, by contrast confessed that she didn't quite throw herself into it, but most definitely did her best.  The prospect of doing everything looked far too daunting too so she chose the easiest things for her and is now recycling plastic film and other things to take to the HWRC and is also composting her teabags and other green waste that would have once ended up in the landfill bin. Asked whether she would continue, she replied, "Definitely, you don't undertake something for 8 weeks just to cast it out of your life the minute the broadcaster walks out of your door".

Lesley Anslow, the Bury Free Press news editor, has seen a great impact on her waste, reducing it by over 50%.  For Lesley, it has also been an eye-opener revealing how much better the kerbside services are in St Edmundsbury than in Babergh, where she lives.  It's been fantastic watching Lesley's involvement and how she too has brought the subject alive for her own readers, with some great features about the local HWRC in the Bury Free Press, along with a more recent piece on how the Theatre Royal is an amazing reuse hub.

And what about the BBC Radio Suffolk Staff?  I unexpectedly found myself in the studio on Friday hearing the feedback news editor Kate Arkell and presenter Lesley Dolphin who took the challenge with Mark Murphy, who fronted the campaign.  Sadly Mark wasn't around that day to celebrate the successes but Rachel Sloane, who has been following the campaign from afar, stood in with much enthusiasm.  It was great to be a fly-on-the-wall listening to our county's broadcasters talk about their rubbish.

Kate regularly used to throw away three and often four bags (12 litre) of rubbish each fortnight but now at the end of the Rubbish Diet she is down to just one bag, thanks to recycling more at home at the HWRC.

Lesley confirmed that Mark Murphy has definitely changed his habits and no longer throws so much away in landfill.  In their household, they've managed to reduce down from 3 bags of rubbish per week, weighing over 6kg to just one 2kg bag, again making better use of the HWRC by recycling all the types of plastics that would have previously ended up in their landfill bins.

And are they going to continue?  Oh yes!

What music to my ears.

And there's no excuse really, especially as all involved seem to have found their balance, discovered their new rubbish comfort zones and, as I've heard most people say, have made it easy on themselves.

It's been a great campaign and huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who has got involved and for making it such a success.  You have been amazing and I hope this will be the start of something that will help make Suffolk the cleanest and greenest county for which we strive.

The BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet may be over but if you missed it, you can of course still follow your own challenge by signing up at www.therubbishdiet.org.uk and be part of the fun.

And what better time to start.  As one campaign closes, a new one begins, for this coming week is national Recycle Week, celebrating its 10th anniversary, and the Suffolk Waste Partnership is getting behind it with gusto, with events taking place around the county.

Visit www.suffolkrecycling.org.uk for details of the Plastics Roadshow. 

Go on, be part of it.  It's a fabulous campaign that helps you really get to grips with those plastics and will have your bin slimmed in no time at all.

Thank you once again!  You've been brilliant.  Don't ever stop talking rubbish... because that's how the magic happens!