Week 6 & 7 - it's all happening in Suffolk

It's been another busy couple of weeks with the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet, not least because it was the Suffolk Show last week, which profiles many of the great things that are happening around our county.  It was a great chance to catch up with some of those who are helping to reduce our county's waste including Bolton Bros, the Suffolk County Council waste team and their partners FCC Environment and social enterprise Eco Service's Outdoor Plastic Furniture.

I'd also been invited to take part in the Love Food Hate Waste cookery demos, hosted by chef Richard Fox in the Green Suffolk marquee.

It was great experience, learning how to make a delicious fishcake from a leftover fishfinger, mashed potato, chopped broccoli and lemon juice.  Richard was a great source of inspiration with top tips on how to store herbs for longer, such as parsley, around which he wraps damp paper towel.  He's also an advocate for making meal planning easier for all by cooking in batch and storing meals in tubs for heating up the next day.

Meanwhile, the BBC Radio Suffolk team has been tackling some great Rubbish Diet topics, sharing ideas about cleaning without waste and this week has been all about decluttering, making sure that you free up all of those unused things hanging around your house and find a good home for them, such as Freecycle, Freegle, local charities, or auction sites such as eBay and CD/DVD sales sites like Zapper.  Of course, most things that can't be rehomed for reuse can be recycled at Suffolk's Household Waste Recycling Centres, which also have reuse containers that support local charities.

And of course, there's always the idea of repair, thinking about extending the life of the stuff we love, fixing, mending and making-do, before rushing off to ditch it and buy a replacement.

If you need some inspiration, listen to Zoe from Ipswich based CraftyBaba who runs courses on all sorts of things such as knitting, sewing and crafting.  You'll find the interview on yesterday's Mark Murphy show.  Fast forward to 2hr 43m.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0193g5s

The real highlight has been hearing how brilliantly many of the Rubbish Dieters are doing, with feel-good comments on how surprised they've been about how much rubbish they've thrown away previously and how easy it has been to reduce down.  But don't just take my word for it, listen in to the Mark Murphy show next week to hear how folk have been doing and how they get on in the final week, the Zero Waste Week, and you can also find out how one of our local newspaper editors has been getting on too.  Follow Lesley Anslow's rubbish diet at http://www.lesleyrubbishdiet.blogspot.co.uk/.

Even if you haven't joined in so far, you can still have a go at next week's Zero Waste Week.  Just recycle and compost all you can and see how much rubbish you can avoid creating.  If you live in Bury St Edmunds,  more information in my column in this week's Bury Free Press. Good luck!  See you next week.