Tagging along with Hadleigh HWRC to the Awards for Excellence in Recycling & Waste Management

The team from Hadeigh's HWRC, FCC Environment & Suffolk County Council with BBC's Susanna Reid

Yesterday, I had the real pleasure of tagging along with the Suffolk's Household Waste Recycling Centre team to LetsRecycle.com's Awards for Excellence in Recycling & Waste Management. 

The awards, now in their 10th year, and presented by the BBC's Susanna Reid, were held at the Landmark Hotel, London, a beautiful setting to mark the successes and excellence of the recycling and waste management industry, the kind of things that go on behind the scenes that help the UK recycle more and reduce wasted resources.

I've been singing the praises of Suffolk's recycling facilities as part of the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet, so it was great to hear that the Hadleigh HWRC was in the running for the category of Community Amenity Site of the Year,

With composting and recycling rates that exceed 90%, Hadleigh HWRC, managed by Suffolk County Council and FCC Environment, has been identified as Suffolk ’s top performing site, with successful and effective day-to-day operations providing an enhanced service to users.

Both Suffolk County Council and FCC Environment have engaged with local third sector organisations including the Ipswich Furniture project and ‘Re-cycle’ both of which are charities that have diverted items from landfill.  Ipswich Furniture Project provides an outlet for furniture and crockery, with ‘Re-Cycle’ giving unwanted cycles a new life.  This has enabled improvements on the recycling performance within the existing site footprint and moves more of the materials up the waste hierarchy, with almost no environmental impact.

The site only has two members of staff during the week and three at weekends to manage all waste streams and maintain the high recycling rate and excellent customer service. Much of the success of the site's recycling rate is attributed to the site staff and their relationship with the public. 

But these awards always bring stiff competition and this year the team was up against the Witchford HRC, in Cambridgeshire and Witley Community Recycling Centre in Surrey.

And the winner was...... well...  sadly not the team from Hadleigh HWRC on this occasion, but another worthy winner, Witley CRC, which is part of a network of 15 facilities managed by Sita, and which has been redesigned with sustainability at its heart and strong community engagement in its development.

Ooooh, so close!  They may not have won at yesterday's event but being a finalist in the awards and one of the top performing Household Waste Recycling Centre's in the UK, Hadleigh HWRC is most definitely a winner in my eyes and it was great to chat to Mel & Terry (pictured above with Susanna Reid) about their stories of what it's like being on the ground at one of our county's facilities. The passion for what they do is so easy to see.

Once again, in a good way, it felt like I was a bit of a recycling groupie following the band, and a very successful one at that.  Seriously, when you witness how the awards' nominees are changing the future of waste, their efforts, successes and enthusiasm really does rub off.

With wide-ranging categories such as High Street Recycling Champion, Commercial Recycling Champion, Best Community Recycling Initiative and Recycling Businesses of the Year, I wonder if next year, we'll see more entries from Suffolk.  After all, from our own Greenest Suffolk awards and some of the great things coming out of the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet, I reckon our county could offer up some stiff competition for next year's awards.

Huge thanks to Letsrecycle.com for letting me come along to support our fantastic team from Suffolk.  There were some great winners and finalists, all which can be seen either on the website or by following the updates on Twitter, using the hashtag #awardsforexcellence.

 

Please vote for The Rubbish Diet in celebration of reaching the Brilliance in Blogging shortlist. #BiBs

Click the BiB badge to vote.

I am absolutely chuffed to bits to hear the news that The Rubbish Diet has been shortlisted in this year's Brilliance in Blogging Awards, organised by BritMums, and especially so because it's been included in the Commentary category.

This category features blogs that highlight causes, either through raising awareness or funds, and which are a force for positive change. Topics might be global, local or personal. Whatever the cause, the bloggers shortlisted in this category have been chosen for doing more than their bit, and helping others get involved too.  So to have been nominated alongside so many great bloggers is a real honour.

This news comes at a particular exciting time, having just launched the extension to this blog, i.e. The Rubbish Diet Challenge website, which finally gives people a toolkit to reduce their waste wherever they are, and properly pulls together the learning and experiences of blogging about waste over the last five years.  With over 190 online sign-ups to the challenge (and another 80 offline) in the first 10 days of what has been very much a soft launch, the new site has quickly become the official new home of The Rubbish Diet. 

And it's also become a portal for tracking localised Rubbish Diet projects that are taking place around the country, starting with Suffolk, Shropshire and very soon Powys, sharing skills and local knowledge that can help householders reduce their waste by on average 50% in just eight weeks.  With Wiltshire Wildlife Trust having successfully rolled out the Rubbish Diet as part of their waste reduction campaign and the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet recently launched in my neck of the woods, this year feels like a real milestone.  It's no longer just me anymore and that makes me feel like doing a happy dance.

So, if you like what we're doing in helping to put waste higher up the agenda and empowering households and communities to pull-together to slim those bins, please vote for the Rubbish Diet in the Commentary category.  That really would be smashing!

And on behalf of my new team, i.e. my merry band of Bin Doctors, I'd like to thank you for your support.

Of course, should we win...  we'll be sure to recycle the celebratory Champagne bottle as well as the metal cap, the twisty wire thing, the aluminium wrapping, cork and all!

Voting closes on 12th May.

The new Rubbish Diet Challenge website is now LIVE!

After much hard work from a dedicated team, the Rubbish Diet Challenge website is now live and kicking and ready as an online toolkit for anyone who wants to take the 8 week challenge to slim their bin! 

You'll find all you need, including an overview of how it works, some great diagrams and a sign-up form.  Once signed up, you'll receive a series of weekly tips, introducing different themes over the eight weeks.

So if you've been itching to take up the challenge but haven't got around to starting it yet,  there's no better time.  Do pop over to the new website and have a gander.   You can find it at www.therubbishdiet.org.uk. And if you live in Suffolk, Powys or Shropshire there are even 'Bin Doctors' on hand to tell you about their county-wide campaigns which are launching next week, offering extra assistance to help slim those bins.

Talking of which, it will come as no surprise that I'm rolling up my sleeves to help out in Suffolk, along with Kate Kelly, who took the challenge last year.  And we're getting ready to support presenter Mark Murphy, who is championing the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet Campaign.  It's going to be HUGE and kicks off on Monday.

That's eight weeks of waste-busting fun in our own county.  We'll be covering all the latest news via a new local blog www.rubbishdietsuffolk.blogspot.com.  So, if I suddenly go all quiet here, you'll now know where to find me!

I hope you like the new website, and if you do, please tell your friends.  Here's to a very exciting new phase of The Rubbish Diet and an ENORMOUS thank you to everyone who's supported it so far.  The next few months are going to be great!

SLIMMER BINS, HERE WE COME!

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The calm before the great excitement!

Taking a brief Easter break before the big stuff happens!

Regular readers of the Rubbish Diet will probably recognise that nervous grin by now.  It's the one that says 'oh heck, it's too late now, it's happening and there's no going back now'. 

A bit like this one, taken in January 2008, when I signed up to St Edmundsbury's Zero Waste Week, agreed to become their community champion, panicked and then set up this blog.

Yes, this old blog, with just me and my bin! 

Then you and your bins....

It really has been fun and I am truly grateful for everyone who has followed and interacted with the blog over the last five years.

But things are about to change bigtime!

So, please hang onto your seats for the next stage of The Rubbish Diet adventure, because very soon it's not going to be just me and this little blog anymore.  There's a whole team of people behind the scenes, who have been working hard to take the bin-slimming experience to an all new level. 

And over the next week, we will be announcing a brand-spanking-new Rubbish Diet website (yep - a proper website - at long last!) and the very exciting launch of The Rubbish Diet challenge which will soon be taking place across three counties (Shropshire, Suffolk and Powys).

I would love you to be a part of that too, whether it's following the story, tweeting the new links or encouraging your friends to get involved.  There will be lots of stuff happening with some fantastic local projects, including teaming up with BBC Radio Suffolk to launch the BBC Radio Suffolk Rubbish Diet in my own area, which is both very exciting and equally daunting. 

We are really just days away from the launch of the new website, followed by the actual Rubbish Diet challenge which launches on 15th April, inviting participants to slim their bins over 8 weeks.  There will be new blogs too, enabling local followers to keep up with stories from their respective counties.

But there's no rest for the wicked!  There's much to do between now and then - including another visit to landfill, delving into some prestigious bins around the county.... and judging by that photo, I'd better fit in another haircut as it looks like a spider has landed on my head! 

Well there's definitely no going back now!  So do watch out for imminent announcements and all those luscious bin-slimming links coming VERY SOON!

Meanwhile, if you are on Twitter, do follow @TheRubbishDiet, which will feature all the latest news as it happens. Local updates will also be available via @RDShropshire, @RDSuffolk @RDPowys.

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In Norfolk? Fancy going Gleaning?

Recently, Martin Bowman from Feeding5K (one of my fellow finalists in the Nesta Waste Reduction Challenge) got in touch to invite me to join their next Gleaning Day in Norfolk,  which is taking place at the beginning of April.  Sadly, I can't make it but I think the idea is so fab I wanted to extend the invitation out to anyone else who may be available locally.  Martin explains more in detail below:

Gleaning day coming up on Saturday 6th April

On Saturday 6th April, the Gleaning Network will be heading down to a farm in Norfolk to harvest tonnes of parsnips and save them from going to waste, redistributing them to food poverty charities. We need volunteers to help harvest the tasty produce! Contact martin@feeding5k.org to find out more, sign up to volunteer, or help coordinate. The day will be roughly 10am-4pm (TBC), and travel expenses are covered for those travelling from Cambridge and nearby- the farm is near Kings Lynn station. If you can't join us this time, sign up to our gleaning list and we'll let you know of all future gleaning days. Join the Arable Spring!

What is Gleaning?

Gleaning Network UK, recently featured on BBC Radio 4's Food Programme and Al Jazeera, and organised by Tristram Stuart and Feeding the 5,000, is an exciting new initiative to save the thousands of tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables that are wasted on UK farms every year. Farmers across the country often have no choice but to leave tonnes of their crops unharvested and get ploughed back in the soil. These crops often cannot reach the market either because they fail to meet the retail strict cosmetic standards or because of overproduction.

We coordinate teams of volunteers, local farmers and food redistribution charities in order to salvage this fresh, nutritious food and direct it to those that need it most, such as homeless hostels and charities. To date, we have salvaged several tonnes of excellent unmarketable British produce, including apples, cabbages, cauliflowers, spring greens and kale, and redistributed them to charities such as FareShare and the Best Before Project. Here's some more info, our video, and pictures of our last gleaning day. The movement is gathering pace, and we're rapidly expanding into a national network, with a hub now launching in Cambridge and Norfolk.

Here's more info in this video here:

Zero Waste standards, tours & a party for good measure

The last few days of the international Zero Waste convention in San Francisco and the East Bay area have been very hectic with much debate and learning taking place.  It has become evident that this part of the world is very justified in having such high standards in its expectations regarding the future of zero waste initiatives.

Standards

On Thursday, there was much heated debate in Oakland City Hall, led by Gary Liss, on defining a Zero Waste standard for business certification.

It was clear that Zero Waste certification is already being carried out on some major international businesses and is currently being managed by a range of organisations, including UL, NSF-ISR and the US Zero Waste Business Council who, in consultation with the Zero Waste International Alliance, are preparing an American standard for Zero Waste for submission to ANSI.   Even though the current programmes are working towards high standards for Zero Waste (without landfilling or burning), it was debated that they aren't yet high enough and there could be a range of loop holes.  Also there needs to be clarity of a standard for businesses that have very minimal wasted resources.


Pigs & Peacocks

Following the day's debate at City Hall, it was back on tour again, this time for dinner at Marin Sanitary Service, a family-run waste management company that serves Marin County in the East Bay area.

I've now been to a wide range of MRFs but I've this is the first time I've ever visited a site that keeps pigs or even peacocks, not to mention the chickens, which feature as a popular and unexpected item on their educational tours.

The philosophy of Zero Waste is at the heart of the company's activities and I love this poster where our host Devi Peri outlined how once you've harvested the low-hanging fruit, it is possible to incorporate other services to a point where the only things left are Extended Producer Responsibility, including redesign.

Mattress Recycling


On Friday we visited a mattress recycling company in Oakland, which is now processing 150,000 mattresses per year with only 10% of its waste ending up in landfill.

Mattress Recycling is a great example of how recycling is progressing but if manufacturers designed products for better deconstruction at end-of-life, waste reduction achievements could be even better. 

The company's landfill stats may appear to be minimum but there still needs to be a push for products such as the one below, which cannot be disassembled, to be redesigned for disassembly.

However, for the majority that can be separated, the company is able to deconstruct the mattresses into good quality components, including metal that is sold onto metal dealers, wood that can be used in mulch, compost or energy production and cotton & fabrics that are sent onto the textile markets.

Dual Stream Bins & Buy Back

Having stayed in Berkeley this week, it was interesting to have a peek behind the scenes at Berkeley Recycling, the city's waste management company that serves residents and businesses locally.

One of the key points I drew out of the tour was the success of the company's dual stream collection, i.e. collecting recycling in split wheelie bins.

This allows for better quality of materials as plastic & metal packaging can be kept separate from paper and cardboard, which means easier and more efficient sorting at the MRF and maintains their ability to create one of the cleanest streams of recycling the the Bay Area.  Currently Berkeley Recycling's MRF maintains just a residual rate of only 2-3% and thanks to the quality of its recycling streams doesn't experience any rejections.

It was also interesting to see how there are different service levels of participation to engage the public.  Residents have a range of options for recycling, which include the kerbside service through the dual-streamed bins and a front-end recycling centre at the MRF.

The bins shown above cater for all the kerbside materials plus hard plastic, but as you can see below there is also a Buy Back service, where visitors can get paid separately for bottles, cans, paper and scrap aluminium, incentivising those who want to earn some extra dollars either for themselves or a community initiative.

I was intrigued to know the amount of materials collected through these different service levels.  The figures are as follows:

Bring back: 100 tons per month
Buy back: 250 tons per month
Kerbside: 650 tons per month

It was also interesting to note that 'Buy back' services are an integral part of recycling services, not just in Berkeley but across California.



Innovations in Reuse

Throughout the week I have seen many examples of how Reuse has been an important feature in this area's waste hierarchy but it was the visit to El Cerrito's recycling centre which really demonstrated how this can be made not only visible to the public but also integral to a local culture.

The El Cerrito site underwent a major redesign in 2012 and has fast become one of most attractive recycling sites I have ever seen.  Its popularity amongst local residents is such that it restricts visitors to two hours onsite.  Two hours?  Most people I know are in and out of a recycling centre in just 20 minutes.

The attraction of El Cerrito is that it is not just a recycling centre, it is also an exchange centre, featuring an onsite book 'store', where you can pick up items of interest for free and those who are registered can also pick out various items from some of their deposit bins.  As well as managing a range of recycling streams on site, it also supports local community reuse organisations such as Urban Ore and the Goodwill charity.

For anyone interested in modelling reuse and community exchange facilities into their own recycling centres, it really is worth looking closely at the El Cerrito model and more information can be found on its website.


Party Time at Urban Ore

On the topic of reuse, one of the most amazing centres in this part of California... or indeed anywhere else that I've had the pleasure to visit is Urban Ore, which is a huge reuse and building materials exchange operation in Berkeley.  It is also an active contributor to the Zero Waste programme and its website is really worth a visit for anyone who want to push activities further up the waste hierarchy in their own localities.

Urban Ore was also the venue for the end-of-week party and with the opportunity to browse around the store, I couldn't think of a better place to be.

This place is cool with a capital C!

It's not even afraid of reselling electricals and electronics.  The onus is simply on any interested purchasers to test them out onsite first!

But when I say that Urban Ore is huge!  It really is!  Even this photo of 'party central' doesn't do it justice.  And in fact, the outside is even larger than the inside.

The Urban Ore party really was a fitting venue for the end-of-week celebrations.  It has been a great study tour of some of the best practice Zero Waste practices that are taking place in the world right now and if there are any local innovators, great thinkers and aspirational leaders in the UK's waste sector who want to be connected up to what I've seen this week, I would be delighted to make those connections.

I know waste management and working towards Zero Waste to conserve resources isn't easy, but it starts with rethinking the impossible and realising its potential towards a new reality.  We should never be scared of these levels of innovation but should be excited about the technological, economic and social opportunities that they bring.

What I've witnessed this week have been communities that care about making the impossible actually possible, forging ahead with their vision and working together with City officials, service providers and strategists who are not daunted by moving away from old models of thinking.

This is something that is worth celebrating big time!  So thank you San Francisco, leading the way with your 80% diversion rate, and to all the organisations from the Bay Area that shared their experiences this week.  I feel very privileged to have been here with many of my International friends.

Folk, I think it's now time to watch this space.  Meanwhile, here's another photo from the coolest party I've been to in a long time... and most probably ever!

California rocks!  And so does it's path to Zero Waste!

Zero Waste - The international scene

So, my adventures in Zero Waste continue in California and on Wednesday I attended the Zero Waste International Alliance Dialog, which brought together representatives and interested parties from the USA, Canada, British Columbia, Brazil, Colombia, Sweden, UK, Italy, the Philippines, Bhutan, India, Australia, China and Hong Kong.

Rick Anthony, Chair of the ZWIA, (pictured above), opened the conference with a history of how the Alliance was developed and how things have moved on from what started as a passion to protect resources from landfills through recycling facilities, to a multi-action programme of now diverting those resources from incineration and reducing waste at source through redesign.  The international Alliance now provides a sound umbrella group for supporting national programmes through the sharing of knowledge and solutions that demonstrate Zero Waste in its true form (i.e. without the alternative of burning) is possible.

The programme of presentations featured experts who have embedded successful solutions in their own countries, working with communities, politicians, manufacturers and technologists to ensure the development of waste management solutions that protect the resources for recycling back into the system.

This is a great slide from Ruth Abbe, from the US, which simplifies the keys to achieving better resource management to a rate of 90% though physical & social infrastructure, with the remaining responsibility for the journey towards Zero Waste in the hands of the manufacturers and legislators to redesign products and ban those materials that cannot recycled or broken down through organic treatment.

Paul Connett, a chemist and international speaker on the topic of Zero Waste, who many now know from his contribution in the Trashed Film, explained in more detail the 10 steps to Zero Waste, which are summarised as follows:

A key theme that I've picked up from the success stories in Paul Connett's presentation and the those that have been highlighted in my trips to San Francisco and Europe is the significance in making waste visible. i.e. to really find out what is being burnt or buried.

Once communities have a handle on that and the associated volumes, debates can then lead to solutions, whether through front end source separation, better community communications, waste hierarchy interventions or feedback to manufacturers for redesign.  It was reinforced again that if there is a political will to adopt this pathway towards Zero Waste, it is possible to embed alternative solutions to those that involve burning resources.

According to Paul Connett, the three international areas that are leading the way with embedding the true Zero Waste goals are Italy, Spain and California.

Again, like the NCRA conference, there was much to learn from the information exchange and here are some of the key points I picked up.

1. Canadians create the most municipal waste in the world, with only 33% being diverted through recycling and composting, but they are tackling it and Zero Waste Canada was created in January 2013.  As well as the challenges of developing its infrastructure, it looks like Canada will also have to protect one of the great things that already exists which is its deposit-based bottle reuse programme, which is currently at risk from centralised recycling schemes.  Elsewhere there are some great collaborative consumption schemes being implemented, including Toronto Toolshare.  Also Canada was the first place to declare BPA as toxic.

2. Great strides are being made in South America, including Bogota's Zero Waste plan, which has fought for its 20,000 waste pickers to be an official part of the recycling value chain.  Zero Waste Brazil has made significant progress too, creating a community based take-back model for recycling that pays participants in credits.  At a higher level, Zero Waste Brazil was invited by the UN peacekeeping force to find solutions for solid waste during the 2010 earthquake disaster in Haiti.  It will also be involved in pushing plans through for the Zero Waste Olympics in Rio.

3. Reports from the US showed how far Zero Waste commitments are spreading around towns and cities across the States and how the Solid Waste Association of North America has now changed the focus of its annual conference from 'Beyond the Blue Bin' to 'The Road to Zero Waste', following the Alliance's guiding principles.

4. From Europe, we saw the great examples once more coming out of Italy with 123 towns and cities that have now signed up to become Zero Waste communities.  It was also highlighted how business and government strategies in Europe have been heavily weighted towards the 'Zero Waste to Landfill' goal, which risks taking away the focus and opportunities for a future down the line that is actually Zero Waste.  Fellow trustee of the Zero Waste Alliance UK, Jane Green, highlighted the development of the Museum of Bad Design as an action-based research response to the need to design out waste.  Elsewhere, Mal Williams warned that whilst planning future models in consumerism and wastage, we also need to prepare for economic shrinkage and make communities more resilient in managing the potential of their resources in a way that also develops social capital.  

5. Froilan Grate of the Philippines spoke of how their strategy for Zero Waste was born out of a terrible tragedy in Payatas in 2000, where over 200 wastepickers died during a sudden landslide on a landfill site.  Since then his organisation has been instrumental in creating over 1000 MRFs to better manage the resources and have developed Zero Waste programmes for management of waste and environmental issues at community level.  The Philippines was the first country to commit to a ban on burning resources and is hence committed to striving high for zero waste goals, so much so that the Minister for Environment was also in attendance.

6. With Hong Kong facing an end to landfill in 2029, Lisa Christensen of Hong Kong Cleanup, called for the need for a Zero Waste Hong Kong strategy to be developed and has committed to sharing the ZWIA expertise locally.


As well as the need for managing rubbish from a resource perspective, various speakers at the conference on Wednesday highlighted that it is a human rights issue too, striving to change infrastructures that move from a world where practice is many areas is simply dangerous to local communities and those who work with with waste.

Examples from Mexico showed how much work has been done to stop the practice of burning waste in cement kilns and from China we heard an urgent call for better management of recycling where evidence has seen untreated plastic medical waste being recycled into poor quality children's toys.

This conference certainly taught me how there is still so much we don't know about the global problem of waste.  It was most definitely an eye-opening event that demonstrated not only how many amazing solutions there are out there if only we take time to look, but also if we look for long enough we realise too how many issues still need resolving.

However, what I saw on Wednesday was a room full of experts including resource managers, chemists,  designers, technologists, campaigners and professionals who are now Zero Waste managers, all sharing their expertise to address these issues. 

One of the key initiatives also announced at this year's Dialog was the development of a new Zero Waste Youth organisation, which held a successful conference of its own in San Francisco on Sunday.  It highlights that the issue of waste is also inter-generational and that the innovation of graduates and young people are needed too to help develop the research and technical skills to implement solutions now and in the future.

And of course, I welcomed the opportunity to share my very own Rubbish Diet story and the details of the forthcoming Rubbish Diet challenge.  It was a real privilege to have the opportunity to profile this blog and my projects on an international platform and hear the amazing responses that followed.  Something tells me that once my Nesta Waste Reduction challenge is over and having the right support in place for the UK programmes, I'd better get ready to roll up my sleeves to help support Rubbish Diet communities internationally.  With interest already coming in from the US, Canada, Hong Kong, it looks like life could get very busy!

But the week's not over yet, and there's still much more to learn and report back on, including the development of international and national zero waste standards and a visit to a MRF that has its own pig farm.

But first, breakfast!