If you love learning about Zero Waste, here’s an invitation
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Nine years ago I accepted the challenge to spend a week accumulating no waste for landfill.
It was a tough week and I needed moral support.
So I invited the readers of this site to join me.
One hundred people joined in, sharing their successes and failures, their hints, tips and ideas and at the end of the week, most people said they’d had so much fun they wanted another Zero Waste Week.
It’s #ZeroWasteWeek so have a look at how much all that food we chuck away is costing us pic.twitter.com/JTSTrpOBJo
— BBC iWonder (@BBCiWonder) September 5, 2016
Zero Waste Week was born.
From its humble beginnings the week has gone from strength to strength. Over the years we’ve had extensive media coverage from The Sun to the Guardian! Zero Waste Week was put forward in parliament for an Early Day Motion.
The hashtag has trended on Twitter, reaching over 20 million impressions and it has been picked up by notable organisations such as Greenpeace, the BBC, Penguin Books and Jamie Oliver. The campaign is such a success, it has it’s own website; which I built myself. I was nominated the number one mover and shaker in the waste world, against hundreds of businesses and organisations. Not bad for a one-woman campaign run from the dining table!
In addition, events take place across the world from repair cafes, smoothie bikes, swap events, meals made out of ‘waste’, workishops teaching people how to make ‘zero waste’ cleaners and toiletries, food festivals and communities making murals out of ‘rubbish’…
My newsletters have an ‘above standard industry’ open rate and I get hundreds of people personally writing to me – why?
Because they know I care and they know they’ll get a personal response back.
Here’s some of the feedback from this year’s Zero Waste Week campaign:
Giving time generously
Claire wrote “I want to say many thanks for such a fantastic ZeroWasteWeek. It was great to see so much interest generated around the issues raised. I appreciate that it takes an awful lot of effort and work to organise and you have very generously given of your time for so many years to raise awareness of waste issues.”
Kick start #ZeroWasteWeek with @zerowastehome‘s top ten tips on living a waste-free life. https://t.co/ZToIijoAEo pic.twitter.com/LGGcitIPA7
— Penguin Books UK (@PenguinUKBooks) September 5, 2016
Hard work
Ceri said “We managed to go from about a guinea pig size of rubbish down to nothing! Thank you for all your hard work, really enjoyed the challenge.”
I’ve learned so much
Lyn shared “Thanks so much for your emails this week – I have learnt so much from them! Last night, I made a “use it up soup” which tasted far better than I imagined – and my husband was happy that the salad I specifically sent him out for during the week hadn’t ended up in the food waste caddy!
I didn’t think you could cook lettuce; I didn’t know you could freeze baked beans. These two gems alone will mean our food waste is quite reduced! A huge thank you from my family for your knowledge and advice this week!”
New habits in place
Maria said “Thanks for some really good hints and tips, I loved the idea of changing how we store items in the fridge so have made a change there. I asked my adult children to subscribe to this week which they did. It’s been a great week, thanks again.”
Really enjoying the week
Wendy wrote “Can I say thank you for all the effort you put into this. I have been lurking around your website for several months now for tips & inspiration on how to reduce my waste. I signed up at the last minute on Sunday evening for Zero Waste Week and am I glad I have. Thank you again so much, I am really enjoying this.”
Each campaign takes me over 400 hours a year to organise and despite impressive figures and proven significant behaviour change in participants I’ve not managed to secure sponsorship or funding for a number of years.
Here’s my invitation to you:
If you have found that something I’ve written has made a difference in your life or if you value this work and believe the planet deserves a Zero Waste Week 2017, I’m inviting you to co-create with me by donating to my Just Giving page.
Thank you for your generosity, for being part of the solution and for making the world a better place.
Here’s my donations page link again.
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