Day 6 & 7

As I thought...the weekend has been tough! With all the family at home and consuming voraciously, plus two large Bernese Mountain dogs and a couple of in-laws! No offense R & R!

However, the bin is still pretty light...plastics is still the main contributor....but I'm almost certain that the final weigh in tomorrow will show significantly less waste overall. Our recycling has been less this week, which could be due to a number of reasons, but mostly because I think last weeks recycling included a build up over a longer period.

Interestingly, the Almost Mrs Average who has been following this blog and providing some welcome support, also indicated that she prepared for several weeks before her Zero Waste Week....if we were to do it again, we would definitely take a bit longer to prepare.

We've got BBC Spotlight coming again in the morning to find out how we've done, so keep your eyes peeled for the evening programme.

We'll be doing one last post tomorrow to update on final totals....and perhaps a follow up later in the week on the off chance that something interesting happens...

Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest....hopefully you've learnt something from all of this, even if it's just that we're slightly mad....

We've learnt a lot about ourselves...and we'll certainly be making some changes going forward. Whilst Zero Waste hasn't been achieved, we've made a huge impact on the waste we generate through our everyday consumption of resources....and the really interesting thing is that whilst others may mock the concept of Zero Waste, I actually think it is achievable....having said at the start of the challenge that it was an aspirational target that couldn't realistically be achieved, but that we should still aim for it....I now think that if you plan ahead, if you are really innovative, if you buy products with Zero Waste in mind, you reduce and reuse and you truly do recycle (and more importantly compost), then it is possible to get really close and maybe achieve Zero Waste. That's Zero Waste to landfill/incineration. You wont do it all the time, but maybe some of the time. And if everyone did that, well then we wouldn't be in the predicament that we're in. In Cornwall and across the UK.

Good luck to anyone else who's planning to give it a try...I think its something everybody should do once a year, a bit like detox after Christmas!! When I'm in charge of Cornwall, that will be my first law!!

For those waiting for us to fall off the wagon, I'm sure we will, we're not perfect, just trying to do our bit when we can.