She's almost slimmed down to a perfect size zero and is now encouraging others to follow her lead. As you might have guessed, I'm not talking about Karen's figure here, but rather her desire to reduce the amount of rubbish she throws into her wheelie bin each week. The Bury St Edmunds mother of two took up the challenge to see if she could slim her waste down to absolutely nothing during her local council's Zero Waste Week. Not one to give up easily, she's now managed to reduce her waste from six huge bin bags of rubbish every month to just one small carrier bag full of sweet wrappers, crisp packets and cat litter. How did she do it? Well, if you're looking for inspiration as you seek to reduce your own rubbish mountain, Karen has written a very amusing diary of her adventures over at www.therubbishdiet.co.uk, with a book due sometime next year. It really is a marvellous read – and very funny, too – as Karen sets up a wormery (despite her fear of worms), wonders what to do about a bag of Quavers (her favourite snack) and tries to encourage her kids to recycle more. If you want to try your hand at reducing the amount of rubbish you chuck away, you'll also find plenty of useful hints, tips and advice on the site.