Not letting a good idea go to waste

15/2/13

- Six Finalists trialling new ways to reduce waste in bid for Challenge Prize

- Competing ideas include the 'rubbish diet' and recycling cooking oils

Six Finalists are in the running for a challenge prize for ideas that encourage communities to come together and tackle the growing issue of waste reduction through giving time, skills and resources. With the recent finding that we waste 2bn tonnes of food a year - almost half of all produced in the world[1] - it is clear that urgent change is needed, and not just when it comes to food.

The Finalists have been selected as part of the Waste Reduction Challenge Prize run by Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation, and funded by the Cabinet Office. Ideas include a 'rubbish diet' where dieters work towards a slimmer bin, a mobile kitchen that uses surplus food to create free meals for local communities and a museum of bad design where designers can collaborate to improve wasteful designs. 

Each of the Finalists will receive funding of up to £10,000 and additional help to set up and test their innovations over the next six months. This might include prototype development and support to take existing ideas to a bigger scale. The winner will be selected in November following the test period and will receive the £50,000 prize. The winning idea will be the initiative that reduces, reuses and/or recycles the greatest level of waste by engaging communities in giving their time, skills and resources.

The six projects are:

Brixton People's Kitchen, Mobile Kitchen

For the last year, the Brixton People's Kitchen has been turning food surplus from local businesses into free, healthy meals for local people. It is now inviting local people to design and build a Mobile Kitchen that will travel throughout the diverse communities in Brixton and beyond, to inspire positive action against food waste by acting as an open, convivial platform for food education, community building and skills-sharing.

http://vimeo.com/55745674  

Zero Waste Alliance UK, The Rubbish Diet

Billed as 'WeightWatchers for your bin', dieters weigh their fortnightly waste collection and aim to lose weight each fortnight by reducing the amount they throw away by recycling, composting & finding others uses. Dieters join 'a support group' where they identify key targets and share ideas.

https://vimeo.com/55619385 

Fareshare and Foodcycle, Just-in Time Food Network

Through its Just-in Time Food Network, FareShare and FoodCycle are working with big suppliers and supermarkets to redirect leftover stock to over 700 diverse charities. Together they have created a framework to empower local communities to collect surplus food in an effective, safe and efficient way that can be replicated.

https://vimeo.com/55785537

Museum of Bad Design

The Museum of Bad Design aims to create a collaborative design team, from all fields, to come together to tackle the issue of bad design and production of waste. It is going to create an online platform where industry's best brains can come together with the collective intelligence of this community design team to generate solutions to design out waste.

https://vimeo.com/55663355

Feeding the 5000, Gleaning Network

It diverts 36,000kgof wasted fruit and vegetables from farms to charities providing food to the most vulnerable groups in society. The network uses outgraded produce that doesn't make it into supermarkets because of shape or size and channel it towards those in need.

https://vimeo.com/55534709  

Proper Oils

Proper Oils is working to make it easier to recycle household cooking oils, by providing households with storage vessels and community collection points. It is working with collection partners to educate them on how to collect, store and recycle cooking oil.  In return, Proper Oils will reward the host of the collection point, before the recovered oils are processed to make biodiesel.

https://vimeo.com/55788408

Tris Dyson, Director of Nesta's Centre for Challenge Prizes, comments, "We're really pleased to be supporting such an innovative and inspiring range of projects. Through the Waste Reduction challenge prize these projects will be supported to put their plans into action and make real change in their communities; where projects have already started work we'll help them to take their idea to a scale that will have real impact."

Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said, "Waste reduction is something in which everyone can play their part. These projects are great examples of what can be achieved when communities come together and find imaginative solutions to tackling issues like this head on." 

Gary Harvey, designer and Waste Reduction judge, said, "Each project adds a value to something that was once considered worthless waste and either redirects it from entering landfill by changing the process that creates waste, takes the waste and adds value by transforming it to a usable commodity eg. a meal, a bio fuel etc. or informs and educates others to revaluate how they dispose of their waste." 

Notes to Editors

For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact Sarah Reardon on 020 7438 2611/ Sarah.reardon@nesta.org.uk or Natalie Hodgson on 020 7438 2614/ Natalie.hodgson@nesta.org.uk  

·        The Giving Challenges - Waste Reduction and Ageing Well - have been set to encourage community innovation in the giving of time, skills and resources for social good. The challenges are run by Nesta's Centre for Challenge Prizes and funded by the Cabinet Office and will see one idea from each of the challenges awarded £50,000.

·        The Waste Reduction Challenge Prize is offering a prize for the innovation that achieves the biggest measureable reduction in waste, by providing new opportunities for communities to come together to give time, skills and resources

·        Six finalists, with the potential for sustainability and scale, have been selected to test their ideas. They will receive up to £10,000 and professional advice to set up and test their projects before a winner for each challenge is selected in November 2013 and awarded £50,000.

About Nesta: www.nesta.org.uk

 

Nesta is the UK's innovation foundation. We help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. We do this by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills. We are an independent charity and our work is enabled by an endowment from the National Lottery.

Nesta Operating Company is a registered charity in England and Wales with a company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833. Registered office: 1 Plough Place, London, EC4A 1DE