#ZeroWasteWeek is an award-winning grassroots annual awareness campaign that takes place online and on the ground, with people running their own events across the globe.

It raises awareness about the environmental impacts of waste and helps householders, businesses, organisations, schools, universities and community groups reduce non recyclable waste so you can save money, preserve resources and protect the environment.

During the summer of 2004 my family and I were caught in the devastating Boscastle floods, where 100 people had to be airlifted to safety. That triggered me to really think about how humans are impacting the planet, its ecology and weather systems. Seeing peoples livelihoods and homes being swept away during that fateful day made a deep impression in my mind. And as I stood there with my three year old in my arms, I knew I needed to do something to help secure a safe and beautiful planet for her to inherit.

When I got back home, I started a local Freecycle group. An internet platform that connects people with items to give away to people who want them. Freecycle prevents millions of tonnes of stuff ending up in landfill and is still going strong around the world.

By 2008, I was ready for my next challenge, as my awareness and commitment to sustainability was growing.

In June 2008, I inspired by Karen Cannard, who, over the course of a week, put just one plaster in her bin! I wanted to see what I could achieve, so I launched a blog called my zero waste.

My aim was to reduce our household landfill waste as much as possible to have less impact on the environment. The blog was there to keep us accountable as a family and track our progress.
Little did I know that within 2 months, I’d have 80,000 people reading the blog every month!

In September of that year, Karen challenged us to have our own zero waste week – the aim of which was to accumulate ZERO waste for landfill.
We accepted the challenge, and decided to ask our readers to join in with us.

Over 100 people took part and the feedback we had was staggering. Not only did people love the buzz of the week but they wanted to keep good habits in place once the week was over.

From there, Zero Waste Week was born!

From its humble beginnings in 2008, Zero Waste Week continues to go from strength to strength, with millions of individuals, businesses, community group, schools, universities and local authorities taking part around the world.

Zero Waste Week began in the UK in 2008 with 100 participants. Today, millions of people in over 85 countries, join in with Zero Waste Week.

If you have to deal with waste, Zero Waste Week is for you! Whether you’re an individual, business or organisation,community group, school, university or local authority, you're welcome to join in and reduce the amount you send to landfill.

Zero Waste Week always takes place the week beginning the first Monday in September, so the dates change each year. Check your calendar for the first Monday in September and that will be the first day of the campaign week!

Upcoming dates:

7th - 11th September 2026

6th - 12th September 2027

4th - 8th September 2028

3rd - 7th September 2029

Although Zero Waste Week formally runs for one week in September, you are encouraged to keep your good habits in place for the next 51 weeks!

Think of it as a bootcamp for your bins - it's one week of giving it your best effort and learning new habits, so you can continue doing your best for the rest of the year. Like most things (I'm looking at you gym membership), we all fall off the bandwagon. So use Zero Waste Week to get yourself inspired and motivated to tackle your waste again.

If you need support and encouragement the rest of the time, the friendly Facebook group members share practical experiences and suggestions about waste avoidance throughout the year. Join us on Facebook here.

This is a huge question that demands a book to respond, but one tiny part of the answer is to ask yourself where 'away' is.

Away isn't some magical place; it's landfill, an incinerator, the bottom of the ocean, litter or the stomach of an animal. It's always somewhere else...

In fact, if Henry VIII had used disposable nappies, they'd still be in landfill now!

The idea is simple: choose an action which will help you reduce your waste, do it every day throughout Zero Waste Week in September and share your experience with others in person or online using the hashtag #ZeroWasteWeek.

Here's your step by step plan:

• Save the date – mark the first full week in September in your calendar
• Download a resource for hints, tips and ideas
• Pick a theme – popular ones in the past have been food waste, plastic packaging and repair.
• Set a goal – will you reduce your landfill waste by 10%? Banish food waste for two days? Or go all in and challenge yourselves to a completely waste free week?
• Claim your why – WHY do you want to achieve your goal? This will keep you accountable to yourself and on the bandwagon when things get tough.
• Declare your challenge – tell colleagues, friends and family members. Take to social media, using the hashtag #ZeroWasteWeek
• Invite others – it’s so much more fun to do challenges with others. Set up a Zero Waste challenge at work, your local community, at home or with your customers.
• Have fun – enjoy your week, learn from your mistakes and celebrate your successes.

Of course! Although some of the recycling terminology may not apply to you, we encourage people from across the world to join in. In fact, we have participants from over 86 countries! (and those are just the ones I know of!) Check out the international pages for tips on going zero waste week in your country.

Zero Waste is just the catchy title we use. It's an ideal, but is it realistic? You decide! But please join in - if everyone recycled just one more thing, the collective impact would be huge! Your effort counts.

You can find some free images here.

That was my husband’s question too. Indeed, how can the effort of one person or a few make a difference? Fortunately, we live in modern times where the internet can achieve incredible communication over a short period of time. A small piece of news can go viral overnight! Your small contribution is now part of vast community of people who are taking responsibility for their actions to reduce waste. You are NOT ALONE. Your actions, along with your friends and online contributors are gaining strength and momentum, every day, every month, every year. Be part of the change you want to see …

Government, local authorities and campaign groups like us are doing what they can to open doors to make it easier to prevent waste. None of this work is effective without YOU. It’s the people, one by one, who take action that collectively creates a sea-change in society.

I love the words of Margaret Mead who said

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has.

Zero Waste Week is offered for free. However, writing resources, updating the site, hosting and technical support all cost either my time or money. I am grateful for your donations which you can complete on this page.

I no longer offer talks and workshops.

I no longer take part in webinars and summits.

I no longer offer interviews.

I am not able to give personalised advice as the recycling rules are different in different districts, counties and countries. Please contact your local authority waste and recycling department, check out the Recycle Now website, use the search function on this site to see if I've shared some reuse ideas or ask on our Facebook group.

After checking activity and engagement on the site, all courses and access to them were closed in July 2023. The most recent engagement for a student was 9 months prior to closing the courses, indicating that if you hadn't accessed content by then, you were unlikely to in the future! My decision to close the courses was based on annual running costs to hosting a membership area of a site and a constant need for security upgrades, which outweighed sales - so it was costing me to keep that area of the site online. I was unable to email you to pre-warn you due to GDPR limitations. Thank you for your understanding.

Zero Waste Week is widely known as the leading waste reduction campaign across the world. We have many countries represented on the site (see Zero Waste Week international) and while I am grateful for the time and effort put in from contributors, I am not currently accepting contributions from other countries.

You can read more about other Zero Waste initiatives here.

You can find out more on the 2019 press page.

I no longer travel to events or make appearances online.

I do not offer sponsorship of any sort.