How many times did you reach for the bin yesterday? Consider every time you dried your hands with a paper towel, misprinted a document or threw food packaging away.

Now, think about how much stuff you have accumulated in your home. Books, clothes, nail varnishes or birthday cards you've been meaning to get rid of for a while.

Our throwing away list is ongoing, overwhelming and a little frightening. Figures show that the average Brit throws away their own body weight in rubbish every 7 weeks.

So how did one woman go through the last two years without producing more than a single jarful of rubbish?

Like you and us, New Yorker Lauren Singer lives in a small apartment, likes to invite her friends over for dinner and enjoys a good beer. However she has a wastage footprint that's virtually invisible which she says has resulted in healthier eating, less money wasted on binge shopping and an overall happier lifestyle.

"It all started when I was a senior (in her final two years) at NYU studying environmental studies," says Lauren, who since landed a job as Sustainability Manager for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. "One day after class I went home to make dinner and I opened my fridge and I saw that everything in there was packaged in plastic. And I felt like such a hypocrite."

The ultimate detox? Woman who lives a ‘zero waste’ lifestyle can fit two years of rubbish in a jar