On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love said to me...

...make sure you recycle your Christmas cards and Christmas tree.

Recycle your Christmas cards this January in special bins in TK Maxx, Marks & Spencer and HomeSense stores (click on the store name to find your nearest store) and those stores will donate money to the Woodland Trust which we will use for planting trees through our More Trees, More Good campaign.

Once you have recycled them at one of your local stores, then visit the Woodland Trust website, enter your name, address, email address (you can opt in for updates) postcode and vote for more trees to be planted near to where you live.
ASDA also have Christmas card recycling bins in their stores, they are collecting on behalf of Trees for Cities.  Unfortunately I cannot tell you more about the scheme as I can't find any information on either website.
Finally, do you remember a month ago struggling when you went to buy that real tree?
 
Well, please ensure you make the same amount of effort ensuring it gets recycled, most councils do a tree recycling scheme, check their website or just give them a call, don't just dump it and hope someone else will sort it out.

ASDA and Kenco in marketing catastrophe

Recently ASDA were advertising Kenco coffee on their bags for life, specifically highlighting the Kenco coffee eco refill bags, supposedly saving the environment.

When ASDA have these Kenco eco refill bags in stock they work out more expensive to purchase than the jar next to it, that doesn't make sense!

Yes, seriously.  The prices were a jar with 300g of coffee for £3 or a 150g eco refill bag for £2.50.

However, during the promotion period my local ASDA at Leith, Edinburgh never had the shelf space for more than 3 of the eco refill bags so there were never any on the shelf which begs the question, was the advertising campaign really honest?

Certainly in my eyes the campaign was a major flop.

ASDA at Leith needs to sort itself out and get the right stock on it's shelves, on too many days there are empty shelves around the store. With a new Tesco on Duke Street and Morrison's only a bus ride away ASDA needs to stop complacency setting in.

Kenco needs to evaluate the pricing (as does ASDA) of a jar of coffee versus the eco refill bag, shoppers are watching the pennies even more currently so won't be impressed with these promotion shams.

Eurest caterers let ASDA at Leith down

Perhaps not something many of my current readers would expect me to be blogging about?

However, before my career in politics I worked for Catering & Allied, a contract caterer based in Hounslow, London for nearly 10 years - starting at Cameron, Markby & Hewitt, moving to The Royal Society of Arts and ending up at UBS Warburg.

Once Catering & Allied merged with High Table, I moved on and started as an intern with Chris Huhne, before 3 years with Vince Cable, 2 years with Simon Hughes, 1.5 years with Lynne Featherstone, 1.5 years as London Campaigns Officer and now 2 years as Deputy Director for Scotland.

Anyway, back to my past as a General Manager for Catering & Allied, as Sarah Morris will testify, I can be a pain when going out for food!

Criticising anything from the staff to cleanliness.

Anyway, I decided with a bad head cold to head home at lunch today, but via ASDA's cafe (Leith branch).

I really wish I hadn't because not only did I have to wait ages for food, I was then served the wrong food (I asked for beef olives and got vegetarian sausage) and then got angry about the general cleanliness.

Eurest (part of Compass Catering) have the contract to run the cafe at ASDA Leith which has been open around 18 months now.

Unfortunately most customers will not realise a contract caterer is in charge as ASDA has decided not to advertise that point, which I think is a mistake.

In 18 months Eurest have seen 4 cafe managers come and go and a 5th has just started.

I've met and discussed the situation with John, ASDA's store manager and today with Richard one of the other managers.

What surprises me is that Eurest are not taking this seriously, if my clients ever had a problem, I only ever had hours to get it solved, Eurest seem to have taken 18 months.

If anyone in ASDA is reading this, I'd love to put a tender together to run that cafe (properly).

Today as you can see from the photos was a bad visit - there was an unattended stock trolley in the cafe, a rubbish trolley piled with rubbish bags, dripping fat on the floor, out of date products on the shelves, empty dishes on the hot counter, dried up peas and carrots (in fact the peas could have passed for bullets) counter displays not full, tables not cleared and generally just very grubby and dirty.

This cafe run by Eurest at ASDA Leith should be a goldmine, but it appears that Eurest don't have the right manager or staff to do it justice - or don't really care, which is a great shame.

ASDA - my response to your response

My sincere thanks to Julian Walker-Palin who heads up Corporate Policy on Sustainability for ASDA for responding to my twitter message advertising my blog post;

Anyway, now I want to respond, because some of Julian's comments are nothing short of ridiculous.

Julian said; "Without packaging we would have food rotting in the fields or in supply networks, as can be seen every day in countries like India."

My response; As I worked for a fruit and veg shop chain in West Yorkshire for some years, I really do disagree with this.  Fruit and vegetables do not need packaging, it assists but it is not essential.  I am astounded he is scaremongering with comments about food rotting in fields or in supply networks.  Refrigeration often prevents any food rotting and the shorter time from field to shop stops it.

Perhaps if ASDA and other supermarket giants stopped shipping seasonal food from abroad and bought British it would also make a massive impact.

I do agree that ASDA's packaging is much more clearly marked about it's green credentials.

I also agree that more Councils need to embark on providing a wider range of recycling facilities.

However, it still does not detract from the fact that much of the packaging used on prepared vegetables in plastic is not currently recycled - that is ASDA's choice of packaging, not the council's fault.

And it still does not change my mind that if more seasonal fruit and vegetables was bought from within the UK, air miles would be down, road miles may increase but we should be buying more local food.

I think supermarkets have killed off many small shops and parades, but that will never stop us using them, but as this exchange has shown, the giants such as ASDA don't take too kindly to criticism and more folks need to do like me and be vocal and complain and then make them sit up and listen.

ASDA respond to my question - Just how green is ASDA?

Last week I blogged about ASDA and their recycling claims - just how green is ASDA?

I offered ASDA the right of reply and Julian Walker-Palin, took up the challenge and here is what he said...

Hi Andy, I read your blog with interest as I Head up Corporate Policy on Sustainability for Asda. I would like to address your points and thank you for making the comments in the first place.

Firstly it’s worth us remembering that packaging has a fundamental purpose. Not only does it protect products from being damaged but for food items it also helps to keep these fresh. Without packaging we would have food rotting in the fields or in supply networks, as can be seen every day in countries like India.

We all know that decomposing food emits far more greenhouse gas than the production of packaging. So accepting that packaging is necessary in modern supply chains I also think it is fair to say that before 2006 we’d allowed our packing amount to grow. It had always remained within legal limits but there was also an opportunity to go after in terms of reduction. In fact as a low cost retailer every £1 spent on packaging should rightly have been spent making the product more affordable for our customers.

In 2006 the Courtauld Commitment was extremely helpful in pulling industry together to look at the role of and the levels of packaging. While the rest of industry made a 10% reduction, we committed to reducing ours by a quarter. A reduction we achieved by the end of 2009 and in fact, now we’re at a 28% reduction. This is industry leading by a clear mile.

We’ve also led industry through the development of our Packaging Scorecard which will be live in a trial phase next month. This Packaging Scorecard is intended as a tool to help evaluate the level and type of packaging around a product to make sensible decisions on how it can be optimised. We have also set ourselves the objective in this system of using carbon as a proxy for environment impact to get around the one dimensional approach that you get with pure weight reduction. This is industry leading also.

Furthermore we were a founder member of the Packaging Recycling Action Group (PRAG), which I personally chaired for over a year. The PRAG is still in existence and is now chaired by INCPEN and members include major retailers, brands, councils, waste management companies, packaging industry and central and devolved governments, amongst others. It is the largest group ever to come together to look at packaging and how it can be optimised in its usage and be recycled / re-used more efficiently at end of life. The PRAG has acted as an advisor to government and undoubtedly has helped to move the debate forwards.

The logo to which you refer was actually created by Asda and other retailers and in fact 95% of our packaging is technically recyclable. Whether one of our customers can actually recycle it with their local council depends on the collection arrangements in their local area but this doesn't stop it being a recyclable material. The PRAG again focussed on creating a discussion about how we can get standardisation of materials collected a kerb side for recycling.

I hope that this further detail shows you that not only do we use less packaging than any other retailer but we have also helped to move the debate forwards and find solutions to packaging optimisation and recycling nationally, as well as being instrumental in creating the clearest logo yet to help packaging recycling. I would be very pleased to get any further comments you may have."

ASDA and their recycling claims - just how green is ASDA?

It appears I have managed to upset some of the management at ASDA by tweeting about their packaging that cannot be recycled and how annoying this is.

Apparently I am to be sent a big report - woooo.  Seriously, I look forward to it because it isn't often a corporate giant responds to the little lone voice.

Anyway, now from the corporate spin back to reality.

Last night I decided on cooking chicken in a tomato and onion sauc served on a bed of leeks with roasted vine tomatoes and olives.

The packaging the baby leeks came in states: "Bag plastic not currently recycled."

The packaging the vine tomatoes came in states: "Punnet plastic check local recycling.  Film plastic not currently recycled."

The packaging the chicken came in states: "Sleeve card widely recycled, tray metal check local recycling and film plastic not currently recycled."



So, half of the packaging from one meal I have had to throw into landfill and two thirds of the remaining half is dependent on the council.

This simply is not good enough.

Here is the waste statement from ASDAs green section on their website:

We’ve set ourselves the target of sending zero waste to landfill by 2010; and not just in our stores, but across all of the ASDA and George businesses, including depots and offices.

Landfilling is damaging to the environment, because the energy and materials required to make the things we throw away are lost instead of being recycled. What’s worse, biodegradable waste in landfill breaks down to produce greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming.

By encouraging everyone at ASDA to reduce waste, and by finding innovative uses for the things we usually throw away, we can save money and vital natural resources – making our business kinder to the planet. And by reducing our costs, we’re able to pass our savings on to our customers.

ASDA do also call for the end of postcode lottery recycling, that's easy for them to say especially given that they don't even bother ensuring all of their own packaging can be recycled. 

Don't do what I do, do what I say is obviously the ASDA Walmart way.

There is a grading system and coding for plastics to be recycled and often councils will only do the first two on this list here because of the economics.  However, why don't we look at introducing recycling for business as well (a campaign I persuaded Lynne Featherstone MP to run back in 2005/06) then given the volume coming through each council area it should all become easier and more economical.
The supermarkets have to be one of the biggest offenders, if my one trip yesterday proved nything it proved that although the supermarkets listen to criticism on social media outlets such as twitter, they don't follow through all of the way, otherwise my blog post could never have been written in the first place.
 
ASDA - right of reply?  I will happily post a reply up here unedited in response.

Snow and ice made us shop local

Apparently the recent cold snap, or winter to you and I, has cost the four big supermarket chains - ASDA, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's - a mere £750million, as more and more people shopped locally.

The out of town stores obviously suffered far more than the in town supermarket branches, but strangely, I don't feel any sympathy whatever the reason.

If it forced more of us to shop locally, then we may well have had a better experience, we may even have realised that we have a local butcher, baker and even a greengrocer, and we might even now know their names.

The large supermarket chains will never instill the customer service that a small chain or independent can. Going back 20 years, gulp, I managed the greengrocers shop on Roundhay Road, Leeds for Claude Dyson & Sons Limited, there were around 13 branches across Yorkshire and the friendliness and customer service instincts went to the very top with Phillip and Ian Dyson (the sons) right down to the shop floor staff.

We knew our customers, we knew them to say hello to, in fact that was part of it, we spoke to them! Can you imagine even half of the faceless supermarket staff speaking to you (apart from in ASDA because they have to)?

No, and that won't really change, despite training etc from the supermarket giants.

So, on Friday night when you sit down to write that shopping list for the weekend, have a think where you are going to shop, because let's face it, without our support all year round, not just in cold winter snaps, the independent shops may well not be there next time the snow and ice hit us and then where will you be?

I am in the odd position that if I shop local I actually have to walk or get the bus past the supermarket, but that hasn't stopped us doing it, Leith has some fantastic stores and although yes, it may cost a pound or two extra, it actually brings back the whole feel that we really do live in a community.

Now, for my English friends, especially in London, the concept of speaking to someone who you don't live or work with will be an alien feeling and it may well take around ten years for anyone else to reciprocate, but stick with it, they may come round in the end!

Here in Scotland, it's easier because people up here say hello to the neighbours, chat with folk on the bus or train, generally, just happy to say hi!

Remember, shop local and try and get local produce as well, it will guarantee jobs, stop rows of empty shops appearing as in the picture and bring back to life the local community.

Its Easter Egg time

ASDA and Lothian buses are first to sell and advertise, Easter eggs respectively.

I'm actually not sure its something to be proud of Cadburys and ASDA PR people, I think its crap!

Technically its still Christmas, tomorrow is Hogmanay and yes it is still 2009.

Do you remember when Easter eggs were sold at Easter?

ASDA and Cadburys need to learn that the consumer does get sick of these stunts.

I for one will be very fed up of seeing easter eggs advertised on Edinburgh buses for the next four months and definitely sick of seeing them piled up at the tills at ASDA.