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 - 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 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.

Recycle your Christmas Cards and help the Woodland Trust plant 12,000 trees

Did you know that last year, 59 million Christmas cards were recycled in the United Kingdom?

It sounds a massive amount, however when you take into account that well over a billion cards get sent each Christmas in the UK alone, it becomes less impressive.

Woodland Trust run this annual scheme to raise money for the Trust to enable them to plant trees throughout the UK. The target is to plan 12,000 trees this year

From January 2nd you can take your Christmas cards to high street WH Smith stores, TK Maxx and Marks & Spencer stores throughout the UK. Recycling bins will be present in these stores from January 2nd through to 31st January 2010.

Once you have recycled your cards you can then vote for which area you would like more trees planted in - go to this site and choose the area you want.

You can also download an advertising poster, encouraging local people, schools and businesses to participate in the scheme.

The money raised through the scheme is ploughed directly into our tree planting work. In the 12 years that the Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme has been running, more than 600 million cards have been recycled.

This has enabled the Woodland Trust to plant more than 141,000 trees, save over 12,000 tonnes of paper from landfill and stop over 16,000 tonnes of CO2 from going into the atmosphere – the equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road for a year.

By recycling your Christmas cards through this scheme it stops waste being sent to landfill which can create methane – a powerful greenhouse gas.

If we all recycle just one card this Christmas this would save 1,570 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases – the same as taking 500 cars off the road for a year.

The UK needs many more trees. Trees are the lungs of the planet by turning CO2 into oxygen, yet the UK is one of the least wooded countries in Europe with just 12% woodland cover compared to the European average of 44%. Here in Scotland this becomes even more important when you consider the SNP were trying to sell off 25% of Scotland's forests!

Just 4% of this is wildlife rich broadleaf woodland which the Woodland Trust aims to double.

Recycling Christmas Cards - yes it matters!

Did you know that last year, only 7% of all Christmas cards were recycled in the United Kingdom?

Shameful really. Although I do wonder if that takes into account all those that would have gone into recyling boxes and bins operated by local authorities around the UK?

Anyway, this year it is key that we all do our bit.

Did you know that if each person in the UK recycles just ONE Christmas card, the Woodland Trust would be able to plant 15,000 trees - that is just amazing. Well the Reeves household will be recycling just over 60 cards (counting the two that only arrived yesterday) this year.

This year once all the cards have been recycled the Woodland Trust will be planting trees in five sites around the UK , here in Scotland it will be at a site called Milton, next to the Trust's Glen Finglas Estate.

It is estimated that over one billion Christmas cards will have been sent in 2008, so lets help the Woodland Trust get those trees and take your cards to WHSmith, Tesco, TK Maxx or Marks & Spencer to be recycled.