Angry Letter Reply...ASDA and Cucumbers...

So, even though ASDA are an evil corporation who double wrap their cucumbers at least their complaints department emailed me back quickly.  Here's what they have to say for themselves...

'Hello Susie

Thank you for your email about the packaging on our cucumbers.

I'm sorry that you were disappointed that the cucumber you bought was double wrapped. As you are aware of our recycling and zero waste policy I can understand your disappointment.

As you have read our commitment to reducing waste you will have seen how much we try to do to help the environment. What we also have to think about is ensuring that our products arrive with our customers in the freshest state possible. This is why we choose to use both a shrink wrap and a cellophane packaging on our cucumbers. I have however passed your email on to the relevant team and asked them to look into ways of reducing this packaging. I'm sure if they can find an effective way of doing this they will as soon as possible.

Thank you again for getting in touch. If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

Kind regards'

Which is pretty much the sort of answer I was expecting.  Funny how our home grown cucumbers keep for weeks without 1 layer of plastic, never mind 2!  Tut, tut, I shake my head at you ASDA and will not be (letting my mum be!) buying your cucumbers in the future.

Angry Letter of the Month...Adsa and Cucumbers...

Last week me and my mum came home from the supermarket (Asda, which we don't usually use) with a very suspicious item...half a cucumber wrapped not only in plastic shrink wrap, but in a printed plastic bag AS WELL!!!!  My mum usually does the shopping and buys a half cucumber which is usually shrink wrapped, which is bad enough, if I do the shopping I try to find a whole, unwrapped one, but to have TWO layers of plastic wrapping is madness.  Madness I say!  Especially as you can't really tell just by looking at it that there are two layers there, you see the outer bag, but it's quite hard to see the shrink wrapping until the beg is open.  Argh!     

Which means I have to write to them to complain!

" Dear Asda,


My mother recently bought half a cucumber from your store. Where my food comes from is important to me, so I was pleased to read on the packaging that the cucumber was grown in England. However, I was disappointed with the packaging of the cucumber. I usually try to buy unpackaged fruit and vegetables to prevent having to put unrecyclable plastic into landfill. So I was horrified to see that the cucumber we bought was wrapped in a printed plastic bag AND shrink wrapped in plastic inside. Your website (http://your.asda.com/sustainability-waste) makes a lot of claims about reducing waste, heading towards zero waste and helping your customers reduce their waste. I would be interested to know how double wrapping cucumber halves in plastic fits in with this policy? I would also like to know if you are planning on changing the packaging of these cucumbers in the future?

I look forward to hearing from you soon. "

I'll post their reply when it arrives.
Have you bought an environmentally terrible product recently?  Did you let the company know you weren't impressed?

Letters...

Wisdom - Mum bought some wisdom toothbrushes, the plastic on the blister pack is unmarked and therefore unrecylable...

Dear Wisdom,
A member of my family recently bought a packet of Wisdom toothbrushes and I couldn’t find any information to help me recycle the plastic part of the packaging. I have been unable to find a recycling number or symbol moulded into the plastic, or any information about the type of plastic used printed on the cardboard part of the packaging. As you may know, it is very difficult to recycle unmarked plastic, as plastic recycling facilities are only able to accept the types that they know are able to be processed by their machinery. I am very reluctant to buy items wrapped in plastic that I cannot dispose of responsibly (ie. By not sending them to landfill) and would like to know what type of plastic the packaging is made of and to request that this information is made clearer on the packaging in future.

I would also be interested to know if your company has an environmental policy, as this is not displayed on your website. I would also be interested to know if Wisdom has any recommendations for disposing of used toothbrushes responsibly, if they are recyclable in any way and if your company has any plans to help customers reduce the waste created by replacing toothbrushes, either that are in place now or planned for the future.

I look forward to your reply,
Yours Sincerely
Susie.

As of yet Wisdom haven't got back to me...I'm going to resend the email and see what happens.

ASDA  Last month I wrote to ASDA about the plastic used to package their own brand cake/ice cream decorations and sprinkles, they did get back to me to let me know what type of plastic it is (although I couldn't see it on the pots when I looked, I'll have to look again next time I'm there...)
 
Thank you for your message.
Good Morning Susie,
Thank you for your patience whilst I have been looking into your query. I have received some information from our supplier which I would like to share with you. There is a number on each decoration pot (on the bottom). This number is an indicator to which type of plastic it is. If it has a 1 it is made from Poly Etherene Terephtharate.If it has a 5 it is made from Polly Polytherene.If it has a 6 it is made from Polystyrene. Our supplier has said all sprinkle pots are made from Poly Etherene Terephtharate. The cake decorations with a flip lid are made from Polly Polytherene and our jar decorations are made from Polystyrene. I hope from this information you can decide which product you would like to use. Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact ASDA and if you should require anymore assistance, please do not hesitate to ask.
Kind Regards ASDA Service Team

Letters...

Cath Kidston:  Mum bought me a Cath Kidston bag as an early birthday present (not my bday till September!) because she knew I'd been drooling over them and it was on sale, but it came in 2 plastic bags and it was made in china :(

Result: This is the letter I got back from them.

Dear Susie,
Thank you for your e-mail.
We use bio degradable mailing packaging and keep our products in a plastic covers in order to keep them from getting marked whilst stored in our warehouse or whilst in transit.
We are always looking to reduce our environmental impact and have recently employed a new team of staff to look at this and the best way to do this.
An area on the website with information regarding these issues is in progress and will appear within the next few months.
Whilst producing our items in China may seem unethical to some, we are confident with the factories and staff we use.
Our product development team audit the factories and ensure they comply to working condition standards. They, along with Cath Kidston regularly visit the factories and are always impressed by what has been seen.
Using Recyclable materials or using sustainable FSC paper is ingrained in a lot of the things we do but we are not quite there in integrating this in to everything. It is certainly a priority and something we take seriously which is why we have employed a new team to do this.
I hope this answers some of your questions and if you have any other queries please let me know as I would be happy to look in to it myself or pass you to the most relevant person to help.
I hope you continue to enjoy Cath Kidston products and if you have any suggestions we would be more than happy to hear them.
If you need any more assistance please let me know.
Have a lovely day.
Kind Regards

Sooooo I think this is quite good, they seem to be thinking about being more green - although I do think a company that charges so much for their products could put some of their profits into using organic materials and recyclable packaging..hopefully in the future they will.
Pure Margarine:  Continued from last month's communications with Pure concerning their use of palm oil and hard to find recycling info on their packs.

Here's my reply to them -

Dear Pure,

Thank you for your response and for the information concerning recycling your packaging. I do feel that this information could be made clearer on the boxes as it is very hard to see and hope that this is taken into account in the future.
I was interested to hear that Kerry Foods is a member of the RSPO and that you seem to be taking some steps towards responsible palm oil use. However, I do feel that if you were truly happy with this solution to your use of palm oil in pure margarine you would also be happy to state that your product contains palm oil on the package. The only way to find out that palm oil is in pure margarine is to look on your website. This suggests that this information is concealed because a lot of your customers would be disappointed to know about Kerry Food’s use of palm oil. I have a number of vegan friends and those that I have discussed this with have been disgusted that palm oil is used in your product. I hope that the use of palm oil will be discontinued in pure margarine in favour of a more sustainable option. I will be looking for a new brand of margarine that suits my dietary requirements until this issue has been resolved.

I look forward to your reply,
Susie.

(p.s. I'm really pissed of with Pure margarine!)

I haven't had a reply from them. Pah!

Asda:  I wanted to buy some nice pink sparkly sugary cake sprinkle things from Asda but I couldn't find recycling info on the plastic tube...

Dear Asda,
I wanted to buy some of your own brand cake decorations (like these http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/search/searchcontainer.jsp;jsessionid=KSOiwma6ib8B-cPkJCjvVQ**.oses4067-atg05?trailSize=1&searchString=sprinkles&domainName=Products&headerVersion=v1&_requestid=79483) while shopping in your store this afternoon. Although the recycling information on the packaging told me the pots were plastic and to check recyclability with my local council it did not tell me what type of plastic the pots were made of. I carefully looked all around the plastic pot and couldn’t see a plastic type or number moulded into the plastic. Without this information it is impossible to recycle plastic as most councils only accept specific types of plastic. I am very reluctant to buy items wrapped in plastic that I cannot dispose of responsibly (ie. By not sending them to landfill) and would like to know what type of plastic the packaging is made of and to request that this information is made clearer on the packaging in future.
I look forward to your reply,
Yours sincerely,
Susie.

Result - I got an email saying that they'd received my message and would take a day or two to get back to me, that was last week - I'm not going to hold my breath!  I don't usually shop in Asda anway (they're owned by Walmart and don't have the best reputation) and I'll avoid it in future now!

EDIT - a couple of hours after I wrote this post I got an email from ASDA pointing me in the direction of their waste policy and letting me know that they're trying to find out what type of plastic the pots are made from so they can let me know - perhaps they're not so bad after all!!!

Letters...

I think the best way of getting change is to ask for it. I'm going to start writing to the companies of products I consume and asking them, in various ways, to be more eco-friendly. I'm going to aim to write to at least 2 a month, but we'll see how it goes! And of course, I'll be sharing my responses with you here.

So far I've contacted the following companies, here are my concerns and their replies...

Specsavers Contact Lenses: I use contact lenses but I want to recycle the cleaning pots they come in, I emailed to ask what type of plastic it was.

Result: They were really helpful and gave some really interesting responses - I'm going to show you the whole of our conversation...

Dear Specsavers Would you be able to tell me what kind of plastic the pots (that you clean the contact lenses in) and their lids are made from and if they are recyclable? Also whether the lids of the contact lens solution are recyclable? Many Thanks.

Dear Susie,Thank you for your email.The solutions that we supply, including the cases, are covered under the supply of medicines act. We are therefore very restricted on what we can do as far as recycling.You could investigate with your local council as to whether they locally recycle these cases and bottles, as each council have different policies on this issue.

Dear Specsavers, Thank you for the information you have sent me, I will be sure to check with my local council as to whether they can be recycled here. However, it will be easier for them to tell me if I know what type of plastic the cases etc are made from, as not all types of plastic are recyclable here. Is there a way of finding this out? Many Thanks, Susie.

Dear Susie,Thank you for your email.I have passed this query on to our Product Team, as I cannot see the usual recycling symbol on the bottles. We will email you as soon as we have an answer to your query.

Dear Susie,Following your query regarding recyclable plastics:the solution bottle, cap and plug are HDPE (High Density Polyethylene)the case barrel is polystyrene the case cap and baskets are polypropylene. Our Product Team advises that HDPE is widely accepted by UK authorities for recycling. Polystyrene seems to be an issue as some local authorities will take it and some not (polystyrene is what is used to make CD cases).Hope this helps.Kind Regards.

How helpful was that! :) I emailled them to say a big thanks for being so helpful!

Pure margarine: the only marg I can eat (because it's dairy and soya free) comes in an unmarked (therefore unrecyclable) plastic box and has palm oil in it! I asked them what type of plastic the box was made of, if it could be recycled, if this could be made clear on the packaging in future and if they were planning on continuing to use palm oil.

Result: This is the email I received from them..

Dear Susie The tubs & lids can be recycled. It is classed as Channel 5 plastic for Local Council Purposes.You may need to contact your local authority for your nearest suitable recycling centre With regard to the Palm Oil Kerry Foods is aware of the ecological and social impacts of deforestation of tropical forests and shares the concern about the long-term consequences of this development. We are working towards ensuring that palm oil products we use are produced in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner. We source our oil from suppliers who are members of the 'roundtable for sustainable palm oil (RSPO)'and are working towards ensuring that all our palm oil is coming from plantations that are meeting the criteria for guaranteed sustainable palm. Once again thank you for visiting our web site and we hope you continue to enjoy our Pure products.

Hmmm, I do think thats a good start, but wouldn't it be better if the tubs were made out of nuber 1 or 2 plastic, so it could be very easily recylcable (I'm in the middle of emailing my local council to find out where/if number 5 plastic can be recycled here) and if they stopped using palm oil altogether (the RSPO smells a bit of greenwash to me!) I'll be writing to them to say just that and I'll let you know if I get a reply.

The Book People: after repeatedly un-ticking the 'receive catalogue through the post' button on their website, and repeatedly receiving catalogues through the post (wrapped in one of those plastic envelopes) I emailed them.

Result: 10 minutes later a lovely lady phoned me to tell me the reason I kept getting catalogues was because I actually had 3 accounts with them and was only cancelling getting mail from one of the accounts - she cancelled them all for me! Sorted!

No More Plastic Post...continued...

As some of you might remember I've been trying to STOP any post from being delivered to my house in those plastic 'envelopes' - because they offend me a LOT! I can't recycle them locally and I want to cut down the amount of plastic that I use (because it's made from oil and what not that's running out).

I'm having trouble with one magazine I am repeatedly sent (from a teaching union I used to belong to when I was studying for my PGCE, that I'm not a member of anymore, because it stopped being free and because I can't find a teaching job! Talk about rubbing salt in the wound lol!) To make it even worse, my mum is a member of the union and she gets sent their magazine every month too - so we get 24 plastic wrapped magazines per year sent to our address!! There is no way to contact this company! There are no contact details on their website or in their magazine, there is a phone number I can call, but at my own expense, so I'm reluctant to do that. I have found a semi satisfying way of dealing with their plastic post though - sending it back with a sticky label asking to be removed from their mailing list - I've done that for the past 2 months (along with the numerous membership packs they keep sending me too) so maybe next month will be teaching magazine free!!!

I also got a catalogue wrapped in plastic from www.expertverdict.com who I've never heard of, but actually have a special 'remove from mailing list' contact on their website - which I'm really impressed with! I added a little note to the end of the part where I had to put my details about how I was trying to reduce waste and that an unnecessary paper catalogue and plastic bag weren't helpful and could they please reconsider their mailing methods. Lets see if it works!

Having said that The Book People have a section for managing mailings, where I opted out of getting catalogues and I still got one last month, maybe it takes a while to process or something, but I'm going to send them a quick email as well to make sure.

Someone from my old university phoned me and asked if I wanted to donate £26 a month for a student fund, which obviously I said no to, and then asked if I wanted to be put on their mailing list, I had a long conversation with the girl all about cutting down my waste and not wanting to get any paper mail, but that I was happy to be put on their e-mailing list (in case I ever win the lottery!). Three days later I received a letter, not in plastic thank goodness, but with about 5 pages in it asking again for a donation. I put it all back in the envelope and wrote an angry letter on the back of one of the sheets, asking to be removed from their mailing list and giving them my email again. I'm not usually angry - but it seems to have worked in this situation, as a couple of days later I got this email (note email not letter! hurrah!)

Dear Susan

Thank you for your letter from which I was sorry to learn that we had failed to act upon your request not to receive snail mail in future. I am afraid this was simply human error, with Sophie failing to make the requisite note on your record. I hope you will accept our apologies and I can assure you that your record has now been suitably amended. Some Aber publications, such as Prom, are not yet available electronically, but I will ensure you receive it this way once it is produced in an e-format.

Best regards

If angry is the best way to beat plastic post then I'm going to have to rethink my tactics!

Handmade Christmas Postcards...

This year some of my friends organised a Christmas card making party, which turned out to be an excellent method of cutting down consumption. We all brought crafty things we already had at home and shared them, so no one had to buy anything new! Some lovely cards were made by everyone and it was really good fun (my inner eco obsessive also thinks that 7 people in one room saves the energy of those 7 people sitting in 7 rooms in their own houses - we only used one light bulb and one cd player, rather than the 7 we might have used if we'd have stayed home by ourselves!)

I make my own cards every year, and this year I'd been thinking of ways to make them more eco friendly - I saw these in the Amnesty International Catalogue and thought I could probably whip up something similar.

These Christmas postcards use 50% less card (because they have no back!) and no envelopes, I used some foam stamps I bought last year, an ink pad I found in my mums drawer and some card I already had to make these. I figure because I managed to hold back on adding glittery sparklyness they can go in with the normal cardboard recycling (correct me if I'm wrong!). I'll draw a line down the middle of each at the back and write instructions, so people know it's eco friendly (and not just weird!) and that they can leave it as a postcard or fold it down the line to make a stand up card (it'll be quite small then - each postcard is about 1/4 of a sheet of A4 - but I think they'll be cute)

Has anyone got any other tips for eco friendly card sending? I know I could just not send any at all - but it's Christmas!

No more plastic post - continued...

I got a reply from one of my emails to companies about the plastic 'envelopes' they send their mail out in...I was quite pleased to get a reply and to know that they are aware of the issue, but I think I will email them back and ask about maybe doing an online version of the magazine, which would cut out both the plastic 'envelope' waste (which even if it was biodegradable wouldn't be great because it doesn't biodegrade properly!) and the paper, magazine waste!

'Dear Susie,
Thank you for your e-mail. I am sorry for the delayed reply.

This is an ongoing problem we are trying to resolve. It seems that most makes of polywrap can only be recycled by specialist centres. The alternative is biodegradable, but it seems that is problematic, as if a bit of biodegradable plastic gets into normal plastic recycling, it contaminates the whole batch. The cost of paper or card alternatives is also quite high. However, we are taking this seriously and costing out the options and hope we can come up with a solution soon, as it has long been a concern of our.

Our policy is to be environmentally friendly and within our office we use 100% recycled paper as well having numerous recycling facilities on site. I hope that answers your queries. '

I also managed to find an opt-out button on the website for one of the catalogues I get sent and I'm keeping check on what pops through the post box every day so I can identify more targets to eliminate!

No more plastic post....

I spent a happy couple of hours this morning venting my frustration about the amount of mail we get in this house that arrives wrapped up in plastic. It's driving me crazy!! I've opted out of all the junk mail as much as possible, but this is post I want, and it's covered in plastic! So I've written to all the organisations that I can recall being annoyed by their plastic 'envelopes', and I'll be keeping an eye on the postbox so I can have my revenge on any more letters that dare to arrive in a plastic bag!

Here's an example of one of my letters (to Amnesty International, who I think really should know better!) in case anyone's interested.

"Hello,

I enjoy reading the Amnesty Magazine that I, as a supporter, receive from you. However, I would enjoy it even more if the type of packaging used for the magazine was reconsidered. Each time I receive the magazine I have the frustrating problem of what to do with the plastic bag it arrives in. These bags currently cannot be recycled in my area, and even if I reuse them they ultimately end up in landfill.

I am writing, therefore, to ask you to reconsider the type of packaging you use for the magazines you post out. I support Friends of the Earth and the Dr Hadwen Trust and both of these organisations send out their magazines in paper envelopes. I have also seen magazines sent out in cardboard sleeves. A change in the packaging of your magazine, perhaps to one of the types I have mentioned, would enhance my satisfaction in supporting your important work.

Please will you pass on my comments to the relevant people.

I look forward to hearing back from you concerning this matter.

Yours Sincerely,

Miss Susie Biscuit."


Has anyone else tried doing this? Did you have any success? What can we do about these naughty plastic posters??

Junk mail...

I was inspired by this post on the Eco Etsy blog...
http://ecoetsy.blogspot.com/2009/07/eco-tip-of-week-stop-junk-mail.html

...to reduce the amount of junk mail that's delivered to my house - but the site suggested on Eco Etsy is for the US.

A quick google search later, I found this UK website, where you can register up to 5 people from the same address to stop receiving junk mail for 5 years...amd it's freeee!
http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

In 2007 4.54 billion pieces of addressed junk mail were delivered in the UK!!!

http://www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/facts/volume.php