The Bees, Trees, And Plastics In Chiswick

Beekeeper Annette Duckworth in a plea for us to think about bees when we shop

Can we please have biodegradable plastic.

As a member of the British Bee Keepers Association, I receive a monthly magazine, wrapped in plastic.
Beekeeping is a delightfully old-fashioned world. But to their immense credit, the BBKA have got their act together and have changed to a biodegradable plastic wrapper for the magazine.
I struggle these days doing the supermarket shop. EVERYTHING comes in plastic wrapping, NONE of which can be recycled. Only hard plastic can be recycled, NOT standard PLASTIC BAGS of any sort. They will float around the world for hundreds of years to come.
But what do we find? You cannot buy potatoes or carrots without plastic. Even loose vegetables must be put in a plastic bag to be weighed. I have tried keeping them loose to avoid the bag and my carrots roll down the conveyor belt to the annoyance of the cashier.
Could we have PAPER bags for loose veg? And can we have biodegradable plastic around the bagged vegetables?
Why not?
They won’t biodegrade by the time we get them home.
We Chiswick folk should boycott Sainsburys and Waitrose until they do something.
We can use the markets.
And why does the Sainsburys deli package ALL their meat in POLYSTYRENE?
Totally unrecyclable.
I have asked and asked.
Managers please LISTEN.
If the BBKA can manage to use biodegradable plastic, WHY can these huge supermarkets not make the change?

And while I am in print, may I make a plea to us all, to please have mercy on our precious street trees this summer.
Reducing the canopy to nothing; removing ANY tree that is not dead or dangerous is extremely short sighted. Think of the world our children and grandchildren must live in.

Every tree removed is a nail in the coffin of our bees. Trees feed bees big time because the are BIG. They are the biggest source of food for our bees because they are BIG. Spare our LIME trees and ACACIA trees especially. And Sycamores, Chestnuts, Maples and Aulders. All the insect pollinated trees especially. They were planted by people who understood the natural world. Every big city in Europe had these trees because people used to know about bee keeping and valued their trees. When they are gone they are gone. The Council have dammed all Limes and Acacias and big trees in general and will not replace them.

Annette Duckworth

May 4, 2019