Knitting for Tree Huggers

Although its not to do with plastic bags, I liked this and you might too.



The Woodland Trust are promoting a lovely scarf you can knit yourself, that doubles up as a way to measure ancient trees and help them build a record of where they are. The idea is that you use the scarf to measure the tree's girth and send them info if its big enough to count as 'Ancient'.
Perhaps we could do this in Kew - anyone know of some big old trees to measure? Oaks, beech, that sort of thing.

I suspect due to Christmas overeating I will also classify as an Ancient Tree. Hopefully all that knitting will help to burn up some energy. Plastic bags can be used as yarn , so we could actually use up old bags with this.

Get the scarf pattern here:

http://www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/news/newsarchive/athwinterknitters.htm

Greener Kew in the The Green

This months The Green magazine features Greener Kew in a double page spread and cover story.

Very nice.

Tesco Are At It Again

Tesco are claiming they will only hand out plastic bags to people who ask for one, but I was in there the other night and the guy had one ready before I was at the till.

I dont think they are really serious about it, just looking for publicity.

Let's make Kew even greener!

Most independent traders in Kew have said goodbye to plastic bags - but there is more we can do!

I think that ZWIN, the Zero Waste Initiative for Local Business, could help:

"ZWIN aims to help organisations in the borough of Richmond to develop sound environmental policies in order to reduce energy and water consumption, reduce waste production, encourage recycling and the efficient use of resources. This is achieved through free environmental assessments, which are carried out on-site by trained volunteers. Where ZWIN's recommendations are put into practice, organisationss can benefit from reduced operating costs and improved environmental performance."

ZWIN

Sheen Lane Centre

74 Sheen Lane

London SW14 8LP

020 8831 6142

Plastic bags info video

Debate on plastic bags

The pros and cons of banning the bag are discussed noce a clearly on this BBC article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/bringyourownbag.shtml

Ideas for plastic bag recycling

Plastic is an amazing material - that is why it is so incredibly popular across the world.
It's cheap, waterproof, light and incredibly hard-wearing - which is precisely why its so problematic when it gets into wild places.

So why throw it away? OK they are a bit ugly especially when they have been in a cupboard for a few weeks all crumpled up. But with a bit of ingenuity you can make them into our own custom bag-for-life. Or all sorts of other useful things. And although you might think you don't have time for some of these tricks, in fact its very easy to knit or sew in front of the television on on a train.

Here's some great ideas:

• Plastic bag knitted doormat
• Plastic bag handbag
• Fused plastic satchel (from Etsy, a fantastic crafts site)
• Whole big list of crochet plastic bag projects
• How to prepare your plastic bags into strips for knitting and crochet
• Flowers made from plastic bags
  

Have fun - and send us pictures of your plastic bag projects!!