The London Plane trees either side of Conduit Road in Abingdon have not been pollarded (cut back) for about 15 years.
One tree has been singled out and pollarded, and so the rest will probably follow. Pollarding involves removing the upper branches of the tree, and is often done to Plane trees to restrict their growth.
Andrew Rowe did a tweet yesterday that made me think. …
At Added Ingredients in Abingdon you can bring your old containers (so long as you know how much they contain) to the refill stations, and refill and re-label the container. Products shown are:
* Non-bio Laundry liquid
* Fabric conditioner
* Washing-up liquid
The detergents are supplied by Sesi – a social enterprise in Oxford, who deliver the tubs to the shop and collect the empty tubs to reuse them.
They were introduced after the Abingdon Cuts Plastic campaign launched in March 2018 with the help of Abingdon Carbon Cutters.
Other ideas for cutting down on packaging in the new year which I ought to be doing:
* Buy loose fruit and veg where possible
* Think ahead and take my own cutlery, water bottle, shopping bag, or coffee cup.
You may have other useful suggestions.
On Saturday 5th January there was a New Year Litter Pick round the perimeter of Tesco organised by Helen Flynn of AbiBinit – Abingdon’s Community Litter Picking Group. She is seen here with Lynne Ford, who brought her truck to help, and some of the bagged up litter.
Helen has put on Facebook that there will be another litter pick on Saturday, 16th February 2019 from 10:00-12:00 starting at Rye Farm Carpark.
I cycled to Frilford at the weekend and was amazed just how much litter there was from the Marcham Road A34 Interchange to the junction with the A338 – Wantage Road. The hedges and undergrowth had been cutback and all the rubbish had been revealed. These litter picks are making us more aware of the problem.
Surfers Against Sewage have an annual Autumn Beach Clean, which this year includes rivers for the first time. They say ‘We want to tackle the problem of pollution further upstream and highlight the direct link between all UK towns, villages and cities and the ocean around us. The scale of this clean – the biggest across the UK – will provide us with vital data to inform the Government’s decisions on a new deposit return scheme. We will be able to specifically show the range of bottles and cans which end up polluting our waterways, and which need to be included in a new deposit return scheme‘.
The River & River Bank Clean up in Abingdon is a local joint initiative between Abingdon Cuts Plastic, AbiBinit, and Kingfisher Canoe Club.