Tesco's Got The Idea

Groceries from Tesco. Photograph: Martin Godwin.

Tesco, a supermarket chain in the UK, is conducting an experiment in its stores to see what packaging customer do or do not want on their groceries.

The experiment kicked off on April 1, 2009 and will run for 6 weeks. Tesco has already cut back on what it regards as “wasteful” packaging, such as bulky dog food bags and unnecessary plastic wrapping on food. Now they want to know what other packaging the consumer is prepared to live without.

Some of the most common customer complaints include the amount of plastic, cardboard and foil used with Easter eggs, the box surrounding the tube of toothpaste, and the trays and plastic wrap used to “protect” fruit.

These tests are temporary and any packaging the customers leave behind will be recycled once it has been used to gather information on what consumers consider excess packaging.

Alasdair James, Tesco's head of energy, waste and recycling, recently visited Germany. He said: "We know our customers expect us to help them recycle easily and we have also committed ourselves to cutting our own waste. This unique pilot helps us do both. Packaging left by customers at the store will tell us a lot about areas we may need to look at again, as well as where we have got it right."

Tesco pointed that for regulatory reasons or where labelling was essential - for instance in warning of products containing nuts - packaging might still be necessary.

A large proportion of retail packaging ends up in landfill space where it takes a long time to decompose, and even then the waste can give off harmful gases and toxins which pollute the air and water.

Maybe every chain store should conduct a similar experiment. Contact your favourite chain stores with this suggestion if the feeling moves you.

Creative Recycling At Its Best!

It's wonderful when creativity takes over and something that would normally add alot of waste to our landfills is recycled into something unique, creative and worthwhile.

That's exactly what happened in Stockholm, Sweden. Instead of letting a no longer serviceable jumbo jet bake in the desert (no deserts around) or get scrapped; they came up with a win-win situation for everyone.

Flights get delayed, airlines go bankrupt, overbook or get caught in changing weather patterns and many people end up sleeping on airport floors or trying to fit a human body into those tiny chairs comfortably for hours. How to benefit both the airline and the passenger?

What could be more logical than to take an old jumbo and turn it into a hostel? That is what they did in Stockholm and it opened this December, 2007. This one is all hostel accommodation, three beds to a room;but, there is also the flight deck, set up as a private, more high-end suite.

Passengers who have made use of this facility seem to feel that every airport should have one of these, "instead of the crappy airport hotels that you have to drive offsite for".

"This is the budget price alternative Arlanda (airport) has needed for quite a long time and also a new landmark at Arlanda offering a unique experience for the guests," says hostel owner and the man behind Jumbo Hostel, Oscar Diös.

"I was getting ready to expand my hostel business in 2006 when I heard about an old wreck of an aircraft for sale at Arlanda. Since I had for a long time wanted to establish my business at Arlanda I didn’t hesitate for a second when this opportunity struck," Oscar Diös explains.

In December 2007, Sigtuna authorities granted a building permit for establishing Jumbo Hostel at the entrance to Arlanda airport. In January 2008, the aircraft was moved to a construction site parking where the first phase of the conversion has begun with the dismantling of the old interior, new paint and new decorations for the rooms.

Four hundred fifty seats were taken out and the plane is sanitized in its entirety. The hostel is built like any house, subjected to the same demands on climate control and isolation. It adheres to all common energy standards. Heating is achieved with an air-air inverter."

Cross Sections of the Inside of Jumbo Hotel

Other Ingenious Hotel Rooms Made From Recycled (and unexpected) Materials

This plane was one of the last allied planes out of Vietnam. There are two suites as pictured: one in the cockpit and one in the tail. It's a Bristol Freighter.

Recycled Boat into Hotel

Recycled Train

Recycled Bristol, Boat and Train Hotel Rooms can be found at Woodlyn Park, New Zealand.

DasParkHotel, "constructed from repurposed, incredibly robust drain pipes, a temporary comfortable uncomplicated home for a certain time."

In the Hague, marine lifeboats have been converted into a floating hotel

Finally, my favourite! In Stavoren in the Netherlands, four 15,000 litre Swiss wine vats have been converted into hotel rooms complete with private bath.