Mail Fails

OK, so I've been trying to give up plastic but I've also been failing. My post is partly to blame.

My weekly copy of Time Out comes wrapped in plastic - I really ought to stop the subscription but I haven't been organised to do so yet. I've also had a couple of catalogues appear likewise encased in flimsy plastic.

Though interestingly others are not. Big thumbs up to Boden and the fair trade clothing company People Tree who both just print the address right on the catologue. (Both of these companies used to use the dreaded plastic shrink wrapping so I wonder what's changed them. The environment or cost? Certainly the Boden catalogue is on much cheaper paper with cheaper binding now.) The ever wonderful Lakeland (formerly Lakeland Plastics, oh the irony) send theres in one of those paper envelopes with a window. I don't think the window is actually oil based plastic (you can certainly pop them in with the paper recycling) so I think that's OK though I am now wondering what the window actually is made of.

Moving onto newspapers, not quite mail I know but if I lived in the kind of area where the local newsagent did home deliveries it would come through the letter box so I'm going to count it here. I only buy newspapers at the weekend. If I read one in the week it's because I was out and about in London and picked up a free one (on that note how about the Evening Standard reporting on poverty in London last week).

So the first Saturday of Lent I stumbled into the newsagent to pick up my usual paper only to discover that half of it was wrapped in plastic. Gargh. My choices seemed to be limited to The Times, the Indy, the Mail or the tabloids (does The Mail count as a tabloid?). I seem to have a knee jerk reaction against Murdoch which ruled The Times out and actually like decent content to my papers which ruled out all the others except the Independent. So thumbs up to the Indy and big thumbs down to The Guardian and The Telegraph.

Next fails: ablutions and travel....reportage coming soon.