Today (Friday 29th September) is the grand opening of a new branch of Folkhemmet furniture store in Barkarby Stockholm, just next to Ikea. I've been stocking their other branches for years and was super happy to see them open up a new shop.
I delivered a huge bunch of cushions and here I am with Ricard, the owner, on their amazing green velvet sofa! Ricards dog Molly liked the look of it too and up she came! As a fellow dog lover, I was delighted to see that Ricard didn't care about 'dogs on furniture' rules but I did have to help her up and the old girl needed a butt shunt to get her up!
I've only been back from Holiday in Marbella for a week and that is why there were no blogs these last couple of Friday's...Anyway, I'm making up for that with this bumper blog.
Where we were staying in the hills of Porto Banus, there were some totally amazing mansions but this one was like no other...
I can't speak for all of Spain, but certainly Marbella is a place of weird contrasts. There are a lot of immaculate, beautifully tended homes and gardens right next to dilapidated houses and half built abandoned construction sites, which flow onto the pavement. Sidewalks in front of nice homes are well kept, but sidewalks in front of abandoned homes are full of garbage and just left to run wild, despite the whole pavement being a public walkway.
I thought, 'well, if Spain can manage that then so can Sweden'. So why is the title of this blog 'Van Asch tackles the giants'? Because I'm on a mission to get the big Swedish supermarkets to stop using plastic bags and start using biodegradable ones instead.
I contacted Coop supermarket customer services to ask if they had plans to make this change and their response was obscure and confusing but essentially they said that those biodegradable bags don't meet food approved status and that it is the consumers responsibility to dispose of plastic properly.
I replied back that they were not in possession of the facts because the bags are food approved and can be bought from many places including a Norwegian company called Bio Bag World (more about them later) I have't had a further response from them so I've written them letter.
Then I rang ICA supermarket and I was pleased to hear that they are taking this seriously and that there is an internal conversation about it but they were looking at using paper bags possibly, however it would be an opt in thing for individual stores and the best thing to put pressure on is to contact your local stores directly. Not very promising...
But realising that there are biodegradable bags out there means that I've stopped buying plastic bin liners... I found these at my local Willys store and when I wanted to find doogie poo bags, my friend put me on to Bio Bag World who do a whole range of stuff. Yes, it is more expensive but it is a cost I'm more than happy to pay.
Plastic pollution is not a third world thing
This is the crap I picked up out in the nature on my early morning dog walk, just a quick 10 minute one but 3 plastic bags including one of the fruit and veg bags I want to see the end of.
Mr Boycie and I are not amused!
I could go on to get a bit ranty and preachy, but I won't do that..yet...
Changing over from using plastic shopping bags to using fabric ones is only the start and if you are looking for a chic way to hold your purchases then check out my wide range of cotton shoppers
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