the tree bleeds for you and me*

Corporate responsibility mandarins at Tesco seem to be stocking their shelves with plenty of pots and kettles. The giant retailer's Christmas card recycling campaign begins today, imploring us, in a faintly judgmental way, to save some trees.

Because Tesco does everything it can to save trees, doesn't it?

Nobody would disagree that Slough is not the loveliest town in Britain. It's a temple to the Concrete God, in fact, and its green spaces are safely tucked away so all that nasty clean air can't get into its residents' lungs.

So when 'save a tree today' Tesco rolls into Slough to expand its already enormous store into a great angular ivory tower of consumerism and Krispy Kreme stink, what gets in the way? A tree. Not just any tree, but a 250-year old Lebanese Cedar, of which less than 500 remain in the UK, and subject to a Tree Preservation Order since 1980.

But Tesco wants to save trees, right?

Wrong.

Despite much local outcry and vain protestation from various community-minded people (one of whom found that 'reasonable force' meant being sat on and punched in the face by security guards), down it came. Could impoverished Slough Borough Council resist the might of Tesco's Big and Clever Lawyers? Did they even care? Who knows.

But...Tesco...trees...save them?

Nope.

Tesco wants to save trees so much that it managed to overturn Tree Preservation Orders on ten 120-year-old sycamores in Shaftesbury, so that it could chop them down and build another store. Following this, Tesco's tree-saving executive went into overdrive, causing a further four trees of similar size to become unstable due to Tesco's own construction work. Down they came as well.

So, Tesco wants you to save trees by recycling your Christmas cards. Go and recycle them, recycle everything you have. But don't expect Tesco to worry about saving trees when it wants stores built. Money doesn't grow on trees.







*if anyone's following these titles (yeah, right), I know that's not quite its meaning...