ALDI Gardenline Foldable Saw – Product Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

ALDI Gardenline Foldable Saw
Length approx. 18cm
Carbon steel saw blade with 3-sides ground teeth, ABS handle with TPR grips
Thickness: 1.2mm (Blade)
Price (when available) £ 4.99

I purchased this saw, more or less, to try it out as to how it would perform and not, like often, given this as a review sample. Having used it on both old and green wood, including rather hard cherry, I must say that it performed if not as well then at least almost as well as some rather expensive makes of saws of this kind, at a fraction of the cost.

I would certainly say that this saw is ideal for gardening, pruning, camping, clearing trails, hiking, tree trimming and light coppice work.

Blade safety lock with a safety locking mechanism that double locks, so to speak, as it also locks the blade once on the way down, thus making the closing of the blade safer reducing the risk of closing it on the hand.

Unfortunately, as with all ALDI special buys offers, these saws are always only available now and then and then only as long as stocks last which, at times, may last for a couple of days or a couple of weeks depending on demand.

Obviously, the question is now as to how this saw holds up in sharpness and other things in comparison to other, more expensive ones of brands that I am not going to mention here.

© 2018

Aldi unveils measures to slash plastics waste

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Discounter Aldi will scrap 5p carrier bags by the end of this year and ensure all packaging on its own-label is reusable, recyclable or compostable before 2022. All I wonder is why it is going to take four years to do something like that.

Aldi has signed up to a new cross-sector initiative from WRAP aimed at transforming the UK's plastics system.

In place of carrier bags, the UK's fastest growing supermarket will offer customers bags for life as reusable 9p bags made from back-of-store plastic waste.

A new taskforce of internal and independent experts has been set up to help Aldi drive innovation in packaging, the company confirmed.

Aldi has also given its backing to a national deposit return scheme for plastic bottles. It will assess the feasibility of how such a scheme could be implemented.

The latter should not really surprise anyone as Aldi, being German by origin, thus hailing from a country where such a scheme – or schemes even – has been in operation for many years already. As per usual Britain is lagging way behind other European countries in that matter.

Aldi UK's chief executive Matthew Barnes said that the chain is committed to bringing its customers along the journey in its ambition to lead the industry on plastic waste reduction.

He also called on Aldi's rivals to work together in order to drive industry-wide change. In support of this aim, Aldi has signed up to a new cross-sector initiative from WRAP aimed at tackling plastic waste.

This latest announcement builds upon a long-standing commitment by Aldi to reduce its environmental impact. Aldi has already removed all plastic stems from its cotton buds and banned all microbeads from its products.

On the cotton bud thing I must then be the only one who has not noticed any change as yet, because I have not. I love Aldi, so don't get me wrong, and those are all good steps but so far I have not noticed – at least not in my local store – a change to the cotton buds. Then again, it may still be some old stock that is knocking around. Just saying.

© 2018

Aldi's statement on GM foods

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Genetically Modified (GM) foods

We know that GM food is controversial and that many of our customers don't want to eat it. That's why we have a 'No GM' policy that requires all of our own label products to be free from GM ingredients.

https://corporate.aldi.co.uk/en/responsibility/resources-for-our-products/genetically-modified-foods/

If Aldi can have such a policy, being a discounter, we can but wonder why no other supermarket chain, as far as I can see, in the UK (and elsewhere), is prepared to go to the same length to do this.

Unfortunately neither Aldi nor any other store chain can extend this to others than their own label products as (other) food manufacturers will not play fair when it comes to this issue in the same way as, for reasons of costs, they will happily, until found out, use horse meat disguised as beef. All for profit and the same goes for using GMOs in foods. The profit in the latter case, more than likely, comes from the brown envelopes offered by the manufacturers of those ingredients in the same way that they, so it would seem, give nice sums to politicians in return for their support of GMOs.

It is time the system got changed and the people really had a say in what they want to eat but that, as we can see by the rulings of the EU is a definite no, no. The powers-that-be now rule what we can eat and even what we can – legally – grow in our own gardens and allotments for food.

We don't need a new government; we need a new system.

© 2013