Did I mention......?

I realise this may come as a surprise to some of you as I've kept it pretty quiet but Ecover are sending me to Glastonbury to be a citizen journalist. I know, I know, quiet shy retiring little old me in the worlds biggest performing arts festival with only a 13 year old to keep me sober safe, why would Ecover do such a thing! It must be my obsessive love of camping and all things eco and green and hippy I guess. Maybe also my new found bee obsession. Honestly when Ecover told me about the sculpture and the bee connections to their product I was a little perplexed...bees? But then I started reading about bees and...well bees are amazing! no really, amazing

So much is written from the 'urban myth' (Bumble bees, if looked at aerodynamically, can't actually fly. Einstein claimed the world would will end in 4 years if all the bees die.) to the amazing facts about how they reuse and recycle in their own hives. Like tiny eco warriors, buzzing busily among the flowers collecting either nectar (in a special nectar pouch BUT they can switch a 'switchy thing' if they get hungry and send some nectar to their stomachs!! ) or pollen stored in rather cute pollen pouches on their legs. They transform the goodies from the flowers into honey and use the honey to create wax which they mould to create the amazing cell structure within the nest.

Just take a few minutes to google the bee. Amazing.

And Ecover are doing amazing things too! Not least the awesome art work by Ptolemy (better known for his sharks, fish and hubcap creatures) which will be unveiled in all it's glory at Glastonbury - I'll see you there - did I mention I'm going?

Created with flickr slideshow.
And also in their new take on eco cleaning products ..

Surfactants are the surface-active ingredient found in most household cleaners. Typically, they are produced through a petrochemical process, through a high-energy, high-pressure process that is, unfortunately, toxic to the environment.
However, sustainable cleaning products contain surfactants produced from plant-based alternatives. Plant-based surfactants are biodegradable and rely wholly on renewable resources, rather than fossil resources.  Sounds like an ideal solution, right?  Well… almost.
The problem is, plant-based surfactants use the same energy-intensive process as the petrochemical-based surfactants.  We needed to improve on that aspect, too.
So, after seven years and over 50,000 hours of research, our scientists invented a new biological, energy-efficient process derived from yeast that could take the place of petrochemical and plant-based surfactants.   This is not just any yeast, but the kind that was discovered in bees’ nests. This particular variety is uniquely capable of combining water-soluble sugar (glucose) and non-soluble fatty acid (oil) to produce a completely natural emulsifier – an Eco-surfactant!

 Extract from Ecover Blog

So now I'm bee obsessed, loving bees, nearly crying at some of the awful things in the news about bee deaths. And secretly hoping to convince my hubby we should get a hive!!

Follow me on twitter or check out the #beeclever hashtag to keep up with what Ecover and I are up to.