Tuesday 5 August 2008

All these cotton bags

In the past year or two this country has been flooded of cotton tote bags and we all think its a good thing - right? Not sure....I'm starting to worry that the cheap cotton tote bag is becoming a bit of an environmental hazard in its own right.
IF the cotton is Organic and Fair Trade then it truly is wonderful that people are using them instead of plastic bags.
Unfortunately a very large proportion of cotton tote bags are not ethically or environmentally produced. Cotton is responsible for major pollution and chemical contamination in the Third World and tote bags are a huge growth industry in India and China. At Carry-a-Bag I receive emails almost every day from the Far East offering to make and ship bags for me at an ridiculously low cost - even with economies of scale the prices are way too low. Perhaps its time to take a closer look at the labels and make sure that the cheap cotton totes we carry tick all the right ethical and environmental boxes.
I heard a report the other day suggesting that we are fooling ourselves about our diminishing carbon footprint. We have outsourced our manufacturing to the Far East and we should therefore be including their escalating carbon emissions in our sums.
That rings true.

love & peace
Sally
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1 comment:

Freya said...

Sally! long time no speak. I've been thinking exactly the same. Still using your bag every day! Lots of love, F,

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Hastings, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Carry-a-bag began about five ago when I was fuming about plastic carrier bags stuck in trees, washed up on the beach and generally messing up the planet. It began as a little idea but one morning I woke up thinking "don't take a carrier bag just remember to carry a bag. And now I make bags all the time.

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September 11th 2007

September 11th 2007
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