Did anybody see the Goyard canvas shopping tote for sale over the holidays? It cost $1065, plus $310 if you wanted a triangular “recycle” symbol painted in gold. The canvas was advertised as being “100% recyclable”.
Let’s not go into all the ramifications of that one product, but I want to use this example to make one point: the perfect green product probably doesn’t exist – and maybe never will. We’ve all heard that the greenest clothing is what you already own, the greenest mode of transport is probably walking - you get my drift. Our product choices are all about compromises, and as Leslie Hoffman of Earth Pledge says, “making them with your eyes open instead of arbitrarily is the best piece of advice I could give.”
That’s why we at O Ecotextiles are so committed to spreading the word about what we’ve discovered about textiles and what each choice involves – in terms of our own and our family’s long-term health, in terms of the pollution burden imposed on our planet by the production of our choice, in terms of contribution to greenhouse gases which are contributing to global warming at a frightening pace, and in terms of the workers who made our chosen product (whether they’re children or laborers working under bonded conditions, working in unhealthful working environments). Your choices do impact you – maybe you won’t see an impact next week, but your choice does make a difference.
And lest you think that you – one small person – can’t possibly make a difference, remember what Margaret Mead said:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world.
Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
