Do you know what you are wearing...?
We all like to think we are doing our bit for the environment: we recycle, buy local food...or at least try to! We think carefully about turning lights off, using low energy light bulbs and turning off the tap when we clean our teeth, but what about our clothes and our home furnishings?
‘Oh...well that's different,' people have said to me, or ‘But I make most of my clothes myself,' or ‘I buy organic clothing for my baby' and so on.
Well let me take you on a journey...
I recently bought a cardigan, a gorgeous fairly traded wool cardigan from one of those lovely stalls you often see at festivals. I bought it to tell you a story!
‘Wow that's fantastic,' I hear you say, ‘Isn't it wonderful to help people who are hard up by buying something that is fairly traded.'
Ummmm Urrrr No!
I will tell you why! The cardigan cost me £35 and came from Nepal. I interviewed the stallholder, who was very conscientious in what he was doing, but we need to unravel the story he told me a bit further.
On the face of it the credentials are great - made in Nepal by people trying to make a wage - BUT Nepal does not have a lot of sheep. Very few, in fact.
So where is the wool coming from?
The stallholder told me. Australia or New Zealand for the felt products he sells as they are made from Merino wool, and Merino wool only comes from Down Under. Also, Iran and China supply the rougher wool used for knitting.
OK so where is it processed, spun and dyed?
Well that could have been in the Philippines or in India.
Right, so the wool was shorn from sheep in one of three countries, shipped to others to be processed and then shipped to Nepal to be knitted? Correct! Then shipped to the UK to be sold for £35.
So what is wrong with this? Everyone in the chain got their bit!
First of all, there is the fibre miles. We all know about food miles but shipping low grade wool, which is bulky, half way around the world, is that sustainable?
But it's a natural product and that's good isn't it?
No! We have 22 million sheep in Britain so why not use British wool?
But it's helping people worse off than us isn't it?
It might help a bit, but it would help more if local people supported local projects: if Australian knitters bought Australian wool, Nepali craftspeople concentrated on the available fibres of Nepal such as hemp and nettle and spinning the local animal fibre, AND if we bought British wool cardigans!
Did you know that every sheep farmer in Britain pays more to shear his or her sheep than they get paid for the wool?
Did you know that Britain exports tons of wool, and imports tons?
Did you know that sheep wool is classed as a grade 3 industrial waste product?
So maybe fair trading should start at home. That goes for those of you who knit too...find out where your wool comes from!
And just in case you are feeling smug, don't wear wool and are wearing organic cotton, think again. Whilst farmed cotton takes a mug of pesticides per t-shirt, organic cotton requires so much irrigation local food crops often suffer for your organic cotton sheets or shirt!
Finally just when you thought you'd got away free...what do you sleep between? What is your bed linen made of? Not linen I bet.
Now there is a challenge. Find out about the wonders of linen. Did you know linen sheets are warm and can last 50 years with no visible wear??
As for acrylic...well, apart from making your hair static, it is likely to stand on end with horror when you realise where it comes from!
Val
photos (c) Sabrina Willekens 2009
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9 Jan 09
