Modern life is rubbish and other tales of woe

It’s been nearly ten months since I started trying to shop ethically, with mixed success. In the last couple of months I have been really struggling. I think it’s a reflection of modern living and how much stuff we need. If I lived in a little house in the middle of nowhere on a large plot with some animals and veggie patch, living the good life, aiming for self sufficiency then I’m sure I wouldn’t want for much. But when you’re doing nine-five to pay the mortgage, need clothes to go to the office and ‘stuff’ like films and good food to help you unwind at the end of the day, its not easy. Now I’m not some fashion victim who needs the latest look all the time but wearing scruffy old jeans to the office really doesn’t project a professional image. I know I’m making excuses for my failings but I have tried, really tried but I can’t manage to shop ethically 100% of the time. In a way I need to make peace with a compromise – if I can shop ethically most of the time, then that’s good, it’s not perfect, but it’s better. I’m still buying fair-trade and organic food where I can, still mostly buying from charities and independent stores but I have been to the high street a couple of times. The most upsetting part of my high street shame though, isn’t that I’ve bought things; it’s that the top I bought is now in the sale for half what I paid for it. Karma? Perhaps. A lesson in patience? Definitely. A sign that I should be more careful about what I spend my money on? Absolutely.

High fashion on the high street? Give me a charity shop and a fiver instead

If you have been following my blog, then you may have noticed that I’ve been rather off topic recently. I’ve been discussing broader environmental issues rather than just ethical shopping issues. The reason for this is that I’ve been doing so well – I’ve been sticking to my pledge and only buying from charity shops, charities and ethical outlets. I recently splashed out on this recycled t-shirt from earth huggers, a great website full of recycled goodies that may well have become my new favourite shop.

But, unfortunately, I’ve had a bit of a lapse. You see, I was invited to an event at a rather swanky club in Mayfair and my modest wardrobe really didn’t rise to the occasion. So I had to buy something to wear. By the usual persons standards, it wasn’t overly indulgent, just a top and jeans, but for me it’s a rather shameless lapse of my morals. But the strange this is, I actually really enjoyed buying things again which is something I didn’t expect. I still hate the high street, I hate the way that fashion is so fickle and most of it is so tasteless that shopping is just a bore, I hate the way that finding jeans to fit takes all day and I hate the way that it costs so much just to get just a top. But I discovered that I love the smell of new clothes, I love the way that some shops wrap the clothes in tissue paper like their delicate fragile things, I love the way that the clothes are actually new and aren’t bobbly or grubby from the previous owners dirt. Despite these things, I’m not giving up. Yes I feel bad about giving £50 of my hard earned cash to two high street shops but it was a one off and I do repent. I’ll find some way of making it up by volunteering for a charity or something. But I’ve been reading recently that some companies are actually really green but they just don’t advertise the fact – you never know, some high street stores might not actually be that bad! Look at me trying to justify myself. It shouldn’t matter to me if a high street store has converted to using only organic cotton or the like, the fact remains that the share holders will be raking it in and that’s what I really object to: fat cats getting fatter. So, it’s back to the charity shops for me. I still love charity shops, but then who doesn’t: discovering a bargain whilst listening to the mellow tunes of radio two – how could anyone not love that combination.

Are DVDs good for the planet?

Being ethical and green is all about lifestyle choices. As I sat in the cinema last week, looking over the hundreds of people swarming round the multiplex, I wondered how many of them had arrived by public transport. As I bolted out of the cinema (before the end of the film) to catch my train home, I spotted the car park. Obviously, most people would prefer to drive home rather than miss the end. Conclusion: cinemas can’t be green. With more and more DVD rental companies offering a mail order service, is it greener to stay home and watch a DVD? Some cinemas cost up to £8 per person so a DVD for the night is cheaper; you get to watch it (and pause it) in the comfort of your own home; you can eat and drink whatever you like without being charged extortionate cinema prices and if you have a high def TV and blu-ray player it is actually higher quality. So you’re better off with a DVD but is it better for the environment? Well, the jury is still out on that one. DVDs are produced from a variety of materials including metals, plastics and dyes which aren’t going to be good for the environment, but if you take into account the journeys of cinema goers and the impact of building the cinema you could argue that DVDs are better for the environment. Using that logic, some DVD rental companies could start a ‘be green and rent’ campaign like ‘Love Film? Love the environment?’ Some might think that is greenwashing but if it means more people stay at home and use their car less would it matter? People aren’t going to give up films; it’s a lifestyle choice so switching to a greener option is the only way forward (especially if other efforts were made such as recycled packaging). However, it would cripple the film industry, meaning that only the big budget Hollywood blockbusters would be made if everyone rented. Again, its choices: perhaps, I’ll only go to the cinema to see the independent films in future then.

Can environmentalism kill fashion?

As my search for ethical things to buy continues, I find myself being more and more fussy about things. I’ll admit that I do have lapses into bad habits when it comes to buying underwear and bargain CDs on the odd occasion but most of the time I do try to find the most ethical way to buy. I’ve even switched to lip balm from Burt’s bees which doesn’t contain petroleum products (after I’ve finished up the old one first), organic toothpaste and paraben free hair products.

I love the way that ethical shopping is becoming more mainstream; this month Marie Claire magazine dedicated a whole issue to green glam. My only concern with this consumerist version of ethical shopping is that it’s still shopping. OK, you can buy an organic or fair-trade dress that’s £132 from an ethical online store such as Adili but that’s expensive to most of us and there’s no transparency is where the money is going. I think given the choice between high priced ethical good and standard high street prices, the high street is going to win. But then if you can save £100 by shopping on the high street and then donate a percentage of your savings to a suitable charity (such as a child labour charity) then surely that can’t be bad? Even something simple like an organic t-shirt can seem pretty pricey plus if it’s from a high street store is it really that much better?

Fashion is such a wasteful industry and disposable fashion can be just as damaging to the environment as air travel so you can see why Traid started. Traid is a charity that collects and recycles old clothes by repairing them and reselling them, the money raised is then used to fund sustainable development projects. Traid works at both reducing waste and making a difference in the world and it makes me want to buy things just so that I’m supporting it. It’s very difficult to see how fashion can be sustainable at all as the nature of fashion means throwing out unfashionable items regularly just to stay in vogue. The phrase ‘make do and mend’ is bandied about a lot but seems totally incompatible with fashion. I wonder if our new found love of saving the planet will impact on the fashion industry. Sustainable fashion is probably an oxymoron so maybe environmentalism will overthrow the tyrannical reign of fashion.

Could recycling save a city?

The recent news footage of the rubbish problem in Naples is rather disturbing. This is a modern city, in a modern world but it cannot deal with its own waste. The images clearly show that amongst the litter is cardboard and many other recyclable materials. I suppose, to some extent, I take for granted the kerbside recycling collection in my area, its not something I really think about any more as I’ve been recycling for so many years now. Taking the glass to the bottle bank is habit for me now, as is separating the paper from the plastic and taking the veg peelings to the compost bin. Waste is such a huge issue; in Naples they have run out of space to put their waste. In New York they had Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island – personally, I find the idea of dumping your unwanted waste on an island a rather dismissive attitude. (Perhaps I’m biased because I used to live on the Isle of Wight but it feels rather like an Alcatraz idea to me: keeping something you don’t want to think about at a distance rather than confronting and dealing with the problem.) There’s also a floating pile of rubbish drifting around the Pacific Ocean. Recycling, reusing and avoiding packaging can stop these problems from getting worse. I don’t know if the litter we’ve already created can ever go away but we really should be doing everything we can to stop them from getting worse. If we don’t, then more and more cities will be stinking like Naples.

Will the credit crunch threaten ethical spending?

Many people will have noticed that the cost of living has rocketed in the past few months. Most noticeable is the cost of food. A few months ago, I was starting to buy more fair trade and organic produce and hoping that the rest of the country would be doing the same. We’ve all seen Hugh’s chicken run and most of us are keen to make more ethical choices when it comes to buying food. But with these rising food prices, I think we’re going to find a lot of people turning back to the cheaper alternatives. Plus, many people are finding that general living costs such as utility bills and mortgages are also going up so belts will have to be tightened on the non essentials. It’s a very sad state of affairs. Some might say we were on the brink of being able to change the food industry in this country to a more ethical and sustainable industry, but as usual, money has come between us and our ideals.

Sustainability vs economy: greenwash or brainwash?

So green is the new black, even Argos are advertising environmentally friendly products such as recycling bins and rotary clothes lines. But I’m not so sure that anything has actually changed. Some retailers have made a real half hearted effort at looking sustainable. Despite Argos’s double page spread of green products they still sell patio heaters and their products are shipped from the other side of the world. Woolworths aren’t even bothering to try and are going with the economy instead: as prices on everything else are going up, woollies are selling kids clothes from 70p. The irony of getting an Asian man to advertise clothes made in Asia isn’t lost on me. But the fact remain that if they can afford to sell t-shirts for 70p then someone along the line is missing out. As things go from bad to worse in the UK economy its likely that more people will be making decisions based on price rather than sustainability or humanitarian issues. Reports show that sales of sewing machines are increasing and more and more people are learning how to make meals out of leftovers. Maybe we’re entering a new phase of economising where consumers are actually consuming less and making do with what they have rather than just replacing it with cheap items made by underpaid workers in developing countries. We can only hope.