Dogeared’s eco-friendly projects include charm bracelets made from recyled silver and hemp – like this pretty plumeria charm bracelet – and notebooks made from recycled leather. I ♥ them both!
South Africa is exporting this colorful Fair Trade bracelet made from safety pins adorned with recycled telephone wire, computer cable scraps and plastic tubing. The message the piece radiates is clear – recycled hand-made art can be affordable and pretty! A friend of mine wore this the other day and it is too splendid to not share. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art has other lovely jewels to check-out. Happy shopping! Price: $45
This is awesome and I am so proud to be a native of Ontario! While I wait for New York City to take a stand and produce a similar initiative, the City of Toronto will officially be free of plastic bottles on June 1, 2009. There will also be a charge placed on the use of plastic bags from retailers of 5 cents – all the more reason to buy a reusable organic shopping tote – like our I Love Eco totes!
The Emancipation Network came onto my radar in the form of a Christmas gift shown above. Good design that is organic and fair are my favorite things and I wanted to share this little zip purse. First, the design aspects. It is contructed using plastic bags that are held together with twine and it is lined with cotton muslin. It’s quite a tight weave and I love the technique that was used (it is similar to the way kitchen rag carpets are made). The colors are great, I love the diagonal layout and for a little clutch it’s pretty well thought-out. There are many other products to chose from on the MadeBySurvivors.com online store. Second, I’d like to highlight the Fair Trade and ethical aspects of this purse. You must give credit to movies and the capabilities of video to send a message because the film, “The Day My God Died” by Andrew Levine inspired the founders, Sarah Symons and John Berger of The Emancipation Network to get to work.
(clockwise from Top Right)
“Considering that up to 80% of a product’s environmental cost are determined at the design stage”, designers have a critical role to play to reduce the environmental impact within our industries. There are far more ecologically sound materials to choose from compared to just a few years ago. Cork is a renewable and sustainable material, impermeable to liquid or gas, has many different applications and can be recycled (or up-cycled) into new products. 50% of all cork is harvested in Portugal under strict European guidelines. A tree can be harvested by law every nine years which is made possible due to the nature of the bark – it grows back! How many other materials can that be said about? For the design world cork can be bought as tiles, wall coverings, blocks, sheets, and fabric by the Jelinek group, a 150 year old company in the business of cork. The vertical company grows, harvests, and manufactures cork for numerous industries and applications. Unfortunately their “Bag-a-Cork” program went south this year, which collected and recycled wine stoppers but hopefully it will make a comeback in the future. The picture on the left is of cork flooring from Expanko that has developed interesting grain patterns and on the right the most beautiful shoe ever constructed from cork by Christian Louboutin.
Here is another luxury designed tote that will pass the test of time, both in durability and style. This awesome Goyard tote was featured in Barney’s first Green Christmas Issue last year and Barney’s is a great example of a retailer leading the trend in going green. Goyard was established in 1853 and the pieces are hand made in France. The cotton/linen/hemp canvas is coated using a natural rubber (no PVC plastic here) and there is no hardware to be found on this “St. Louis” tote, which is another great eco friendly detail. Enjoy!
The beautiful city of San Francisco banned plastic water bottles last year, as did Seattle, and in April of this year, Canada banned the import, sale and manufacture of baby bottles made with polycarbonate. Whether the reason is to save money, withhold tons of waste from entering landfill or to protect our future generations from a harmful chemical called bisphenol-a (BPA) that mimics humane hormones, the message is clear, North American cities and governments are taking action. Just look at all of the reusable grocery totes available now. Hopefully you’re choosing to use one like ours, at I Love Eco, that is made from certified organic materials and printed using water-based inks (and within a closed loop system)… I personally use my “Sans Plastique” tote for a book bag, since I’m always reading. But in case you LOVE fashion and crave a little more design than a basic tote I’ve found an alternative that I wanted to share: Devi Kroell “Multi” bag in black python & rose nylon, $890 - Devi Kroell “Multi” bag in turquoise alligator & grey nylon, $2690. Aren’t they beautiful and clever at the same time? While the designer, Devi Kroel may not have had the planet in mind when designing this bag, it’s a breathe of fresh air in a sea of tote bags and it can cleverly zip-up to fit into your handbag.Do you think it’s wrong to incorporates animal skin or nylon canvas (plastic)? I do, but it’s not that simple. At the risk of sounding like a sucker for designer bags, I would love to wear this beautifully crafted luxury tote. This may sound like a departure from my usual critical reasoning but it would be the perfect grocery or shopping tote and it’s far more stylish that ANY cheap, disposable, MADE IN TAIWAN plastic bag that stores dish out. Also, without meaning to, this post has nicely introduced another important sustainability concept: Short-life vs. Long-life.
The Devi Kroell line uses high quality materials and are beautifully made in timeless styles. Therefore, her collection is a perfect example of long-life goods, you buy them once and their quality and classic lines are sure to last for many years. (The ever famous Hobo shape is shown here). On the contrary, a short-life item is disposable, usually very trendy, is purchased quickly without much thought and is discarded in just the same way, adding garbage to our landfills. Ideally short-life goods should be made to biodegrade completely or be made of materials that can be recycled completely, so that nothing retires in landfill.Saving our planet will come in many ways and nothing is black and white. Until we are caught-up and educated on the many life cycles occuring simultaneously around us and until every manufacturing industry considers the end-life of a product, it is ideal for us to use (consume) less and strive for a medium ground. Buying a classic handbag that you will cherish for years is a perfect example. Tonight, I think I will dream in the color rose. Sigh…