Surviving the Workday

I’ve found that shopping on Etsy is an alternative to buying from Target or Wal-Mart, and it supports artists. You can’t find everything, but you can find a lot. 

Here are a few new favorite items:

Found Notebook made from vintage scraps of paper

Whimsical Stained Glass Cross seems Greeky to me, which is probably the appeal

Rainbow Felted Tote for those of us who like big bags

Zen Buggles Minky, a baby blanket, but I’m halfway to asking for an adult size

Purple Eyelash Scarf has West Coast UU minister written all over it

Button Flowers that will never die

My friend BB sent me this great news: Trader Joe’s backs off Chinese goods.

You may recall my annoyance at Trader Joe’s for quietly selling a number of organic vegetables (fresh and frozen edamame, frozen spinach, garlic)  grown in China and seeming not to care about workers’ rights or environmental and health concerns. Apparently enough people complained for them to stop selling the products, at least single-ingredient Chinese products like I described above.

I don’t actually think this is an example of a formal boycott at work, but I would guess that with declining sales and increasing customer complaints, this was a wise business decision, and an example of a business responding to the demands of the market.  If I were Stephen Colbert, I would take full credit for this, and then return to shopping there. However, you may also recall how Trader Joe’s is the most crowded place in Southern California, and I’m still not sure I can shop there without mental health damage.

Yes, another weighty ethical moment in the hopes and dreams of the middle class.

I have to admit that I refill plastic bottles to drink from even though I know they’re germy and leach bisphenol-A, which is an endocrine disruptor.

I’m not sure what exactly it means about where I draw the line, but at least I have company in Alina Tugend, who wrote a rundown on all the options in refillable bottles.

Worker abuse in China continues despite a decade of criticism. What exactly is the problem? 

1. a supply chain of outsourcing that makes it difficult to track the factory to the corporation (hence a lack of accountability);

2. continuous demand for cheap goods that do not reflect a fair cost for labor; and

3. weak oversight, including U.S. companies hiring U.S. college students as inspectors.

And that leads us to the current situation of widespread worker abuse in factories. Here’s a specific example:

In December, two nongovernmental organizations, or NGO’s, documented what they said were abuse and labor violations at 15 factories that produce or supply goods for Wal-Mart — including the use of child labor at Huanya Gifts, a factory here in Guangzhou that makes Christmas tree ornaments….

But two workers interviewed outside Huanya’s huge complex in late December said that they were forced to work long hours to meet production quotas in harsh conditions.

“I work on the plastic molding machine from 6 in the morning to 6 at night,” said Xu Wenquan, a tiny, baby-faced 16-year-old whose hands were covered with blisters. Asked what had happened to his hands, he replied, the machines are “quite hot, so I’ve burned my hands.”

It’s not just Wal-Mart. It’s Disney. Dell. It’s most, if not all, companies outsourcing to China, where it is just about impossible to ensure workers are treated fairly and work in safe conditions. After all, all those toys with lead paint came from places where workers were toiling for days applying that paint and breathing the fumes and getting paint on their skin.

Gregory Rodriguez’s Op-Ed Greenness is next to Godliness raises some interesting issues about the way an awareness of global warming has permeating our culture with a “religious-like” fervor.

Most external national threats remind us of our essential goodness. The agents behind them are our enemies, the bad guys. Environmentalist rhetoric, on the other hand, constantly reminds us of our own culpability. For that reason, environmentalism is more akin to a religious awakening than to a political ideology. Like evangelicals, environmentalists speak, in their way, of fire and brimstone. Like the preacher, the environmental activist demands that we give ourselves to something beyond ourselves and that we do penance for our wasteful, carbon-profligate sins. Like the Catholic Church of old, they even sell indulgences — carbon offsets.

(more…)

“An antidote to the mindless rhetoric about shopping as a patriotic duty, is, if you will, sustainable shopping. It supports workaday artists, good manufacturing practices and small businesses and keeps fine craftsmanship and beauty in our daily lives.”

Hot Local Stuff has “sustainable shopping” resources in the Bay Area.

I’m going to keep posting sources for clothes not made in sweatshops as I come across them during my shopping.  The first post is here and it deals with clothes in general. The second and third posts are related to shoes (made in the US and vegan). And this post is clothes-related.

Taiga Works - Serious winter gear. Made in Canada.

Certified Jeans - Jeans from U.S.A.-grown organic cotton. Made in the US.

Maggie’s Organics - Socks, tops, tights. Baby stuff too. Non-sweatshop and organic cotton. Made in Nicaragua.

Soft Star Shoes Baby and toddler soft shoes. Made in the US.

Previously found Sweatshop Free Clothes including socks, undies, men’s dress shirts, women’s T-shirts, baby clothes by artists, and belts.

If you’ve bought from any of these places, I’d love to hear from you too.

Not the kind you need with a house. Nor the kind with morals. I’m seeking foundation for my face. Yes, makeup. I’ve run out of my Burt’s Bees tinted moisturizer, and Burt’s Bees was bought by Clorox, so I’m seeking something else. Y’all were so helpful with shoes, I thought I would ask.  Since most makeup is either swallowed (lipstick) or absorbed (foundation), I’m seeking products that aren’t laden with chemicals.

Skin Deep lists these foundations as having low risks:

Gourmet Body Treats Foundation Primer, Dermablend Reflections Face Foundation, Valana Minerals Stardust Luxury Foundation, SunCat Natural Mineral Makeup, and Larenim Foundation.

Anyone use any of these? Or anything else noteworthy?

Charlie suggested Vegan Peace’s Resource for vegan shoes, which has blessed a few shoe stores:

• Dank (!) Forest has hemp shoes, including some nice hemp slippers that would make a nice gift;
• Vegan Karma has lots of shoes, including the classic low-top, which seems to be a standard in the vegan shoe;
• The Vegetarian Site has a bunch of interesting vegan shoes made in Spain, including the Nina and the Wombat;
• Vegan Essentials also has cute shoes including the Highlander and the Dorothy; and
• The Vegan Store has a preponderance of clogs. Go figure.

Note that a bunch of vegan shoe brands are made in China, including brands Earth, Simple, Keen and J-41. No leather, but that doesn’t mean no sweat shop.

Also vegan Draven shoes are very cute, but they don’t make my size.

Though I haven’t written about it in months, I am still avoiding buying goods from China. I’ve done a decent job (except for auto parts, where I failed entirely) by simply buying our clothes used or from a non-sweatshop vendor, buying food either fresh at the farmer’s market or clearly labeled, and choosing gifts that are homemade in the US. And now I’m looking for shoes.

(more…)

I took the handmade pledge, and I’ve been slowly making my way through Christmas shopping for handmade goods, spending most of my shopping time on Etsy. If you haven’t been there, it’s thousands of individual merchants, all of handmade goods, and all in one place and take Pay Pal.

I don’t have anyone on my shopping list for these items, but I thought I would share a few favorites.

I love cookies bracelet (and I do love cookies)

Hand Gesture Coasters (I can think of a guest for each of these)

Woofy Doggy (So cute.)

Lunchbags with Messages (The Mine Mine Mine one might work)

Dog Puzzle (Apparently I have a thing for dogs.)

Read about the only area in Metro Atlanta not suffering from a water shortage.

How is that possible? They learned to re-use wastewater by filtering it through wetlands and resevoirs and eventually turning it into drinking water. Smart. And good news for all of us except developers (less developable land because it’s now wetlands).

Via Treehugger

Resource

How much water do you use?

I have to say that I am uncomfortable with paying others to touch me. And it has always been the case since I started paying for hair cuts in college. I had one manicure at GhostGirl’s request prior to her wedding, but I think it was her m-i-l’s idea. And I had one facial with Anne P where it was revealed that I have the dryest skin on the planet (I guess we know how I choose contributors). But for the most part, I’ve shyed away from spa culture, which has made its way into being part of a middle class female in the United States:

It’s hard to pinpoint when this began to change, but it’s been a gradual creep, with one treatment after another redefined from an option to a necessity, the required armor of modern femininity. Treatments once performed at home, like manicures and eyebrow-plucking, are conventionally outsourced. Others, like massage, are regarded as cures, the antidote to an epidemic of female stress. Each day, a set of treatments—from exfoliation to bikini waxing—gets nudged toward the mainstream (in the pages of women’s magazines, in conversations between friends dressing for a party, in mothers’ comments to their daughters), shifting from treats to basics: the pubic “landing strip,” nearly a required part of the dating uniform for younger women; perfect nails and shaped eyebrows a requisite for professionals. Even little girls get spa treatments at birthday parties. Having such procedures done professionally is a signal (to yourself and to others) that you have it together: You are a pointedly urban creation, in control of your own body.

While I totally understand that many of us don’t have sisters and moms to paint our nails and braid our hair, and many of us travel for business and are exhausted and crave soothing touch, while I really think female stress does need to be dealt with, I just can’t shake the power inequity that exists when I hire someone for $20 to get down on her knees and scrub my feet.

This isn’t to say that massage is a bad idea or hair cuts by a professional are a terrible thing. Like everything else, I think it’s possible to seek arrangements in which people are fairly paid and treated well. However, in a booming industry where, just about across the board, minority women workers are paid minimum wage or less to deal with toxic materials, calluses, and pubic hair, one has to wonder what exactly we’re paying for.

You’ll want to read the rest of An inside look at the spa industry, which investigates the economics of touch.

Via Jezebel

Late to the party on this one.

Perhaps if turkeys were slaughtered humanely, I would feel more predisposed to eat them on Thanksgiving: Bill Maher on George Bush: Pardon all the Turkeys.

Oh woe, DC socialites and politicos now have to shop at Costco like the rest of us.

Some of my favoritest quotes include:

Indeed, some hostesses today aren’t above serving Costco salmon, nicely dressed up with a dollop of crème fraîche.

…

The ultimate awkwardness, she said, is when clients want to buy their food from Costco but disguise it: “They’ll say: ‘Why don’t you bring the fancy glassware, and we’ll get the rest from Costco. And could you put it on one of your fancy plates? Oh, and how about some of your fancy ice cream on top?’”

It is at this point that I must quote our Costco Axiom: You can never get out of there for less than $300. Washington’s elite might think they are being pennypinching Joe Blows, but they can still afford to shop there a lot more than I can.

Today is Buy Nothing Day, a 24 hour period of consumer fasting at the (supposed) height of the buying season.

 Buy Nothing Christmas is not really about refusing to spend a dime over the holiday season. It’s about taking a deep breath and deciding to opt out of the hype‚ the overcrowded malls‚ and the stressful to–do lists. It’s about reminding ourselves to really think about what we are buying‚ why we are buying it‚ and whether we really need it at all.

While the massive advertising campaigns suggest that your salvation may be found in the purchase of 3 turtlenecks for $10 at Target, I will suggest that salvation might be found elsewhere.

We could talk about how we live an economic theory that all economic growth is good, regardless of the costs, but that’s for another time.

If you’re buying toys, you might take a quick look at Toys to Avoid This Holiday Season (from World Against Toys Causing Harm, (WATCH), a Boston Toy Safety Group).

There are safety hazards for each toy noted in the slides, but I also made some notes:

#1 Simply too creepy to be true. Zombie baby. Pictured above.

#3 I love magnetite. But it’s probably not for children as even I have the urge to put these stones in my mouth.

#4 At first I had no idea what the heck this was. And once I realized it was a SPINNING DAGGER, the hazard became rather obvious. Love to hear the product development discussion on that:

“What should we make that will really appeal to kids?”

“How about a spinning dagger?”

“Great idea!”

It really lends credence to the “You’ll poke your eyes out” warning. 

#7 The exact same notes apply here from #4.

#10 Oh, here’s #1 again. Does the fact that I find this exceptionally creepy mean I would be a bad mother? I wonder.

#11 Kids need a toy to do this? Who knew.

Treehugger describes a delicious portable workstation, The Plan Station, which seems the ultimate in flexibility. It hangs from the wall, and is easily transportable for those of us who work on-site as contractors or temporary workers.

I admire the seeming lack of resources used (ingenuity over materials), but if it’s made in China (I don’t see that information or contact information), and sold for $65 here, I doubt it’s green in the sense that people were treated fairly, paid adequately, and the environment was respected.

Just a thought this buying season.

Etsy has entirely handmade gifts from different artists. I’ve found these handmade products, which might be appealing to certain men:

beautiful woodcuts;
hands off office lunch bags;
two green cups;
leather handbound journals;
floppy disk notepads or floppy disk pen and pencil holder; and
a tin guitar.

Today I went with my friend Beth of Pintsize Projects to her friend Rosanne of Jingle Jangle’s crafts fair in LA.  Beth makes kits for parents and kids to make together, including the Make Believe Kit and a Sock Toy Kit (shown below).

Rosanne makes jewelry, including really beautiful bracelets.

Crafts fairs are great places to buy gifts, and you can support an artist and her labor rather than a corporation that uses questionable methods of recruiting, keeping, and paying their employees.

50 Ways to Green Your Business has to be the most confusing thing I’ve read this morning. And I’ve already had close to four hours of confusing reading. I think that it’s a list of the “green decisions” made by multinational corporations, with the implicit assumption that we can use those “green decisions” in our own businesses. Ha. I made it to the end of the list and didn’t see one useful idea. If you see something, post in comments.

And here are some really nice “green” desk chairs that cost more than most people on the planet makes in a week. That raises some interesting issues about resource use. Is that the best use of my $750? Then again, my desk chair came from a productive dumpster diving session with my friend Paul outside the Harvard houses in 1998. Smelled a little funny. But aired out well.

I’m tired of greenwashing this morning.

Via Treehugger