BYOB

Each year, Americans throw away some 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags. (Only 0.6 percent of plastic bags are recycled.) When one ton of plastic is recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil are saved.

Here's a way to make a statement while shopping! BYOB, a Canadian outfit, has a whole line of sassy and sweet canvas bags available in organic cotton or natural cotton. They aren't cheap ($35 for organic) but they are a great way to tell other shoppers to think about their choices. BYOB also makes custom bags which is a great idea for corporate give aways.

Saying no to plastic bags is popular right now, especially here in San Francisco where the city has banned plastic bags at supermarkets. I was lucky to find a thrift store that had a huge crate of used, imported (mostly from Germany) canvas shopping bags where I found a fun Lotto themed bag. Funky and fun, but I think I might be willing to fork out a few more bucks for one of BYOB's creations.

The People Have Spoken

New Zealand's The People Have Spoken uses responsible manufacturing processes and sustainable fabrics and wherever possible. They use fabrics such as Tencel and Modal instead of cotton. These wood based fabrics are 100% organic, bio-degradable and have a much smaller carbon footprint than cotton. They require 1/4 of the dye and have exceptional properties such anti-bacterial, moisture wicking, temperature control, and suitability for sensitive skin. The brand's style is very wearable.

95% Thrifted

I just did another shoot called "Alone" where most of the clothes are thrifted. These are a couple shots. The other 5% consists of a pink babydoll dress - a handmade Ransack Studios creation - the patterned tights were new and so was the bracelet. There are a couple organic cotton pairs of tights in there too. You can see all the shots from the shoot at the link to the right.

Recycled Clothing

Most people who drop off a big bag of cloths at Goodwill are simply trying to clean out their closets. But did you know that only 10% of clothing donations are sold in those stores. There's is an entire international industry of used clothing coming from America. The charities sort through your pile and find the best pieces to sell. Then poor people, bargain hunters and funky thrift store fashionistas buy the cloths. The profits from these transactions do aid the organizations, however, most of your donation comes from the sale of the other clothes you dropped off.

The remaining 90% of your donated cloths are sold by Goodwill (or which ever charity) to companies like Secondary Recycled Textiles Association. In fact, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cloths each year. The recycler sorts the cloths again to find fabrics suitable for things like cleaning cloths and other industrial items that can be made. But again, most of the cloths don't end up as rags or transformed into a different product, they are bundled up into units, 100 pairs of jeans for example, and then sold in bulk to an international clothing ring for a great price, around $1.30 per pair of jeans. Then they are shipped in bulk to the developing world where they are sorted and distributed in the "bend over" market (imagine people browsing stands when the clothes are laid out on the ground). Now the pair of jeans can be worth up to $6.60. That's a huge profit!!

Some may be offended by this process and feel like the donation was intended to help the poor here, not some entrepreneur in the developing world. But I don't mind, Goodwill is helping a lot of people. The clothes are being used and frankly, that type of profit is what the original brand who made the product from scratch enjoyed when they sold the clothes new. So when you travel to Africa, don't be surprised to see a T-shirt with an American wrestler on it... it's part of our global economy.

Green Laundry

So a great way to still be environmental while we wear our not so sustainable wardrobe, is to make smart choices when we clean our cloths. Besides the advice we've all heard about doing full loads and washing on cold to save energy, we can also push our local dry cleaning industry to go green too.

Dry-cleaning uses chemicals that are solvent-based and harmful to the environment. The primary solvent, perchloroethylene, that is used in the process is a classified "probable carcinogen" by the EPA. Which means it's bad for your health and for the environment.

A few new processes that can replace dry-cleaning are becoming more available. One is called "wet cleaning" by "Miele" a German made processing unit that "wet cleans" the garments using perfectly balanced soaps and water. It is gentler than hand cleaning, can remove stains that dry-cleaning can't and is approved by more and more garment manufacturers on their dry-clean only garments. Fabrics that can be washed using the Miele wet cleaning process include wools, cashmere, silks, wedding dresses, laces, rayon and more.

Another dry-cleaning replacement is C02 dry cleaning which uses liquid carbon dioxide instead of perchloroethylene. The liquid carbon dioxide is combined with recyclable cleaning agents and is exposed to the garments during the cleaning process. Then the machine pulls the mixture away from the cloths leaving them clean while the solutions are reused. Because heat is not used, the process is gentler on the cloths and more energy efficient.

Treadbanger Episode

www.threadbanger.com

Diamonds for Africa

I'm not the biggest fan of diamonds, don't get me wrong, they are super beautiful, but there's a lot of things around the diamond industry that I don't find very.... honest. I didn't need to see Blood Diamond to understand what distruction such precious rocks could have in a community that lives on a dollar a day. But with this bracelet, Simmons Jewelry's Green line is working to change all that.

The line was inspired by a recent fact-finding trip to Botswana and South Africa taken by Russell Simmons and a Simmons Jewelry Co. delegation to see how diamonds were empowering Africans where they are a natural resource. Upon his return, Simmons and Simmons Jewelry Co. announced the formation of the Diamond Empowerment Fund (D.E.F.) and the Green Initiative. The D.E.F. is an international, non-profit organization, with a mission to raise money for educational programs to uplift the people and communities of Africa.

50% of net profits of the bracelet go back to Africa through D.E.F. which means with a $125 price tag, you're actually donating a lot of money to the cause. The brancelet is made from green malachite beads and conflict-free rough diamonds sourced from Africa. Each special Academy Awards Green Bracelet came with a Gem Certification Assurance Lab certificate, ensuring that the diamonds are conflict-free. Now those are some diamonds I'd have a hard time passing up. Not bad, and it's a unisex style, you can dress it up or down and you get a diamond within a diamond shaped cage, a great metaphore. You can get one of your own here.