Lucy Siegle has a great video over at The Guardian’s eco section showing how to recycle your clothes more effectively. Yup, she’s even got uses for those laddered tights and worn-out bras. Does anyone else have any tips for clearing out your closet? Perhaps take them to a swapping party? Or snip too-small tops into scarves?
Fairtrade – we all know we should buy it, but sometimes when you see that bunch of bananas with the little blue and green logo on the packaging going in tescos for £1.99, and the slightly-greener bunch with the VALUE stamp on them retailing at 89p, sometimes we do just sigh and go for the cheaper option.
Or do we? I couldn’t find any stats from the UK, but over the pond in Ireland sales of fairtrade products have increased by 30% despite the recession. This is interesting, and there could be several reasons behind it. Maybe these troubled times are making us a little less greedy, a little less materialistic and thinking a little more about what we buy instead of just throwing everything possible into our trolleys. Or maybe it’s because, like the story suggests, their prices have simply dropped. Who knows? But it’s interesting none-the-less, especially as fairtrade products were originally predicted to suffer terribly in the recession.
But anyway, fairtrade fortnight is running until next monday, and us fashionistas should feast our eyes upon the extensive list of shops which carry the fairtrade cotton badge. Look, there’s loads of them – even Lidl’s up there!
