Fair Trade is an alternative approach to conventional trade that has become recognised as the standard for evaluating the rights of workers in developing nations who produce the products we consume.

The FTAANZ website provides an informative summary of Fair Trade, noting:

It focuses on helping farmers and producers in developing countries to move towards economic self-sufficiency and stability. By paying producers and their workers fair prices and helping them gain the skills and knowledge needed, allows them to have a greater stake hold in their own business, provide safer and ethical working environments and therefore play a wider role in international trade. Fair trade also encourages better environmental practices and the application of responsible methods of production.

It is about providing a fair go – not charity.

A Fair Trade Certified Company ensures that the supply chain down to the production of goods in factories has purchased all their manufactured components from producers and workers that have been treated ethically using the Fair Trade principles.

This covers:

• Banning child and slave labour
• Guaranteeing a safe workplace and the right to unionize
• Adherence to the United Nations charter of human rights

Horror stories are constantly emerging of employees losing limbs in factories, only to receive no compensation and without the ability to work, not being able to afford to go home. An Amnesty International report tells the moving tale of a Chinese woman who had been working 12-hour night shifts in an embroidery factory in Korea, who wrote this on her suicide note:

“Migrant workers are also human beings. Why don’t they pay me for my work? I cannot go home because I don’t have money. I have chosen to kill myself, as there is no other way.”

What you have to remember when purchasing a product from somewhere that states they are a Fair Trade Company is that anybody can claim they are a Fair Trade Company.

Do not be confused by such organizations as the Office of Fair Trading (UK) or the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). Both of these organizations regulate economic competition law and policies amongst businesses, but have little to do with Fair Trade in the workers-rights sense of the word.

Their mandate is to provide consumer protection, not worker protection. The OFT slogan is to make “markets work well for consumers” and the KFTC website indicates that it’s primary focus is on anti-trust and consumer-protection cases, as does the KTFC’s own byline which refers only to competition laws, consumer protection, and boosting competition.

This has nothing to do with Fair Trade as it is commonly perceived.

To ensure that you are buying Fair Trade these are the only labels that are certified:

To read more about Fair Trade and where Envirosax stands in regards to these ethical principles, please read the full article.

For those of you interested in economics, you might like to know that ‘one use’ plastic bags are called a ‘market failure’. This is due to the fact that their pricing does not account for external factors such as the impact of litter on wildlife, or the monetary cost to the community to clean up plastic bag pollution.

In Australia alone, 30-35 million plastic bags end up as litter rather than in landfill every year, according to 2007 figures from a report on ‘the investigation of options to reduce the impacts of plastic bags‘.

Degradable and biodegradable plastic bags have been touted as the solution to this problem by a number of prominent supermarkets. However, there is limited evidence that they make a positive difference and more evidence to the contrary! The amount of time plastic bags remain in the environment as litter is unclear but the following facts give you some idea of their possible effects.

The most common degradable bags, oxo-degradable bags, have a ‘pro-degradent’ which causes fast break down into fragments. These then remain in the environment and may take a very long time to completely degrade. The impact of these bags as litter may thus be greater than for a normal plastic bag, which generally remains as one product, not fragments.

Biodegradable plastic bags are made from a mixture of polyethene and starch products and in the right conditions, will break down into elements like carbon dioxide, water and methane. To be considered degradable, these must compost within 12 weeks and fully biodegrade within 6 months. This means they survive long enough to pose a threat to animals if littered, as they may be mistaken for food.

If biodegradable bags are littered and caught in trees, like the plastic bags in the image below, they are unlikely to be exposed to soil microorganisms which assist breakdown and so pose the same problems as regular ‘one-use’ plastic bags.

Plastic Bag Tree in NYC

There are also questions raised about whether there is any benefit of degradable plastic bags even if they are properly disposed and end up in landfill. The Australian government published a report ‘The impact of degradable plastic bags in Australia’, which found that biodegradable plastics are unlikely to degrade in landfill as the microorganisms needed to help the break down, are not found in the dry anaerobic (oxygen deprived) conditions normally found in landfill.

The same report concluded that reusable bags have a lower environmental impact and gave better overall performance than either conventional or degradable ‘one-use’ bags, regardless of the degradability.

So the message is clear - reuse is the better option for the environment.

Bruno Tonioli

Bruno Tonioli at the 2009 GLAAD Awards with Envirosax Candy Bag 3. Bruno has become widely known for his jubilant comments and critiques after couples’ performances on the hit TV show Dancing With The Stars. Looks like Envirosax won’t be voted off any time soon!

Did you know that April 22, 2009 is the 39th Earth Day?

Founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1969, the first Earth Day was held in 1970 and led by 20 million students around America. At the time, The New York Times wrote an article reporting on the astonishing rise of environmental activism - “rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nations campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam”.

Earth Day has grown to be a worldwide campaign with events being held all around the world, see http://earthday.envirolink.org/calendar.html , http://earthday.net/search/location and http://www.deepdalefarm.co.uk/earthday/ for examples.

While Earth Day is a great way to increase awareness worldwide of environmental issues, every little action that millions of people take on a regular basis is what really helps to protect our planet. There are many small ways we can help, as simple as turning out lights when we are not in the room or walking instead of using the car.

Users of Envirosax designer reusable bags should be congratulated for helping to green the planet every day. In its lifetime, each Envirosax bag saves the planet from approximately 6000 ‘one-use’ plastic bags from clogging waterways, killing wildlife and floating in the ocean for thousands of years. This one action of 3.5 million people using Envirosax reusable bags around the world is having an enormous environmental impact. Congratulations and thank you for making a difference to our planet!

Trees are the lifeline of the earth, yet we continue to cut them down for unnecessary convenience such as ‘one use’ paper grocery bags. In the USA alone, 14 million trees are are cut down every year to support this market.

For each tree we cut down, we rob the earth of its positive contribution towards to reducing climate change. On average each tree absorbs 20kg of carbon dioxide per year, removes other pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide at the rate of 1kg per year and adds about 52kg of oxygen to the atmosphere per year. There is also an eco system of flora & fauna that trees protect along with preserving top soil and soil integrity.

Envirosax’s founders have in the past, rejuvenated a 17 acre property back to its former natural beauty in Northern NSW. They now live a sustainable lifestyle on a 10 acre pristine rainforest property in Currumbin, where planting has continued to preserve the area.

The property features a forest of over fifteen hundred, fifteen-year-old Hoop Pine trees, each absorbing 44lbs of carbon dioxide per year. These and the 5,000+ other trees on the property, significantly reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

With so much media attention given to one-use plastic bags and their negative effect on the environment, shoppers often assume that paper bags are a better, more sustainable choice for carrying their groceries.

However, with a bit of research it soon becomes clear that the argument is by no means as simple as paper or plastic.

For the number of ‘one use’ bags used in the USA each year it takes:

Paper -

• 14 million trees to make the paper bags

• The production of paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution than plastic

Plastic -

• 2 million barrels of oil are used to make the plastic bags
• plastic bags create four times the solid waste.

* read here for more facts on plastic and paper bags

What you do with single-use bags when you are done with them and where you live, are important factors when making the choice between paper or plastic, says Jenny Powers of the Natural Resources Defense Council For example, if you live near the coast or on waterways, paper may be a more suitable choice as plastic bags clog up waterways and are damaging to marine wildlife (remember whitey the crocodile?)

(plastic bags smother coral polyps)

While paper may break down more quickly than plastic, there are still many less than desirable consequences of the paper bag. The only real solution for the environment is reusable bags!

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck were spotted outside their 3 year old daughter Violet’s school in Santa Monica two weeks ago. With Violet on her hip and Monochromatic Bag 1 in tow, Jennifer Garner joins the list of eco conscious celebrities who choose Envirosax!

Source: Life & Style, March 23, 2009

Kristi L. Gustafson, staff writer for Times Union recently wrote “Reusable shoppings bags are so in vogue, shoppers can now find hundreds of different totes that are neither paper nor plastic. In fact, a reusable sack may be more fashion-forward these days than the latest must-have Louis Vuitton handbag.”

It seems that in the current economic market, the must have Dolce & Gabbana or Chanel bags have been replaced by more affordable, eco-chic reusable bags like Envirosax.

And with the likes of Cynthia Nixon using Envirosax, the reusable bag trend looks set to continue.

(holding Retro Graphic Bag 4)

From top left: Vivica Fox, Gina Torres Bottom Left: Sanaa Lathan, Quincy Jones and his granddaughter

ESSENCE Magazine celebrated on Thursday February 19th the best of Hollywood at its second annual ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon. The event was held at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. The star-studded event honored four of Hollywood’s finest: Halle Berry, director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Diahann Carroll and Taraji P. Henson. Envirosax is proud to have been onsite at this prestigious event providing these amazing women of Hollywood with the bag of their choice.

Andy Samberg and Seth Myers

Will Forte, Amy Pohler with husband Will Arnett

Envirosax was the official gift bag for the New York American Museum of Natural History’s 2008 Gala, where a number of the Saturday Night Live cast were showing their support. Also in attendance was former cast mate Jimmy Fallon.

Raising over 3.3 million, the fundraiser for the museum’s scientific and educational programs was a great success, and we are proud to have been able to support one of the country’s greatest institutions.