Ethical shopping in London
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By Rebecca Taylor. Additional research Hannah Kane
Posted: Tue Apr 10 2007 
Organic cotton jeans, £30, New Look 4 Chemicals
Softening agents, dyes and bleaches are an important part of the clothes production process. But if not disposed of properly, many of these chemicals, can be toxic. In countries with weak pollution controls, dyes and wastes are regularly flushed straight into water sources and chemicals can also harm the wearer. For example, easy-care or non-iron fabrics are treated with formaldehyde, a chemical classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen under conditions of prolonged exposure.
Best: Marks and Spencer
‘M&S goes way beyond legal requirements in restricting use of harmful chemicals,’ says Damien Sanfilippo of Pesticide Action Network (PAN). In particular, M&S has banned a number of azo dyes, which break down as a carcinogenic on the skin, as well as restricting formaldehyde and chloride bleach. Its pesticide levels are also relatively low.
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Worst: Supermarkets
Sainsbury’s has now launched Pure & Natural, a range for babies which is made without pesticides or toxins, and yet it still uses Teflon in other ranges. In fact, most of the supermarkets still use Teflon, which makes clothes last longer and reduces ironing, in their children’s ranges. Teflon is a perflourinated compound which is classified as a cancer-causing chemical by the US Environmental Protection Agency.- Add your comment to this feature
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6 comments
I love Annie Greenabelle. You can get them in topshop concessions but also direct from anniegreenabelle.com
check out bibico they are a great fair trade clothing brand.
They sell beautiful knitwear.
www.bibico.co.uk
Absolute Organic is an organic cotton brand which I discovered in Spain. Is very nice, it has a beautifull knitting sweaters, jackets, dresses.... and collections for man and woman.
www.absoluteorganic.es
I totally agree. There are some really good fairtrade websites out there that should be getting the publicity not the big stores who seem to be just greenwashing. www.boudalu.com and www.fairandfabulous.co.uk are good examples of boutiques selling fair trade products that are original. Boudalu is not for profit. I doubt Philip Green is giving his profits back to the people in developing countries who are harvesting the cotton and sewing the clothes for Topshop!
I would like to see more ethical and fair trade companies promoting their products. They need big magazines and newspapers behind them to get exposure!!! The number of wonderful gorgeous fair trade gifts that I have bought online and the poor companies are so small they get next to no recognition. For example, www.bobelle.co.uk, www.fairtradeboutique and www.ethicsgirls.co.uk are all fantastic sites that really care. They just need that bit of exposure in magazines or newspapers to get their name out to the masses!! Topshop, M&S, Hennes etc do not need such huge publicity and they also just have one item that is fair trade/ethical. What about all their other items?! Let's support the local and small businesses who work hard and deserve our money and custom.
For more info on cotton and the human rights and environmental abuses that are linked to its production check out the Cotton Campaign being run by EJF - you can take online actions to high street retailers and ask them to sort it out! www.ejfoundation.org