Having worn the ancient jeans to shreds, I recently bought some
replacement from a retailer with a long-term code of ethics.
When the factory collapse occurred in Bangladesh, I checked the
label again and – gulp – confirmed that they were indeed made in
that country. Can this company’s compliance managers be expected
to have really done their job in ensuring fair and healthy
working conditions for their suppliers’ workers? The problem
with today’s consumerism is that people buy new stuff constantly
and throw them away when they’re still practically new, adding
to the mountain of waste. In the meantime, natural resources
from the water and good soil needed to grow the cotton for the
clothing to the metals and rare earth elements needed to make
the electronic gadgets run out. And yet we’re told the world’s
economy has to be propped up by consumption; that China, for
example, can’t keep growing unless it stimulates domestic
consumption. So what we have is a system finetuned to produce
goods at maximum efficiency