Made in China
As a mother the lead paint issue has raised concerns for me about buying some goods manufactured in China; however, as a wholesaler of bamboo apparel I know that just making goods in Canada, may look good to consumers but it doesn’t change that the ingredients still come from China. This goes for many textiles, not just bamboo. As far as bamboo is concerned Chinese companies have worldwide patents on bamboo yarn and they are at the forefront of sustainable textiles technology. The goods could be made here but the yarn (in the case of bamboo) will without a doubt come from China. There are good and there are not so good ways to make bamboo yarn . Fortunately there are very, very few companies that do it so its not so difficult to work out which ones are mitigating their impact of the environment. As far as toxicity is concerned for our fabric Oeko-tex certified. Oeko-tex is a process that tests for over 100 harmful substances within the fabric; it is actually an ecological certification process.
http://www.oeko-tex.com/en/main.html
In the meantime there appears to be some hysteria forming around all Chinese made goods. Parents will buy Chinese bamboo cloth diapers that are labeled made in Turkey without a thought, but they are wary of Turkish organic cotton blended with Chinese bamboo if it’s labeled made in China. If we know its not toxic is it human rights and if its human rights is Turkey’s human rights record better than China’s? Should we purchase organic cotton from the US? What about their human rights record lately and trade policies for that matter? I would love to purchase organic cotton from Africa but what about the shipping emissions and is only using organic cotton truly sustainable? What about all the irrigation it requires? I’m simply trying to outline some of the complexities of this issue. Their are many truths and one day you think you have thought of everything and then all of a sudden something new comes up.
Over all, I believe in the benefits of bamboo textiles over cotton for the environment and its certainly safe enough for my son to wear. A small selection of plastic and metal in his toy box is an example of how much I hate toxic-toy trash. I am so fed-up with plastic and metal garbage I want to scream every time I see a plastic bag full of plastic figurines that I know will sit in the bottom of the toy box for eons before I finally have agonize over how I’m going to recycle it and by that point how many times has it been in his mouth! What’s the message? Worry about plastic, worry about metal but for goodness sakes don’t worry about bamboo!
