thank yous. 
Thanks to Green Apartment Therapy, I've found organic cotton sheets and towels at West Elm. Yes!
West Elm Organic Line
Part of the problem of trying to live a sustainable, No Impact, or in this case, little impact, life is the amount of research it takes to do little things like buying towels, or big things like buying furniture.
This does not apply to food. It's fairly easy (at least where I live) to find a farmer's market and buy most things that you want or need. Also, buying food is fun for me. Going to the SF Ferry Building Farmer's Market? Fun! The Oakland and Berkeley markets? Fun! I get to imagine what I can make with what's available; I get to choose exactly which food I think is healthy and interesting. I get to discover new things. Did I mention I like to cook? I do. Buying food does not apply to un-appetizing (hah!) research.
What does apply is every time I want to buy: paper, pens, pots, pans, sheets, towels, clothes, toiletries, etc. The list goes on, and on. Right now, I happen to need sheets and towels. A friend told me she had found bamboo sheets at Target. Generally, I try not to support Target for political reasons, but I thought it would be an easy answer to my issue of where to find sustainable sheets. Of course, there is no easy answer. Bamboo is not the cure-all wonder plant. I went, and it turns out that Target has organic cotton sheets, as well, so I bought those. Mind you, I have no idea where this organic cotton comes from, how organic it is, or perhaps more importantly, what the worker conditions are like in India, where the sheets were made. Unfortunately, many times there seems to be a choice between labor conditions and environmentally-friendly conditions. For example, buying high-end clothes and textiles might eliminate the awful, third-world country labor conditions, but it might not eliminate pesticide use, which affects the raw element labor force, as well as the environment. Buying organic might help the raw element labor force and the environment, but it certainly does not stop the abuse of the poor textile workers. Why does there have to be a choice?? This is a topic for another post, entirely...
The whole point is that most times when I want to buy a home product, I have to do research into what is "sustainable" and "environmentally friendly." It adds up to be quite a bit of work, and sometimes, I just buy what's convenient. It's not always easy being green.
Here's the thank you part: there are now two accessible, budget friendly, and relatively well-known suppliers of organic sheets (that I know of). Target and West Elm. That means options, people. Options are good. It means that the concept of being environmentally friendly is going more mainstream, and that is always a positive thing.
West Elm Organic Line
Part of the problem of trying to live a sustainable, No Impact, or in this case, little impact, life is the amount of research it takes to do little things like buying towels, or big things like buying furniture.
This does not apply to food. It's fairly easy (at least where I live) to find a farmer's market and buy most things that you want or need. Also, buying food is fun for me. Going to the SF Ferry Building Farmer's Market? Fun! The Oakland and Berkeley markets? Fun! I get to imagine what I can make with what's available; I get to choose exactly which food I think is healthy and interesting. I get to discover new things. Did I mention I like to cook? I do. Buying food does not apply to un-appetizing (hah!) research.
What does apply is every time I want to buy: paper, pens, pots, pans, sheets, towels, clothes, toiletries, etc. The list goes on, and on. Right now, I happen to need sheets and towels. A friend told me she had found bamboo sheets at Target. Generally, I try not to support Target for political reasons, but I thought it would be an easy answer to my issue of where to find sustainable sheets. Of course, there is no easy answer. Bamboo is not the cure-all wonder plant. I went, and it turns out that Target has organic cotton sheets, as well, so I bought those. Mind you, I have no idea where this organic cotton comes from, how organic it is, or perhaps more importantly, what the worker conditions are like in India, where the sheets were made. Unfortunately, many times there seems to be a choice between labor conditions and environmentally-friendly conditions. For example, buying high-end clothes and textiles might eliminate the awful, third-world country labor conditions, but it might not eliminate pesticide use, which affects the raw element labor force, as well as the environment. Buying organic might help the raw element labor force and the environment, but it certainly does not stop the abuse of the poor textile workers. Why does there have to be a choice?? This is a topic for another post, entirely...
The whole point is that most times when I want to buy a home product, I have to do research into what is "sustainable" and "environmentally friendly." It adds up to be quite a bit of work, and sometimes, I just buy what's convenient. It's not always easy being green.
Here's the thank you part: there are now two accessible, budget friendly, and relatively well-known suppliers of organic sheets (that I know of). Target and West Elm. That means options, people. Options are good. It means that the concept of being environmentally friendly is going more mainstream, and that is always a positive thing.
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