Jul 6, 2008 9:11 am US/Pacific
'Green' Clothing Offers More Than Eco Awareness
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (CBS) ―
Cheap clothing and electronics have led many consumers to treat those products as disposable items. The Green movement is changing that by focusing on recyclable materials and post-consumerable products, CBS station WCCO-TV in Minneapolis reports.
Birch Clothing has been in business for three years, part of a growing green clothing movement in the city.
"I'm here kind of on a regular basis yeah. It's rare that I come in and don't find something," said Birch clothing regular Kelly Magee.
Magee loves stylish clothing and she also likes to know where the products she buys come from.
"You have to spend your dollars where your ethics are," said Magee. "I think finally fashion has come to point, where they've realized that it's not just baggy, saggy, hippy weirdness."
It's no longer as hard to find organic, ethics and style wrapped into one. The owners of Birch Clothing opened the store wanting to sell clothing made with fair labor practices. They stumbled upon the motivation to go green as well after coming to realize that pesticides and fertilizers are waste products of the conventional cotton production process.
Organic clothing aims to reduce the impact on the environment.
"And as we investigated the whole textile industry, we realized how polluting manufacturing of apparel is," said Marti Markus, owner of Birch Clothing.
Asked if the extra price bothers consumers, Markus replied that there is economic benefit to buying organic because the clothing "lasts longer."
"I think we have a lot of products that are almost made to break down so you buy more," Markus said about today's clothing culture. It's almost like we think of clothing as being a disposable item."
Some unique, recycled items the store offers include a bicycle messenger bag made out of inner tubes with a strap made from an old seat belt and a pair of flip flops made from recycled car tires. The flip flops are lined with hemp, which shoppers say is very comfortable.
"So people are coming up with really innovative and original ideas for re-using and re-purposing so these things don't end up in landfills," said Markus.
Consumers will also find purses made out of candy wrappers, pop cans or pop tops from pop cans.
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