My Moral High Ground

Britain is in plastic bag warfare, you only have to go to your local Sainsbury’s to see it. If you so much as think about using a polythene bag in one of their stores, you are silently reprimanded with the disapproving sneers of not only the staff but also the smug customers clutching their brand new, designer, “I’m not a plastic bag” totes. Though of course I am in favour of anything that will save our environment, all this righteous campaigning is a joke, any supermarket with a half brain could see the economic advantages of selling a few designers bags (at extortionate prices) instead of giving away millions of plastic ones for free.

This alone, I don’t see as a particularly bad thing, better a company make money being eco-friendly than not be eco-friendly at all, but what should have shocked me (but in truth, didn’t) was the fact that the bags were made in China and were neither organic nor fair trade. A query raised by Robert Mendick in an article from the Evening Standard, was whether shipping the bags all the way from China meant its carbon footprint was offsetting its environmental benefits. The result of this expose was that Sainsbury’s reputation as a promoter of Fair Trade was left damaged, but lets be honest a few price cuts later and people are quick to forget.

Everybody hates being made to feel guilty about what they buy, but should it actually be the shoppers who take responsibility for checking where and how products are made? Until the big chains genuinely start to care about ethical trading and drastically adjust their business strategies, how can their customers be expected to make a difference?

Boycotts never seem to work, and protests are fun but fruitless, take Nescafe for example, people have been trying to boycott them for years to no avail. In all honesty the thought of being an ethical shopper exhausts me, but as a Christian I feel I have a responsibility to look after the earth and its people, and there is no denying that unethical labour is despicable in this day and age.

My biggest offense as a poor student with a minimum wage job (woe is me) is the clothes I buy, while its become easier and cheaper to buy organic/fair trade food, it is near impossible to find fair trade clothing that isn’t ridiculously expensive. With the wonders of Primark offering sweatshop produced clothing at minimal prices it’s so hard to resist buying in to this modern day slave trade.

Thankfully there is hope! Rather than trying to boycott such stores, for all of a week before you realise you just don’t have the willpower, Tearfund’s campaign Lift the Label encourages you to continue shopping at these store but each time you by something you hand in a pre-printed, free to download, letter of complaint which explains how you enjoy their products but don’t agree with their trade ethics. The hope is that companies are far more likely to listen to paying customers than those who merely want to boycott the shop.

For the tiny amount of effort it would take each of us to do, I definitely reckon its worth shot.

Feeling inspired? Check out the ethical directory.