Let’s Get Over Green, Already!
May 7th, 2008 by AndrewWhile I won’t lie and say that I don’t lust after it a bit, I’m torn over Inhabitat’s t-shirt designs they’ve launched. The subtlety of the graphics are unfortunately not mirrored in the slogans (”I am at the root of the solution”) that are downright self-righteous. When you see someone who’s paid $40 for an organic, green t-shirt with a haughty tagline, it’s easy to imagine why the average person might shrug off sustainability as the pursuit of arrogant trend-driven yuppie prats. And when you put yourself in that position, you inevitably set yourself up for a backlash.
Green is overdone. Both as an emblematic colour, and an adjective that is overused to the point of meaninglessness, it needs to go away. Every time you pretend that “being green” is something special, you lessen the credibility of sustainability as a permanent shift, and not just another passing fad (one that has come and gone several times already, at that).
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(It should also be noted that while I may not want to swing $40 for a t-shirt, whenever someone brings up the price, Jill at least has a fair explanation for it. Though somehow, American Apparel manages to make organic, sweat-shop free t-shirts for just $15…)
May 7th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Fuck this shirt, and all other “green” shirts… I agree that all they do is trivialize the sustainability issue. And as for Jill’s explanations… GRRRRR…
“As far as I know, T-shirts rarely ever end up in landfill…. The Salvation Army or Goodwill, yes, but landfill? Who ever throws T-shirts away? I’ve never thrown out a piece of clothing in my life and can’t think of anyone I know who has. It is so easy to donate and recycle old clothes that this idea seems rather preposterous to me”
GRRRRRRRRR… guess who throws them away? Yes, you guessed it… The Salvation Army or Goodwill! The only preposterous idea is that we can keep buying stupid shit and then alleviate our guilt by donating our old shit. Or do you really think someone’s going to buy all those crappy shirts that end up at the discount stores?
May 8th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Is the tree/roots on that shirt meant to look like the circulatory system? Or the inside of a lung, or something? Gross.
-Oh. Just read the comments. Other people saw that one, too.
I don’t buy new clothes. Or, almost never. I do, however, need a new pair of shoes. I’m having a hell of a time finding a pair of ’sustainable’ (or recyclable or biodegradable.. or whatever else) shoes. I haven’t looked that hard, yet, but I don’t really WANT to, either. Ugh. I have enough income that I’m willing to pay the premium that’s gonna come with it, but yeah, there’s still not a lot out there.
Hey Andy, you should post that reply in THEIR comments section. See what she has to say about that one.
(Re: American Apparel. I read somewhere that they bust unions. But I have not been able to confirm that elsewhere, so whoever wrote it might’ve just been bitter. Or annoyed by the oversexualized/drunken lolita advertising.)
May 8th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
the comment is “awaiting moderation” over at Inhabitat… is Adbusters still in the shoe making game? I know they had a couple styles for a while anyway.
And how dare you criticize the ads that keep me company every time I’m on the shitter
May 10th, 2008 at 6:46 am
just buy some nice leather shoes and stop being stupid. they last like 3-10+ years. stop micro-fraying your life and focus on the big stuff.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:48 am
if you feel really bad, go to a tailor/shoemaker. there are poor tradespeople in canada to.
May 10th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Well, the Salvation Army/dumpster argument still favours her point-of-view. Cheap shit doesn’t last long, so when you need to replace it, you might as well go with higher quality stuff made with more sustainable materials - it costs more, but will last longer. You need to wear something.
And Pavel, there’s not a whole lot of “big” stuff that regular people like us CAN focus on. A local vegetarian diet (or at least a sustainably grown one - food miles are kind of a sham without proper accounting), energy conservation, and walk/ride/transit is about the extent of it. Christopher even took the bus from Vancouver to TO instead of flying, to reduce his footprint.
And since when do leather shoes last 3-10 years (any more than regular shoes, anyway)? Mine certainly aren’t on track for that kind of life-cycle.
May 10th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Salvation Army doesn’t just throw out worn out clothes, they get rid of tons of perfectly good stuff just because everyone has so much shit. People don’t generally wear clothes until they wear out, just until they are no longer fashionable - and then any guilt they may feel is alleviated by donating the fine (but unfashionable) old clothes. Finally, I’m pretty skeptical that “sustainable” clothes are more durable than other clothes - just like with food, organic doesn’t mean higher quality.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:50 am
That’s a fair enough point. I’ve never quite understood why everyone figures “hand-made” means higher quality.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
[...] It’s becoming a distressingly common theme here I feel, but “green” design is getting out of control and threatens to take the credibility of the sustainability movement with it (unless it becomes economical FAST). I got sick of trying to learn QuickBasic this afternoon and took a little browse through the posts at Inhabitat, and it made me really angry. While there were many undoubtedly good ideas and really neat concepts, so many of the “sustainable” items they profile seem to miss the entire point of the movement. For example: [...]
May 26th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
For what it’s worth, I don’t think that a lot of the unused/unusable clothing donated to the Sally Ann or Goodwill actually ends up in landfill. There are folks who gather that stuff, make 500 kg bales out of them and ship them off to the “Third World”. I’m not sure what gets done with it there, but folks in Uganda, for example, have a somewhat lower standard than us when it comes to “unusable”. Even if they use the old clothes to make rag rugs to spread on their mud floors, even $40 green t-shirts can contribute.